Loading...WinPalace is a no longer active rogue casino with a limited selection of RTG games. It was blacklisted following a myriad of unresolved complaints and unpaid winnings.
General Information
WinPalace Casino opened up in 2009 under control of the Netad Management group. If you search online player forums, you’ll find that many consider this company to be one of the worst casino groups out there. Users of this online casino have flooded the online gambling community with countless unresolved complaints.
WinPalace ceased its operations in 2015.
Netad Management was an affiliate program of the Affactive group, which became notorious in the online casino world. They ran several well-known rogue casinos, including Casino Titan and Golden Cherry Casino.
Customers of all these sites have complained about slow payments and terrible customer service. The majority of their players had issues with receiving money. You can find an ocean of unresolved complaints, many of which didn’t even get a reply. Additionally, you could find links to their casinos on various hacked websites. They opted for this kind of free marketing which, needless to say, is completely illegal.
The owner of this company faced jail time in 2015 for identity theft, computer hacking, and money laundering. He settled for a reduced sentence of 5 and a half years once he agreed to pay a $403 million fine to the US government. Subsequently, all casinos belonging to this group were closed.
First Impression
While you can still visit the website, none of the games are accessible. They used a dominant red color for the design. You can see it lacks the freshness and modernity, with literally hundreds of other casinos looking pretty much the same. The main issue customers faced with the website is its transparency. There was no way of accessing terms and conditions, and they didn’t bother to create a FAQ page.
Their target audience were customers from the United States, and the US dollar was the only available currency. Despite that, the website had four other languages besides English.
As for making deposits, you could have used MasterCard or Visa alongside Neteller, Skrill, ClickandBuy, and Ukash. Players could request money withdrawal via Neteller and Skrill. Alternatively, the casino offered to send money by a check or ACH.
In respect of other issues, the casino operated under the license of Curacao. The Curacao Licensing Authority has grown a reputation of a more tolerant governing body. Far from being the worst one available, they offer quite a bit of flexibility to their casinos. For instance, they don’t mediate in disputes between the gambling sites and their customers, which proved to be particularly handy for this management group and their affiliates.
Games and Software
WinPalace used game software from RealTime Gaming. RTG is one of the oldest and most experienced game providers, having been around since 1998. They made a name from themselves by creating an excellent selection of smoothly running games with slick and modern graphics. One of the things that made RTG stand out is their selection of progressive jackpots. Many RTG-run casinos offer a networked progressive jackpot, which means that players at multifold of different casinos contribute together to the same pot. Often the value of the jackpot reaches over a million dollars.
Furthermore, all RTG games carry the TST’s seal of approval. Technical Systems Testing (TST) is a testing company which tests games for their accuracy and fairness towards players. A TST-approved game is sure to have a properly implemented Random Number Generator, which is crucial for casino games.
However, WinPalace decided against utilizing everything RTG had to offer. They had around 100 games on their website which you could access via Instant Play. This number rose if you downloaded a client. Strangely, the casino didn’t include any of the progressive jackpots. Quite a loss on their side if you compare them to other casinos with the same provider.
Nonetheless, there were still plenty of games to enjoy. For example, there was a wide selection of slot games, ranging from three-reel slots with one payline to five-reelers with 243 different ways to win.
Aside from slots, there were around two dozen video poker games, including well-known titles, such as Double Joker Poker and Jacks or Better. Furthermore, players could enjoy table games, such as Baccarat, Blackjack, Pontoon, Roulette, and a few of their variants.
Finally, you could play several selected specialty games, such as Sic Bo, Keno, Lucky Eights, and Bingo.
Bonuses
The casino offered a 200% first deposit bonus that went up to $1000. This bonus came with wager requirements of 30x the amount of bonus received. On top of that, the bonus was sticky. This means that once you made a withdrawal request, the amount of money received through bonus would get removed from your balance, and you couldn’t cash it out. And if that wasn’t enough, they also added a maximum win limit of 10x the deposit you made.
Apart from the welcoming bonus, they also had bonus offers regarding certain types of games. For example, there was a 300% match bonus of up to $3000 that applied exclusively to slot machines. This bonus came with a 35x bonus condition, and if you played some other type of games, that wouldn’t count towards the wagering requirement.
They also had a bonus for high rollers of 200% match and ongoing weekly bonuses.
User Experience
The majority of users faced severe problems regarding withdrawals. The casino made a maximum weekly withdrawal limit at $3000. However, this was just for show. WinPalace (and other casinos operating under the Affactive group) had a rating system for their players. Although, they never disclosed any information regarding how this system worked. They used it to rate players and cap their withdrawals accordingly. Basically, they incentivized you to make larger deposits, as most of the players were able to make a withdrawal of only $500.
The casino offered customer support which you could contact via email, phone call, or live chat. Although nominally being available 24/7, they provided one of the worst customer experiences around. Their response time was incredibly long.
Additionally, there were instances where the players were redirected to another rogue casino. Upon clicking on the live support option, players saw Gold VIP Club’s customer service opening up, another poorly-run casino connected to Affactive. The management claimed this issue was the software’s fault. However, we know that was not the case since this never happened with other RTG powered casinos.
If you look up online, you’ll find a never-ending list of unresolved complaints, with the majority of them concerning the lack of payment. A multitude of these complaints remains unanswered, despite being made several years ago. Given the fact that the casino doesn’t exist anymore, they’ll stay that way.
For instance, some users had to wait for months for the withdrawal request to be approved. Once that happened, the casino split it in installments of $500. More often than not, they would just stop sending them out after the first payment. They either gave runaround excuses or just stopped the conversation with the customers who complained further.
A different complaint provided another example of how they stole money from players. On this occasion, the player made a withdrawal request which they approved within three (!) days.
However, as the amount was higher than $500, they split the payments in multiple increments. While waiting for that to happen, the user continued to play with what was left on his balance. He hit a lucky streak and earned over $20,000. Days later, the casino informed him via an email that all of his winnings were voided and his account was shut down. Reason? The account was a security threat to the casino. They provided no further explanation.
Basically, this signifies that any account could be declared a threat and shut down, no questions asked. Well, to be precise, a lot of questions asked but none answered.
Pros and Cons
WinPalace operated under a Curacao license, which can be considered a quality license if there are no other questionable aspects in the casino operation. On top of that, they used RealTime Gaming software, which is one of the most prominent providers out there. However, they restricted themselves to just 100 games with no progressive jackpots available.
The major issue and the main reason why we consider WinPalace a rogue casino is their attitude towards paying up. They ignored withdrawal requests, and it took them ages to respond to messages from customers. Once they did, they were of no help and just made everything more tedious.
They put a ridiculously low maximum withdrawal limit and broke down payments into multiple parts. Of course, it took them weeks and months to approve requests. Even when they did so, at some point they’d just stop paying up without any explanation.
Probably the most significant benefit of this casino now is that they’ve closed.
Our Verdict
If you’re a fan of RTG games, there’s a wealth of casinos that operate with this software. You don’t have to limit yourself to a rogue casino which doesn’t even offer all RTG games. Given the well-documented history of taking advantage of players, we’re glad WinPalace and their associates are no longer around.
Casino Rating
Complaint Resolution: 1/10
Cashout Time: 1/10
Software: 7/10
Jurisdiction: 6/10
Overall score: 3,75/10
