WinPalace Casino is a USA friendly, RTG powered Internet casino site licensed in Curacao. WinPalace markets mostly to a United States audience, but the property is also available in Italian, German, French, and Spanish. Players can play in United States dollars or in Euros. The site falls under the umbrella of Netad Management, which operates nine additional casinos under different brand names.
The Pros and Cons of this Casino
I’ll start with the pros for this casino, but be sure to also read the cons section below before deciding whether or not you want to play at this property.
Pros – On the positive side, WinPalace does accept real money players from the United States. Since players from the United States have only a handful of properties to choose from, this definitely belongs in the pros column. The RTG software is a minor pro; the software is adequate but undistinguished. Many players love it, but others have a more lukewarm opnion. I’ve never met anyone who absolutely hated the software. I like RTG better than Playtech, but not as much as NetEnt or Microgaming.
Cons – The cons are more serious. The first of these is the licensing from Curacao. The best licensing authorities exert high standards for their licensees. Curacao is one of the jurisdictions with the lowest standards from their licensees. (See Casinomeister.com’s rating standards for more about jurisdictions.)
The biggest con is that the casino is notorious for paying out winnings slowly. The casino takes five to ten days to process a withdrawal, and their terms and conditions restrict the maximum weekly payout is $3000. But not all players get to withdraw that much. The property’s terms and conditions include a clause where the casino can rate players according to “player class”. The site provides no details as to how they determine player class, but players on forums often complain that they’re only allowed to withdraw $500 at a time in these weekly payouts.
Netad Management is the company that owns and operates WinPalace. They also operate several other casinos, including Golden Cherry, Begado, and Slots of Fortune. CasinoListings.com has blacklisted all the casinos owned by this group based on the property’s refusal to pay out winnings to one client. This player had deposited $26 and won $6500. The player completed all the wagering requirements and won this money fair and square. When he tried to withdraw his winnings, the casino sent him an email stating that his withdrawal had been denied and that his account would be reviewed.
Here’s the kicker. The casino said it would take 90(!) days to complete this review.
This casino group also features prominently on Casinomeister.com’s list of rogue casinos, winning “Worst Casino Group” of the year in 2010, 2011, and 2013. Here’s one of the comments from the player forum at that site:
They owe me over $10,000, but are just sending me $500 a week, despite their site saying $3k per week… Going to take nearly 6 months to get all my money.
My recommendation is to proceed with extreme caution if you’re going to play at any of Netad Management’s properties. Their product is fine, as you’ll see if you read the review of the casino games below, but their customer service is questionable at best. If you’re from the United States, your choices of casinos are limited, so you MIGHT give WinPalace a chance. If you’re from outside the United States, your choices of Internet casinos are pretty broad, so you should probably sign up at a casino site with a better reputation.
WinPalace Casino Games Available
The site uses RTG (RealTime Gaming) software to power its games, and the casino is available in both downloadable and no-download formats. The software powering their game is average but adequate. One aspect of the software that players should be aware of is that it’s configurable by the casino. For example, the pay tables at the video poker games at one RTG casino might be completely different from those at another RTG casino. The number of decks in a blackjack game might vary according to the specific property, too.
The site categorizes their available games as follows:
- Specialty Games
- Table Games
- Video Poker
- Roulette
- Craps
- Real Series Slots
Specialty Games
The “specialty games” available at WinPalace include:
- Bonus Bingo, a bingo game with multipliers, extra balls, and bonuses.
- Hot Dice, Lucky Eights, and Magic 7s, online lottery style scratch and win games.
- Keno, in which you can choose up to 15 numbers.
- Sic Bo, a relatively obscure dice game that’s popular in Asian casinos.
None of these games are selling points for the casino. Keno has a notoriously high house edge, but if you’re a keno player, you probably don’t care. Sic Bo has none of the excitement of a craps game, but the best bets on the table offer far worse odds than the best bets in craps.
I can’t imagine a duller experience than playing a scratch and win lottery game on the Internet, but if that’s your cup of tea, these three games are entertaining enough. The bingo game isn’t as much fun as online bingo in a real Internet bingo hall, where you can chat with the other players in the community.
I’m not sure why these games are features so prominently by the casino, but my guess is that they all offer a high house edge to the casino. It’s impossible to tell what the house edge is for the scratch and win games or the bingo game, but Sic Bo and Keno are both notoriously bad bets. If you play Sic Bo, only place the high or low bets, which offer the lowest house edge (2.78%).
Table Games
The table games list at WinPalace.im consists largely of card games, most of which are blackjack related. These card games include baccarat, blackjack, Super 21, Face Up 21, Pai Gow Poker, Pontoon, Red Dog, Tri Card Poker, Vegas Three Card Rummy, War, Match Play 21, Perfect Pairs Blackjack, and European Blackjack.
One unusual aspect of the baccarat games at RTG casinos is the payoff for the tie bet. The standard payout at most casinos is 8 to 1, but at RTG casinos, it pays out 9 to 1, which is better for the player. (The house edge on that bet is still 4.93%, though—way higher than the 1.06% on the Banker bet or the 1.24% on the Player bet.) Winning the Banker bet means that you’re winnings are rounded down to the nearest quarter. As a result, you should always place bets in $5 increments ($5, $10, $15, etc.).
If you play perfect basic strategy on the blackjack games, most of them offer a house edge of less than 1%. The exception is Super 21, which has a house edge of 1.06% when played correctly. The best blackjack games for the player are Blackjack (the standard version) and Perfect Pairs Blackjack. Both games have a house edge of 0.54%.
Video Poker
WinPalace offers a nice variety of video poker games, including the standards like Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, and the various versions of “Bonus Poker”. They also offer 7 Stud and Loose Deuces. These games are realistic and capture the feel of video poker in a land-based casino quite well. The video poker games are also available in multi-play versions, too. You can play 3-play, 10-play, 52-play, and 100-play.
The best video poker game at WinPalace is Bonus Deuces Wild, which, when played with perfect strategy, has a house edge of only 0.40%. The 9/6 Jacks or Better also offers excellent odds; the house edge is only 0.54%.
Roulette
No surprises here; the casino offers both European Roulette and American Roulette. The latter has a wheel with a 0 and a 00; the former has a wheel with only a single 0. The house edge for European roulette is 2.78%, far superior to American roulette, which has a house edge of 5.26%. The American game also has a five-number bet with an even higher house edge of 7.89%; that bet is not available in the European version of the game.
I don’t recommend roulette online, because I think it’s only fun when you’re playing with other people and can socialize. That’s not possible in the online game. The house edge for the game is too high compared to other games. If you play roulette anyway, at least play the European version. The American version has NO advantages over European roulette.
Craps
RTG casinos, as I pointed out, are configurable. The craps games can be set to offer a maximum odds bet of 2X or 3X. WinPalace offers the better of those two options, the 3X bet.
Real Series Slots
The casino offers dozens of different slot machine games, most of which are video slots with five reels and multiple paylines. None of these games are licensed properties; you won’t find Wheel of Fortune slots or Elvis slots here. Instead, you’ll find unique slot machines with the typical treasure, fruit, and sports themes. Example titles include Aztec’s Millions, Fruit Frenzy, Aladdin’s Wishes, Derby Dollars, and Lion’s Lair.
You can find more information about the odds offered by games at RealTime Gaming casinos at WizardOfOdds.com.
WinPalace Bonuses
The bonus offers at WinPalace Casino are standard enough. The amounts are large enough to be considered generous, but the wagering requirements for all these offers are as strict as at most casino—no better, no worse.
The casino offers multiple welcome bonuses:
- The $4000 Welcome Bonus
- The $3000 Slots Bonus
- The High Roller Bonus
- The Blackjack Bonus
- The Video Poker Bonus
- Weekly Bonus Specials
The main bonus offer is the $4000 signup bonus, which is a 200% matching bonus. To receive the full $4000 bonus, you have to deposit $2000. This bonus is available on your first deposit and your second deposit, too. The bonus code for this offer is PALACEWELCOME, which you input when you make your deposit. You can get an additional 15% bonus by using Neteller; the code for this is WELCOMENET.
The minimum deposit amount is $21. The wagering requirements for this bonus are 30X, and bets placed on roulette, craps, baccarat, Pai Gow Poker, Sic Bo, bingo, and poker don’t count toward the wagering requirements. Video poker and blackjack wagers count at 25% toward these wagering requirements. You can’t withdraw any funds until you’ve met these wagering requirements.
The slots bonus is the $3000 signup bonus, which is a 300% matching bonus. To get the full $3000, you deposit $1000. The code to input in the cashier is WINSLOTS. The wagering requirements for the slots bonus are 25X, and only wagers on the following games count: Bonus Bingo, European Slot Poker, Real Series Video Slots, slots, keno, and scratch cards. If you place any wagers on any other games before you meet your wagering requirements, you void any winnings.
The high roller bonus applies to any first deposit of $750 or more. This bonus is good for $2000, and it’s a 200% matching bonus. The bonus code for this one is ULTIMATEWIN. The wagering requirements for this offer are the same as for the main welcome bonus offer above.
The blackjack bonus is a 100% deposit bonus of up to $500. You can redeem this bonus on ten separate deposits. The bonus code for this offer is WINBJ. The wagering requirements are 25X, but wagering on blackjack still only counts 25% toward fulfilling those requirements. In fact, the wagering requirements are the same with this offer as with the standard welcome offer.
The video poker bonus is also a $500, 100% matching bonus. Like the blackjack bonus, you can redeem this one ten times. The bonus code for this offer is WINVP. The wagering requirements for the video poker bonus are the same as for the blackjack bonus.
The weekly bonuses are divided into slots offers and table games offers. These offers vary based on how much you deposit. For example, with the slots offer, you deposit $25 and get a 175% bonus, but if you deposit $500, you get a 340% bonus. For the table games bonus, you get a 100% bonus when you deposit $25, but a 20-% offer is available if you deposit $500.
Conclusion
WinPlace Casino is only an average or below-average choice for United States players. It’s not even that good a choice for gamblers in other parts of the world. Their product is adequate. The games are average, and their payout percentages are fair. Their bonuses are generous, but their wagering requirements are restrictive.
Their customer service, especially as it relates to payouts, is sub-standard at best. Most gamblers should pass on this casino and look for someplace with a better reputation.
