Review of Bovada Casino
Many punters will likely know Bovada as the former Canadian Bodog franchise. In 2011 Bodog split its operations in two, in the process transferring all of its American players to the site now known as Bovada, while continuing to operate for players from other jurisdictions under the Bodog name. In the time since, the casino has changed a little, adding its own games and maintaining a poker software client.
Software and game selection
Bovada offers its casino games in an instant play format through its slick and attractive website. The casino's games are powered a few different developers, such as Realtime Gaming, Rival, and the casino's own in-house software. It must be said that the RTG games are starting to look dated though, as Bodog previously purchased the developer's source code which granted them RTG's library at the time of the purchase, but none of the newer RTG games released since that time.
However the real attraction are the non-RTG games. Bovada has a few of its own slot machines that are unique to the site such as El Luchador, Zombies vs Cheerleaders and Ares the Battle for Troy, and on the whole they look more polished and modern in comparison. Players looking to win it big will be happy to find that Bovada is offering 51 progressive games with varying jackpots. The largest as of the writing of this review is Mid-Life Crisis, which boasts a jackpot of more than $1.5 million.
Games offered on the table side include Baccarat, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, and various forms of table poker. These are mostly similar to the table games offered at RTG casinos, so should be instantly familiar to anyone who has played at one of those. The games play smooth enough, but it is fair to say that they are more utilitarian than flashy, lacking the pop factor that we have become accustomed to seeing at other casinos.
Banking and customer service
Banking options at Bovada are limited for the casino's American-only clientele, with the casino currently only accepting Bitcoin, Visa or Mastercard for deposits. As is usual for Americans, withdrawals are also limited, with the casino paying out via Checks or Bitcoin. In recent times the casino has been engaged in a concerted campaign to encourage its customers to use Bitcoin for reasons of speed, cost savings, and anonymity.
In terms of withdrawal timeframes, my experience has shown that you can expect to wait anywhere from under a day to around 2 weeks to receive a payment from Bovada, depending on the method that you choose. Bitcoin withdrawals for verified customers are sometimes paid within 24 hours while the best I have seen with a check was one that arrived at my door two days after withdrawal. This was just about the best I have seen from a modern casino serving Americans, though on other occasions a check has taken up to two weeks to arrive. You can be confident that you will be paid as Bovada has an established reputation for always paying winners, but such is the difficulty in transacting with Americans these days that withdrawal times can be variable.
Customer service is available 24/7 though the site's telephone or email system. I was a bit disappointed to see that there was no instant messaging option, although I did get responses within a 24 hour timeframe by using the email option, and the phone support is handy if you have an urgent need to speak to someone.
Bovada summary
Overall Bovada is one of the best casino options for American players, as the site is specifically designed and run for Americans only. The withdrawal speed is among the best in the industry for Americans and the unique in house developed games mean that you will be able to play something that you haven't already seen at 50 other casinos. Recommended.
Comments
Absolutely love it and great verification method to.only thing is there a little tight on the wins.
Terrible customer service deposited 2k won 1800 and all of a sudden I'm asked to verify my identity. Once I did that I was told I'm good to go and the next day I wake up my account is disabled. Reached out to customer service explaining this was my last $ to my name I kept it on bovada because I knew I wouldn't spend it. Long story short the rep asked if I had a gambling problem which I told her no lol this wasn't about me winning or losing money it's about you guys stealing my hard earned money and bovada was my wallet.
CL - klaw
Bovada is definitely my favorite online casino!! Wide variety of games! Easy deposits w/ bitcoin, easy and fast withdrawals! Games are fun! Good customer service!! Highly recommended!! And also one of the top poker sites as well!!
CL-Ed
I have played poker on Bovada for years but only just started to play some of the slots and boy are they fun! Lots of games to choose from some seem to have high jackpots but I doubt I'll ever win one. I never had an issue with withdrawing, especially the last couple years with bitcoin. I enjoy this site very much and recommend it.
CL-Ed
Bovada is one of the top online casinos out there. I've been registered there for a year plus and I've never run into an issue with the Bovada site. They have every option for deposits and withdrawals. Bitcoin is my chosen deposit method because it goes through quick and easy. They have an excellent bonus program that can be very profitable for your bankroll building. It's a good site to play poker on for newer poker players. The poker play isn't as competitive on Bovada in my opinion. You'll get realiable play and honest payouts. They have a great reputation among the online casino community.The bonus policies will give you some moving room to explore a multitude of games. Make sure to read your bonus guidelines on Bovada policy page so you know the guidelines.Customer reps are very helpful and polite when resolving player issues.
CL-Ed
Most casinos won't let you straight up deposit and then immediately withdraw it because its essentially money laundering. Give us some more details on the bonus you were trying to use and why it didn't register...? Bovada is pretty well regarded here as being straightforward. Did you try to sort this out on their site community.bovada.lv site?
CL - klaw
Well Bovada screwed me bad. I deposited the exact amount they said to match the bonus and they didn't match it at all. I tried to get my money back via bank transfer and come to find out you have to have a minimum amount to do that đź‘Ť then I tried to even create a bitcoin in order to get my money back and it keeps denying the request. I know I'm not the only one who has had this problem, all I want is my money back and not one person has responded to me. I feel like a complete idiot, I guess I'm just at a pretty low point in life and this made it so much worse. Nobody at Brovada even cares, it's sickening that they jus take from the poor and keep giving to the rich.
CL - klaw
Bovada has it all from poker, sports betting, horse betting and Casino. They usually have quick payouts but a month ago I had to wait about 5-7 days to get the withdrawal. Seems to be quicker now. They have a lot of different types of slots with high progressive jackpots. The layout is easy to navigate. They also offer an rewards program where you can accrue points which you can turn into money or tickets for poker tournaments. The poker client was recently redesigned but they still have issues with connections sometimes. Overall Bovada is one of the better casinos out there for American based players.
CL-Ed
This is my third casino from real time gaming. I had no problems with withdraw 3 times in one week so I could bravely recommend them.
CL-Ed
I have read some good things, some bad things about Bovada - which is one of the reasons I was inspired to review. I have been a member on here for a number of years and had started by sports betting and then slowly worked my way into their casino and poker games. Yes, these are the same ones who are associated with Ignition casino, slots.lv. I would say I played on here exclusively for a period of time before they decided that they were going to stop hosting poker and encouraged their poker playing members to move to ignition if you wanted to play poker. Since then, they are now offering players the ability to play poker and their software to download and really the entire site compared to ignition they pretty much only differ by their branding. I believe all of their progressive jackpots are run together through all their sites, and why not. Offering a wide variety of games, and most importantly, actually paying is something they do quite well. I have won on this site numerous times, before they offered bitcoin as a means of withdrawal, I had them mail me a check for $ 3,000 which did take about 21 days to receive, but funds cleared and everything worked out just fine. I since then, due to the excitement in the bitcoin market, have had a number of withdrawals in the multiple of $ 1,000s sent in the form of bitcoin which they normally have processed in 48 to 72 hours. One time they were over 72 hours and I called them and they confirmed the process had exceeded the amount of time it normally takes. They did tell me they were very busy with claim tickets and to give them 24 hours. I would say 30mins after hanging up the phone the funds had been processed and sent to my bitcoin account. I don't normally like to speak about things they didn't happen to mean, but I do know of a friend who won pretty big playing their table games, and cashed out with $ 18,000 and they paid him through bitcoin without any fuss or hassle. I have heard stories in the past about people not getting payments or very quickly but I can only say in my first hand experience, always extremely helpful on the phone with their customer service, and have always paid without any issue.
I would say they have a wide variety of games in both casino, poker, and sports betting. I long ago retired betting on sports, mainly because I don't have enough time to pay attention to the players, the teams, or any part of that. But the friend whom do sportsbetting play exclusively on here and just here, so I imagine they are pretty good. The bonus program which they have now offered seems acceptable, they usually give you a nice boost back base on your deposit. Most of the time, I forgo any bonus and play straight cash. They now have a number of poker rooms and a new feature called sit n go jackpot, which has been a nice addition to their sites. They do update maybe one or two a month new games, and have even more recently been coming out with revamped games like baccarat, tri-card, keno and let 'em ride - most of which seem to be less forgiving then their originals. I have been a fan of their caribbean poker and newly introduced hold 'em. While I can say that I have won between $ 2,000 - $ 5,000 on each of those games, I maybe have lost just about as much. Some advice is those games can be relentless, and usually the winning and losing goes in cycles, so if you find yourself in a quandary thinking that you should increase yours bets here, some advice, don't - get out of the game and playing something else. All in all I would love to hear more from other people who have had bad experiences, I haven't found that to be so, but one of the main reasons I like this site is because it does give you a great idea of what sort of behaviors to watch out for. I know that more than anything, if you are new vs. being a higher stakes player who plays often, is they do treat your loyalty a lot differently, I would say that having worked my way to the place I am and then recommending the site and having friends tell me their stories. This being said, I would say all in all, more than not, you should at least for now, feel fairly safe playing. And like I have said once and I will said it again, they do not have a whole lot of bonus's, or freebies.. and so what. If they actually are going to pay you I much prefer to play on a site that is actually going to pay you vs. other sites which will send you $100s of incentives a day and never will never pay you a dime. That a least is the sentiment I have, but this is only one persons option and more than happy to encourage the opposing view be offered if you feel so inclined.
CL-Ed
Bovada, Slots,lv, CafeCasino, and Ignition must be avoided like the plague. At least if you burn your money you get a few moments of heat. This network will do everything in their power to lure you in with huge bonuses and once they do... Good luck winning, and if you do they will figure out a way to steal it from you. I personally was robbed and harassed by this network to levels I wouldn't wish on my mortal enemies.
2 CL - klaw, Tyler Stedman
This is my mini review of Bovada casino. I have played here many times but not so much recently. They used to offer much better bonuses and I personally usually only go to the online casinos that offer the best bonuses because that to me tells me how much they value their customers business. Bovada does offer a wide variety of games including some of the rival gaming ones offered and a lot of the Real Time Gaming selection. I have read many places that they are honest and do often times pay out the customers qualifying payouts so thats good. The casino layout is only semi easy to maneuver through in comparison to some of the other casinos Ive played at. All in all I would recommend playing here because they are trustworthy in comparison to some casinos that you may never even see your qualifying cashouts from.
CL - klaw
I have been playing on Bovada for a little over two months now and I enjoy learning about betting on the horse races. They are very helpful. The only complaint I have is that they took away my favorite game. Virtual Racing. Otherwise this is a good site for beginners.
CL-Ed
I opened my account with Bovado an hour ago with thirty dollars, using my visa card. They did not charge me a fee to fund. I OPTED NOT to take any bonuses, and now have requested a check for 107.00. Will update how long it takes to receive. It says usually there is a fifty dollar charge, but they give you a payout free each month I guess...? They do quote 48 hours to review the request, and two weeks to process the check and for me to receive it- will update through the process. So far so good for this casino though, as I did win significant money with small bets =O)
CL-Ed
I just searched my email, because every now and again Bovada will send me 10 dollars to play in their poker rooms, and I will play penny poker (but it has been a very long time).
Anyway, I received an email with a bit of news about Bovada, which I believe is very positive. You used to have to purchase "chips," then deposit those chips to your casino account or poker room account. According to the email:
With these improvements we have eliminated the need to purchase casino chips to play our casino games – which means you now have one combined balance to play anywhere with.
I like this change, because this is more like most casinos. Also, I had no idea I have a whopping 3.81, lol! Penny poker rooms, here I come (if I get too bored or am between deposits at Win A Day).
It's nice to hear about this positive change at Bovada! 🙂
CL - klaw
Bovada is a really good sportsbook that also offers a really cool looking online casino. I like the fact that I can play this casino on my computer or smartphone, placing bets on the go, play poker, or bet on sports. Bovada used to be Bodog back in the day, but nowadays it is using this new brand to go about its business. More or less this is the same place, but they recently added BetSoft slots that bring some really cool 3D graphics.
The table games look a bit lame, but the other features of the site more than make up for it. I don’t do horse racing, but the site does offer that, and you can always get a wager in on football, baseball, or soccer. The poker is also really good, and you can play here forever.
Depositing is a bit of a challenge as you can only use your Visa card and some really expensive transfers, but it is reliable and does work. Withdrawing is also limited, but the check option is free once a month. If you use the transfers you pay a high fee, which I don’t like.
If you like smooth betting sites I think you will like Bovada. This is definitely one of the nicest looking casinos I have ever played at. Definitely give it a shot.
2 CL-Ed, CL - klaw
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