Review of Drake Casino
Drake Casino is an online casino that has made a name for itself by offering BetSoft video slots to players in America, who are mostly limited to playing run of the mill slots from developers such as Realtime Gaming and Rival. I was happy to get the opportunity to sit down and see if the casino offered a compelling experience. Read on to see how it fared.
Software and game selection
Drake Casino utilises software from BetSoft and Arrow's Edge, which provides players with a complete gambling library that includes a full slate of table games, video poker, and slot machines. Players who want to play at Drake Casino can do so via the casino's web-based platform and I did not have to download or install any extra software in order to get in on the action. A mobile site is also available for those who want to play via their smartphones and tablets, although only a limited selection of games is available to be played on the go.
If you are playing at Drake Casino, you are probably doing so to take advantage of the site's selection of BetSoft "3D" video slots. While you may read 3D and think of red and blue coloured glasses that make you look stupid while wearing them, they are actually just psuedo 3D modelled graphics, like a recent Super Mario Brothers game, as opposed to something that jumps out of the screen at you. While Drake Casino isn't the only casino to offer these games, there are relatively few that accept action from American players and almost none of them give the games front billing.
Unfortunately our investigations into Betsoft have lead to the point where we have absolutely no trust in the company's professionalism, nor the fairness of its games. We have documented proof that its progressive jackpot games do not always pay out prizes fairly and in a consistent manner, and there is the well known case of a player at another casino being stiffed of a huge progressive jackpot that he should have won according to the rules of the game he was playing. Our advice is to avoid all Betsoft games altogether for your own safety.
So if you're going to ignore the Betsoft games, what is left? Drake Casino offers titles from a company named Arrow's Edge. This was the first time I had come across games from this developer, which was a pleasant surprise. However the joy was short lived as these games aren't as impressive graphically and they feel more like a space filler than anything else to me. I noticed a few of these games in the "Cash Grab Slots" section of the site such as Kanga Cash, Metropolis, and Eastern Dragon are in fact very old titles from NextGen Gaming that have been repackaged for various older developers such as Vega Technology and Cryptologic over the years.
Drake Casino runs an extensive list of casino tournaments including daily freerolls and monthly and weekly buy-in tournaments that run on slot machines, table games and video poker. It is clear that the tournament format has been copied wholesale from the setup used by WGS Technology casinos, as the schedule, tournament format and even the leaderboards are instantly recognisable. This is no bad thing though, as I have long considered the WGS format, where players start with a small stack and must build it as high as they dare, to be the best style of online casino tournaments.
Banking and customer support
As Drake Casino mainly seems to target the North American betting market, one can expect to find the ability to deposit via Visa, MasterCard, and bank wire transfers to be present. The casino also accepts Bitcoin, Neteller, and Skrill deposits, but only for customers outside the United States. Those looking to withdraw money from Drake Casino should be aware that there is a $100 minimum, and that the casino limits players to a maximum withdrawal of $5000 per week. In addition the withdrawal fees here are very steep. It cost me $60 to request a wire transfer to test the withdrawal process, and other withdrawal options such as payment back to debit cards or money transfers have similar fees. That said, the wire withdrawal arrived within a week which is pretty good for a US-facing casino these days.
Customer service is solid at Drake Casino, as I never had a problem contacting staff via email, instant message, or through telephone. Staff hours at Drake Casino run from 10am-Midnight every day of the week, and while I would have personally liked to have seen the staff available around the clock, the hours that are covered are when most gamblers from North America will be playing.
Security, fairness, and responsible gaming
Drake Casino's privacy statement was last updated in 2012, so it has been a while since they have refreshed their rules concerning their use of your personal information, but the site does use 128 bit SSL encryption to protect your login, financial transactions, and personal information. Furthermore, Drake Casino also has a policy of not selling or trading any of its customer information to outside parties.
Fairness is not directly mentioned in the terms and conditions or any other portion of Drake Casino's website, meaning that you have to trust that the casino is going to maintain fair and stable games. There are no RTP numbers published on the site, nor does the casino reveal any audited payout figures. To me this is a concern, as I generally like to see a casino subjecting its software to outside parties who can audit results to ensure fair play of games. Responsible gaming is covered very briefly in the terms and conditions of the site, and only states that the casino is not liable for any losses or damages that players encounter due to problem gambling. This is another disappointment to me, as I feel that online casinos have a duty to at least address the potential for problem gambling and provide links to outside organisations that can help out in the event a problem arises.
Conclusion
Drake Casino is an interesting online casino that sadly offers very little to punters given our knowledge of the goings on at Betsoft, which provides the majority of games to this casino aside from some less impressive older looking games from Arrow's Edge. What we are left with is a functional US friendly online casino that lacks in some departments, which ultimately keeps it from being a must-play destination.
Comments
Very Big Risk involved in getting a win and payout from a casino with the most bizzare banking setup.
Great no deposit to entice players, then your deposit bonus, KYC i have been reading can take upto a week or two, and i have been countless people saying the opposite, same in regards to large payouts, the minimum bitcoin withdrawal is 300$ and with the game providers given, its rather difficult to wager a bonus when limited to a small number of providers, highly risky , will be taking a small deposit to further review for my own personal view,
Other Players i'd stick to a more verified and well known safe casino.
Thats just my two cents before i throw away some hard earn cash lol
Be Safe! 🙂
CL - klaw
The only reason i made few deposits to Drake Casino was their huge bonuses. I wasnt able to refuse 300% welcome bonus. However it didnt make me happy because i wasnt able to wager all the bonuses i took. They are Betsoft based casino and i am not very big fan of betsoft slots.
But good thing about this casino that they have a lot of tournaments. Some of them are for free.
But i have read a lot of complaints about them around the internet, especially they become not friendly to the players when they winning huge amounts of money:)
CL - klaw
Drake casino is middle class reputation online casino site. This site supports Betsoft,Proprietary and Arrows Edge slots provider. If you are new player you can take 60 free spins no deposit bonus with 60x wager requirements. You can receive 2 no deposit bonuses between deposits. Minimum deposit is 25$ and minimum withdrawal is even 100$ so it has pretty high payout limits. Drake casino offers weekly guaranteed slots tournaments, free spins, different kind of loyalty prizes. Drake casino accept Bitcoin payments. This casino disadvantage is slow payouts it takes up to 2 weeks and it also has weekly cahsout limit to 2500$. Average casino site.
CL - klaw
Im writing a mini review for Drake casino. I used to really enjoy playing their free tournaments and stuff and they used to award me points for my birthday every year even though im not a depositing member (ive tried and my card which has money in it gets declined and their only solution is to use another card but i dont HAVE another card and it works everywhere else) This year on my birthday they sent me an email which seemed as though I was getting my normal 2500 bonus club points for my birthday but when I was looking forward to that they told me im not eligible and that i have to make a deposit. I have no problem with depositing but the point is i never had to before to get birthday bonuses every year. I have never even won a "free tournament" because its probably only the depositors that win them. I played religiously for like a year and not ONE tournament win....I gave up. I dont like disappointments or misleading "bonuses" if you dont want to treat the potential depositing player as well as the already depositing player then you are setting your business up for failure in my opinion.
CL-Ed
Played at Drake with their freespins qualifying bonus and honestly said I was not too much fascinated by the promotion. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying it's not a decent casino but these freespins have had more of an advertising purpose than a realistic chance of play trough the requirements. Beside the 40 x playtrough there is a 100$ minimum cashout clause so it's not only hard to reach this payout if you playing with freespins but also would be hard if you were deposited around 20-30$.
Beside that there were a killing fees on two of the three paying methods available,it was something between 40-60$ in fees and maybe I'm wrong but I don't get that, if you own 120$ in winnings you will have to pay literally half of that in fees 😕
So why should I or any other player choose this casino instead of so many other options available out there?
CL - klaw
I have probably played at drake two or three times in the past , and was considering using an email bonus and playing again. However, since I am more closely scrutinizing the deposit and withdrawal options these days, I have decided to hold off on play. As pointed out in the review above, there is a minimum withdrawal of $100, but note that this is only for a wire transfer (with $60 fee). If you choose to make a Bitcoin withdrawal , its free , but the minimum is a whopping $300. The casino lists several other withdrawal options as "temporarily unavailable" including a check by courier, neteller, and back to card.
Aside from that, I recall having no issues with play at the casino, making a deposit , or claiming a promotion. I dont recall whether I contacted live support at all in the process as it has been a while. I am sure that I initially played here because of the CL free spins offer above. I do like the variety of games which provide a nice break from the RTG casinos which are most of what is available to US players.
I WOULD consider giving this casino more of a chance if they were to offer more withdrawal options and lower those $300 minimums.
CL-Ed
Drake Casino is another Betsoft casino where I was active for nearly two years, the most I've used the promotion to the casino in the last few months. There are often active free spins promotions and bonus codes that I received in the inbox. Unfortunately, even from such bonuses have not managed to win anything, so I have no experience with the speed of payments to Drake Casino. Page looks quite decent, and it's easy to get on with a user account options. Most often I played Mamma Mia slot and Rooks Revenge with whom I have great experiences at other casinos. Nothing that would not change, except that I would slightly accelerate customer support.
CL-Ed
Played at this casino some time ago with 20 euros free chip. I am not big fan of betsoft, so just played some their games, and just prove myself that i am not a fan of this software 🙂 Bonus was credited automatically, and everything seems good, but if you ask me will i deposit in this casino - i'll say no, because i just did not like software. But since CL use 7 rating, i am sure this is good casino.
Oh, and WR 80 x bonus is quite terrible, absolutely huge, and i do not recommend claim bonus like this, there is huge -EV for players.
3 CL-Ed, CL - klaw, newbie29
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