lvblck
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10 February 2020 - 12:49pm

Vavada casino- anyone played there?

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Hi guys. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with Vavada casino? They seem to have Curacao license and mostly focus on Russian players but seem to have decent list of game providers. I'm asking because I got a free spins bonus but to cash it out, you need to wager deposit for 3x bonus amount. Don't want to risk depositing if no one has had good experiences.

auCL-Ed
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11 February 2020 - 10:59pm
#1

I've not come across the casino before. It immediately looks sketchy to me due to the domain name - vavada66 - and a few google searches found people referring to it as vavada55. So they are regularly changing their domain name, most likely whenever they are blocked by the Russian government.

Looking at the terms it appears that the wagering requirement is 20x on the free spins.

Quote:

14.2. Free spins win is credited to the bonus account. To enable this account, you have to activate it on the ‘Bonuses’ tab. All wins from the free spins must be wagered 20 times in real money mode. Wagering is available in any slot game. After the wagering requirements are completed, you can cash out the money you have gotten from the free spins. If any rules are violated, or the amount is not wagered completely, bonus winnings will be annulled.

Or do you mean you have already completed the 20x and now they want you to deposit and wager the deposit 3x just to claim the winnings from the bonus? That would seem to contradict the bolded part of the term quoted above. If so, it depends on how much the minimum deposit is and how much you have won as to whether it is worth doing (assuming of course that they will pay you). i.e. you don't want to lose more than what you have already won in completing wagering.

It looks like you should be able to deposit as little as 1 Euro:

Quote:

11.4. The minimum deposit amount is 50 (fifty) rubles, 1 (one) euro, 1 (one) dollars and 20 (twenty) hryvnias.

11.5. The minimum withdrawal amount is 1,000 (one thousand) rubles, 15 (fifteen) euro, 15 (fifteen) dollars and 385 (three hundred eighty five) hryvnias.

blck

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auCL-Ed
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12 February 2020 - 12:39am
#2

Wouldn't you know it just now I read a thread on a forum for affiliates that Vavada (bad attempt at copying Bovada btw) was busted by players in Russia for setting the RTP on Play'n Go's Book of Dead slot to just 84%. They switched it back to 96% after being caught out.

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lvblck
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12 February 2020 - 8:47am
#3

Hi Ed and thanks for jumping in! You're confirming what I thought.
So the offer I had was 100 free spins on Fat Santa (a few weeks ago). Then the wagering they require (which I see in my account section) is 3x free spins amount, but only bets made with real money. The domain also seemed sketchy to me, but since I only had to wager around 100eur I could easily do it with a deposit of 50eur, but didn't want to risk it as I haven't heard any feedbacks on them. Also at least for me when I try to check their license, I'm unable to do that, seems like it's just a picture not an actual seal.

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12 February 2020 - 10:00pm
#4

Hmm very interesting. Good point about the seal. I didn't even notice that, I just read Curacao in the terms and conditions. Not that it makes much difference whether the seal is real or not as Curacao is useless anyway. I guess you could always risk the €1 deposit if they will let you deposit that little.

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uzxtober
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15 February 2020 - 5:15am
#5

As far as I know, Vavada was previously known as a rogue operator with fake games and no license. But lately they changed their strategy and acquired Curacao license. I'm sure they had a clickable link to their license some time ago as i did some checks on my own. But right now the link is gone. Bad sign and bad impression overall. Would be careful.

CL-Ed

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16 February 2020 - 1:19pm
#6

Yeah I feel the same way, thanks for your feedback. That was the purpose of this post as I saw some affiliate sites rating them very highly but no real feedback so definitely wanted to be cautious.

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9 March 2020 - 12:16am
#7

ok maybe vavada is a shady place to play...there are so many black sheeps in
the game today...we all know that...

but to be honest ... it annoys me much more that one of the biggest players
in the slot provider business (play n go) offer their games to the casinos
with a variable RTP that goes down to 84.18% !!
that is so ridiculous !!! according to slotcatalog the casinos are able
to choose from the folowing RTP percentages:
96,21 / 94,25 / 91,25 / 87,25 / 84,18....

come on...94,25% is already very bad but 84,18%
that is such a bad joke

coolsongss

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9 March 2020 - 6:58am
#8

Yeah Play'n Go started providing all its games like that a few years ago. When they were first released they only had one fixed setting.

I have a bunch of official game documentation for most of their new games and they show the five different RTP settings. They seem to all be based on 96%, 94%, 91%, 87%, 84% but if for example the default setting is a bit higher at 96.5% then all the other settings will be roughly 0.5% higher too. I just wrote an explanation about this a few weeks ago on our Play'n Go page under the heading Adjustable RTP Controversy.

All these game docs state that Malta licensed casinos cannot choose any setting lower than 94%. I think for the UKGC the lowest would be 91%. And for both jurisdictions the RTP setting will be published in the game help file that you can see by clicking the question mark at the bottom of the game screen. Lots of casinos have been choosing the lower setting lately - eg VideoSlots Casino, all Aspire Global white labels, possibly Nektan too.

So always check this whenever you play a Play'n Go game. While it is greedy and probably a bit sneaky, so long as they are disclosing the number in a place that is easy to check then you can't really complain. Players can know what they are in for and vote with their wallets by going to play somewhere else where they aren't being ripped off.

As for Curacao so-called "licensed" casinos... as we've been telling people for years, they can do whatever they want as they aren't accountable to anyone. Yet another reason to avoid Curacao casinos.

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9 March 2020 - 2:27pm
#9

thanks Ed
i missed your "adjustable RTP controversy" article.
i deleted play and go from my games list a long time ago...
for me they are one of the worst provider.
but i think it is just a matter of time that other provider will follow the
same path

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14 March 2020 - 3:11pm
#10

That was a great article Ed. But when I actually checked Vavada Play'n Go games, like Book of Dead, somehow the line of RTP in info page was deleted. How is that even possible?

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16 March 2020 - 12:19am
#11

As it says on our Play'n Go page:

Quote:

Unfortunately if you are playing the game at an unlicensed casino or one run from an unregulated jurisdiction such as Curacao, there is no restriction on how low they can go and the RTP setting may not be disclosed in the help file. If that is the case, the safest thing to do is assume the worst and do not play the game.

There are complicated ways to determine the RTP setting using the web inspector function in modern browsers to log all the game files as they load. But it is simpler to consider that if you're playing at a casino that is choosing to hide this information, you have to ask why. I would just assume that they have lowered the RTP and don't play the game.

I don't know whether casinos have control over the help file with the ability to change the text (I doubt it as it is probably copyrighted by PnG), or whether PnG just allows them to specify whether the RTP is included in the file they serve. If casinos could edit the text It would raise the question of whether they could write in a fake RTP value in the help file while the game is set to something lower. That would be especially nasty.

blck

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22 April 2020 - 11:42pm
#12

I found that website exactly today. It very nice website, a lot of games from my favorite providers. Good welcome bonus as well. Support agent answered only after 30 minutes. Bad thing also was that I lost my money very fast, all the games I tried were cold. Very cold.

CL-Ed

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11 May 2020 - 10:31am
#13

Thanks for sharing your experience as so far I haven't really heard of anyone playing there. Still after all the conversations we've had here I'm not sure I would trust them, just having that weird feeling about them.