BitStarz Casino Review
BitStarz.com is operated by Direx N.V. Casinos, which was founded in 2014. There’s not much information about the operator themselves. If their name sounds familiar, that’s because they’re the same group which run Slotum, Golden Star, BaoCasino, and several other popular online casinos. But while all of these other websites are successful, they’re not nearly on the same level as BitStarz.
This casino has taken the spot of Best Casino in the AskGamblers awards in both 2017 and 2018! Not to mention further claims to glory as they were nominated for CRM Campaign of the Year and Innovation in Casino at the 2018 EGR awards.
All these impressive awards are even more interesting when you find out that the website is licensed in Curacao. Don’t get us wrong, Curacao isn’t bad, but they simply cannot compare to regulators like Malta’s Gaming Authority. Since they’re licensed in Curacao, they don’t have to appoint an Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) provider. And best we can tell, there’s no one we can send a complaint to in case BitStarz ever does go rogue.
The Bitcoin casino is available in four languages: English, Russian, Chinese and Japanese. And while you can register from many countries, not all games or jackpots will be available in certain regions.
Casino Bonuses
Sadly, this website isn’t like Speedy Casino. You do have to register an account to play here! On the upside, you get a lot of bonuses if you register to play here. You don’t have to worry about the promotions being the same thing repeated ten or eleven times, like we’ve seen from CherryJackpot. You’ll find a good variety of bonuses, if you have the patience to make use of them!
Let’s talk about the welcome promotion, since that’s the first one players will use. You get not one, but four deposit match bonuses, with a few extra goodies. Your first deposit is a 100% match for all deposits up to €100, or one BTC. On top of that, you get 180 free spins on Boomanji or Fruit Zen or Wolf Gold. You get twenty spins every day for the next nine days after activating the promotions.
The second and third deposit match bonuses don’t come with any free spins. Both are a 50% match, but vary in how much your maximum deposit is. The second deposit caps at €100, but the third goes up to €200! The final, fourth deposit is back to a 100% match for up to €100. Both the match deposit bonuses and the free spins have to meet a 40x wagering requirement.
Here’s a fun way to keep gamblers coming back every day! Last Man Standing is a casino competition which you can only join on the first day. To enter, you have to wager €20 or currency equivalent on any slot to qualify. And then, you have to keep wagering €20 or currency equivalent every day until the competition ends! The last person who wagered €20 on the final day is the person who gets the cash prize! Keep in mind that only slots qualify you for this promotion. The grand prize is €5000, which is paid in real money, with no wagering requirements attached.
Another thing BitStarz does which we like a lot is that they incentivise players to try new things! Right now, they’re inviting online gamblers to play Rook’s Revenge by offering a bonus. The person who first lands five red masks and takes a screenshot will have their win doubled! You have to bet at least €0.25 or 0.001 BTC for that spin to count for this promotion. If you land it, you have to send a screenshot of the win, the time it happened and the exact wager. The prize doesn’t have a wagering requirement, meaning you can do whatever you want with it!
BitStarz Table Games
Don’t worry, table game fans, you haven’t been forgotten! The casino is offering a bonus which incentivises players to play table games! You’re only eligible to enter the Table Wars if you’ve made at least four deposits. The war happens weekly, with the €1000 prize pool being awarded on Monday, and the next week’s war beginning at the same time. We really like this bonus: you just have to play the games you usually would play! The more you wager, the more points you get. More points means a bigger slice of the prize.
Slot wars are the exact same concept, but applied to slots. Play and wager your favourite slots, and you climb the ranks of the leaderboard. If you’re high enough, you get part of the prize pool, which consists of €1000 and 250 free spins. Like with Table Wars, the money you get doesn’t have an attached wagering requirement.
Every Monday, you can top up with a 50% match bonus for deposits up to €300. Like with previous deposit match promotions, you have to meet a 40x wagering requirement before you can withdraw the money.
In the same vein, every Wednesday you can make a deposit to win free spins! Deposit €30, €80 or €160, and you get 20, 80 or 200 free spins, respectively. The same 40x wagering requirement applies here.
Software and Games
Okay, perhaps there is such a thing as too many promotions! Let’s take a break from those and talk about games instead! At the time we have written this review, the operator is offering a total of 2320 releases! This includes slots, table games, live games, and everything else BitStarz offers. Almost every release except for live casino games has a demo mode you can play without even registering an account. You can also minimize the release, which keeps the game running in a small window on the bottom left side of the screen. Things like this are how you get nominated for Innovation in Casino awards!
We hope you like slots, dear reader. Because this website offers over 2100 slots of all shapes and sizes for you to enjoy! Unfortunately, BitStarz offers no good way to navigate this massive library of releases! The only search filter in place is being able to see games made by certain providers.
Beyond that, you’ll have to hope you know the exact name of the release you’re looking for. Otherwise, you’re in for a lot of scrolling! It seems even having 30 software providers offering a variety of different games on your website isn’t without its flaws.
Problems continue into the table games section, too. Particularly attentive gamblers will notice that live casino and single player table games have been put in the same category. This makes it more difficult for gamblers to find the releases they want to play. It’s not like the casino needs to inflate their numbers, given how many games they have!
How is the BitStarz Live Casino?
The live casino portion doesn’t have any of the issues we raised for single player table games. They get their own category, where you can easily find almost all available releases. For whatever reason, some games can only be found by entering the lobby, while others can be directly accessed from the live casino. Available releases are absolutely dominated by blackjack, roulette and baccarat. Adventurous players will also find Evolution Gaming’s more experimental releases. Try your luck with the Lightning Dice, try to draw the Top Card, or take a drive through Side Bet City!
Most websites settle for one, maybe two live casino providers, and call it a day. But not BitStarz! Their live casino section is powered by Evolution gaming, Authentic Gaming and Vivo Gaming. Honestly, this operator could not give us a better live casino offering, short of having exclusive roulette and blackjack tables.
Banking
We knew we were in good hands when, we found BitStarz casually bragging about a 10 minute average withdrawal time. They don’t even use it for marketing, it’s just buried in their terms and conditions! Of course, processing and transfer times will depend on what payment method you use. And trust us, there are a lot of them! Gamblers can deposit and withdraw using Visa and MasterCard credit/debit cards, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Skrill, Neteller, and several others. Almost all deposit methods have to play a 2.5% fee, except for cryptocurrencies.
So why not just recommend cryptocurrencies? Because you can’t play some releases with Bitcoin and its numerous cousins! On the plus side, withdrawals using all payment methods are completely fee free. Once again, cryptocurrencies excel here, but are matched by e-wallets when it comes to instant processing time. Credit and debit cards have to wait between one to five business days, while bank transfers might be stuck waiting 14 business days!
Support and Security
Help is always just one click away! You’ll see that big green button following you everywhere. Click on it, or the small bubble on the bottom right corner of the screen to open live chat. In the Help menu, players can also browse through a detailed FAQ page. You’ll also find links to BitStarz’s email, and several of their social media pages.
The casino doesn’t give us any specific details on how they protect our data. They mention that all communication to and from the website is protected by industry-standard encryption technology. In terms of Bitcoins, they are stored in cold wallets, and those wallets are further encrypted. And if you’re extra concerned about security, the website lets you activate two factor authentication.
