The Virtual Casino Review

The Virtual Casino is part of The Virtual Group and prides itself on the variety of games and slots which are offered.

English is the only language offered and all transactions are conducted in US dollars. There’s a number of countries which are restricted from using the site including United Kingdom, Pakistan, Jordan, Poland, Slovenia, Thailand, Russia, Ukraine, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania, Macau, Montenegro, Malaysia, Lithuania, Latvia, Turkey, Indonesia, Hungary, Estonia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Belarus, Armenia, Albania and Azerbaijan. There are no restrictions on players from the US.

Games are offered both in download and instant play, so if you prefer not to install any software, it’s still possible to enjoy the full range. This can be helpful for mobile devices where memory space may be at a premium.

As well as being able to bet on the various games, The Virtual Casino also allow practice play too. This means that players can get to grips with the rules and gameplay before going on to risk real cash.

Speedy Service

When you’re playing with cash and you have a problem, you want to know that you can reach the company quickly and easily, and that they’re willing to help.

With The Virtual Casino, the customer support is excellent with fast response times on emails sent. You can generally expect a reply to any email sent within a matter of hours.

However, if you don’t want to wait for a reply via email and want to talk to a real person, you can opt to either telephone a free phone number or use their live chat facility.

Whatever option you choose, there’s coverage 24/7 so it’s impossible to find any room for improvement with this area of the casino.

Huge Selection

The games are one of the most important features in any casino; without a good selection, players won’t be attracted to sign up.

The Virtual Casino has put a lot of effort into creating a vast collection of games of various types that is larger than the majority of others on the market.

There are around 100 slots, with both contemporary and classic genres to pick from. More traditional titles include Sevens and Stripes plus Diamond Mine Deluxe, three reel slots which are ever popular. More modern video slots for which the demand is high includes the Egyptian-themed Cleopatra’s Gold Slot and the Aussie outback game Red Sands.

If poker is your game of choice, you’ll have an enviable range of options to play in. Some of the well-known titles include Tens or Better, Deuces Wild, Jacks or Better and Joker Poker. There’s some extra variants too which you may not have played before such as Double Double Jackpot Poker and Triple Double Bonus Poker.

Table games are well presented too, with the full complement that you’d expect to see. There’s different versions of blackjack and roulette as well as Three Card Rummy, Caribbean pokers, Let It Ride, Red Dog and baccarat to name but a few.

Profitable Promotions

Once you since up to The Virtual Casino you could earn yourself bonuses up to a whopping 1,000% if you take advantage of everything that’s on offer.

The first 800% is offered when you sign up, providing you deposit the qualifying sum which is currently set at $30.

If you don’t win with the above bonus you can receive a cash back sum equivalent to 100% of your deposit, taking the total to 900% so far.

And if you can afford that little bit more, depositing at least $100 while joining up you’ll receive immediate VIP status which adds up a further 100% to your bonus sum.

All of the above combined pushes the sum available up to the magic 1,000%, and that’s just for signing up.

Once you’ve joined, there are various other promotions you could receive too, with special monthly bonuses. These bonuses will be offered on certain games with various sums up for grabs. In some cases rather than a percentage cash back amount you could be playing for a chip loaded with thousands of dollars.

Super Slow Withdrawals

Unfortunately, despite offering what seems to be an excellent customer service response to enquiries, The Virtual Casino has been dogged by complaints in recent years.

Many of these relate to the speed at which they pay out cash, with the typical turnaround for a withdrawal taking around two months.

Previously there were also a slew of complaints about retrospective changes in the terms and conditions, disadvantaging players.

There were signs of improvement, but in recent months the number of complaints has started to escalate again, indicating that matters haven’t really improved. In fairness to The Virtual Casino, they are responsive to complaints and issues do eventually get resolved, but the time taken is generally excessive.

Security Concerns

Most of the legitimate online casinos look to become regulated by respected Gambling Commissions around the world to provide players with a degree of reassurance that their money is in safe hands.

The Virtual Casino is licensed by Costa Rica, but unfortunately this is merely an exercise on paper. There’s no official gambling license which exists in Costa Rica and no body which oversees transactions or enforces action against rogue operators. In reality, to operate from Costa Rica all that is required is a data processing license and even this isn’t difficult to obtain.

It’s important to emphasize that not all companies who choose to operate from Costa Rica are dodgy as the country has some attractive benefits such as a low tax rate, and no levies on business. It’s entirely plausible that a casino could be legitimate and still be based in Costa Rica.

However, the problem is that with this kind of setup, there’s no support from a regulator and the casino could have carte blanche to act in whatever way they choose.

The Virtual Casino certainly seems to be acting properly if you look at the way they handle security. Any sensitive information is protected with SSL encryption.

In addition, the platform used by The Virtual Casino has apparently been checked for transparency and fairness and by all accounts, passed the tests. But despite anecdotal evidence suggesting that there aren’t any issues with fairness, the results of audits and independent confirmation of the results has been withheld by the casino, a decision which is rather disappointing.

Difficult to Trust

There’s a huge swathe of information available about The Virtual Casino and the way they have conducted their business in recent years. And while they certainly appear to want to resolve any issues that arise, the fact remains that numerous complaints are still continuing to arise.

This, coupled with the lack of any meaningful regulation, means that playing at The Virtual Casino involves a risk. While the free play games might be a great choice, it’s impossible to provide a positive review about any games which involve the transfer of money despite the great selection and speedy customer service.

If the volume of complaints starts to drop and turnaround times for withdrawals improve, The Virtual Casino might be worth considering but you’d still have the issue of the absence of an active regulator.