PocketWin Casino – easy play, nice game, dizzy wins!
A casino’s welcome bonus can be a big deciding factor when you’re choosing a new one to join. Do you get anything for free? Is it worth the effort or signing up? And is there anything worth sticking around for after you’ve had the welcome bonus? With PocketWin Casino, it was a yes on all three counts.
We downloaded the PocketWin Slots app from the App Store (it’s also available for Android on Google Play) and created an account through the app. When you’ve signed up and activated your account, you spin a wheel which decides what no deposit welcome bonus you’re awarded. This is an ‘up to £10’ bonus and while we didn’t get the max, we were quite happy with our £5 free bonus.
This bonus comes with a x40 wagering which is pretty standard across the casino industry and means you need to play through the bonus amount 40 times before you can withdraw any winnings. It’s also worth noting that the most you can withdraw from a free bonus – even once you’ve met these wagering requirements – is £50.
We then made a £10 deposit and got to spin another wheel to win a deposit match. There’s up to 200% matches on offer – we got a 75% match – and this up to 200% deposit match is on deposits up to £100 and also comes with that x40 wagering.
It’s time to dive in and see what PocketWin’s exclusive games have to offer! As they’ve all been built in-house and not bought in from other developers, there’s not a huge selection of games to choose from. But PocketWin Casino more than makes it up for it with stand-out games that we haven’t ever seen before.
Some of the older games have been around since 2010, but there are plenty of fresh new games to choose from up at the top of the grid. Lucky Forest Casino caught our eye straight away so we took that for a spin first. The game looks incredible – great graphics and a really fun theme. Plus we loved the Blackjack inspired bonus game that gives you a win every time. Each game has a progressive Jackpot that starts at £2,000 and builds up day by day until it’s won. If you’re looking for the higher Jackpots, try Pocket Fruits and Master of Fortunes.
PocketWin Casino offers some casino games too, including the old favourites, Blackjack and Roulette. Just like the slots games, you can play these on your mobile too. Lastly, bingo fans are likely to love PocketWin’s mobile bingo game! It’s 90 ball bingo and it can be played in one of five themed chat rooms. You can choose from in the pub, the city, pet corner, shopping and on the beach and enjoy a game wherever you are.
Those bingo rooms each have a progressive Jackpot that you’ll win if you get a full house in under 35 calls. There are also prizes for one line, two lines and a full house. The chatrooms are a really nice feature – it makes the game so much more social, so players can chat to their friends and the admins while they play or in between games.
There are a few extra bonuses here that are exclusive to bingo. First, there’s loyalty points. You earn these every time you buy a ticket (which are 10p each or 60p for a strip) and you can save them up to exchange for bonus credit or gifts. You can also win points by joining in with the bingo quizzes in the chat rooms – these happen several times a week and you can win by being the first player in any room to get a question right.
It’s easy to make a deposit into your PocketWin Casino account, especially if you’ve got the mobile app installed. They take deposits by PayPal, Skrill, Paysafecard, phone bill or credit/debit card. With most deposit methods, there’s a minimum amount of £5. If you want to top up less, paying by phone bill has a minimum of only £3. Any amount you deposit by phone bill will either be added to your next phone bill, or it’ll come out of your available pay-as-you-go credit.
We had a little £25 win from the £10 deposit we made, so let’s take a look at the process of withdrawing that. You can request for it to be transferred to your bank account, PayPal or to the card you made the deposit with. We checked if there was a minimum withdrawal amount and there isn’t, but if you’re trying to withdraw less than £10, you will be changed a £3 processing fee.
When the request was made, we were told it would take 3-4 working days to reach the banking team for processing – not counting the day we requested it, weekends or bank holidays. That feels a little long, but we waited it out and sure enough, 3 working days later we were asked to send in some ID. You can do that through the app too, so we did that straight away. A couple of days later, our winnings arrived in the bank – so just be patient, follow instructions and you’ll get there.
Obviously this is an important area to look into with any mobile casino. First of all, we found out that PocketWin is based in the UK, and therefore licensed and regulated by the UK Gambling Commission. As part of that regulation, any games they produce are subject to rigorous independent testing before they can be granted a certificate to be released in the UK market. This is great news, as it means all games have been independently tested to ensure that they’re fair. The payout information for each game is also displayed on the website, so you can find out which ones have the highest RTP before playing if you want to do your homework.
When it comes to your personal data and transactions, you’re well protected there too, thanks to 256-bit TLSv1.2 digital encryption. The final area we always like to check out here is responsible gambling. What measures does the casino have in place to protect players who have, or may be developing, a problem? It’s good to know that PocketWin is GamCare certified, which means their standards are really high in this regard. You can set session and/or deposit limits to limit yourself, request a cool down period or even self-exclude entirely from PocketWin, or from all casinos affiliated with GamStop. We’d hope to never need them, but it’s good to know they’re there!
We keep banging on about the app here, but again, getting hold of the UK based customer service team is really easy if you have it installed! There’s a support menu that gives you options to ask for a free call back, send an email or speak to someone through the app on live chat. There’s also a feature that allows you to send in any ID that’s been requested, which is so much easier than messing about with emailing it in and remembering to include all of your account details.
So, time for the big question. Would we recommend playing at PocketWin Casino? It’s a definite yes from us, although as always, there are areas where the user experience could be improved. We loved the games, and it was a refreshing change to see different titles to the same old same old. The bonuses are great too, especially as existing players get loads of rewards too. If withdrawals could be a bit speedier and the game selection expanded just a little, this great mobile casino could be even greater. Not sure? Sign up, get that free fiver welcome bonus and decide for yourself.