wave of online gambling obsession in the US and Europe.">
Europa Casino premiered in 2003 in the middle of the first
wave of online gambling obsession in the US and Europe. Europa
is owned by the Winner Casino Group. Now that Europa Casino is
well into its second decade, it’s time to take another look at
this long-lived and controversial gambling site. Europa runs
entirely on Playtech software, hosting more than 450 games as
part of its download client. The instant play library is
smaller. I cover more specifics on the game library below.
Play online casino games at Europa Casino, trusted online casino! Get 2,400 FREE BONUS for over 400 games including: Slots, Blackjack, Roulette and more. Europa Casino heavily advertises a “$2,400 Free Bonus”, but it’s really just a combination of their three main promotional offers: a first deposit bonus, a series of eleven monthly reload deposit bonuses,.
Let’s start with the best features of Europa Casino –
The site hosts hundreds of casino games.
Instant play customers won’t have access to quite that many, but
if you’re into variety, and if you download the software, you
can play on one of the largest Playtech libraries in the
business.
Europa accepts a wide variety of currencies and does
business in many world languages. Reviewers sometimes
call this “accessibility” – it means a lot of different people
have access to the site. That’s good for marketing, but it’s a
big deal to translate your site, your games, and provide
customer support in a dozen languages.
The variety of deposit and withdrawal methods is
impressive. As an American, I’m always amazed by the
number of deposit and withdrawal methods Europeans have access
to. But even at other Euro sites, I’ve not seen quite the list
of available payment methods that you’ll find at Europa.
Europa Casino is blacklisted by Casinomeister for its
progressive jackpot terms. As a “Playtech casino with
progressive limitations,” Europa Casino has earned a spot on
Casinomeister’s blacklist. This is a bad sign – the
Casinomeister staff is thorough, and I usually trust their
findings. The reason for the blacklisting – “predatory terms,”
related to the limiting of payouts on progressive jackpot
winnings. According to the site, “To place a withdrawal limit on
these winnings is not only unethical, it’s predatory and
indefensible. The only reason why they do this is because they
can; they are calling the shots.”
But if you’re not chasing progressive jackpots, this probably
won’t bother you that much.
No access for American players. This one
should be obvious – I live in the United States, so when a site
doesn’t give access to Americans, I’m left out in the cold.
The Playtech-powered library is large but boring.
I know – they have 450-something games in their download client,
and that’s amazing. But they’re all Playtech games – that limits
the variety. I’m also unimpressed with a listing of that many
hundreds of games when only eight of them are video poker
titles, and about that many again are blackjack variants.
Clearly, the library at Europa Casino is aimed at slots players.
Withdrawals face a longer-than-usual pending period.
According to information in the site’s T&C pages, some
withdrawals may be listed as “pending” as long as 96 hours,
which is three times longer than the posted wait times at other
online casinos. A friend of mine pointed out that this could
mean that Europa is more honest about its wait times, since
plenty of casino customers complain that their pending period
was longer than advertised. He may be right – maybe Europa is
just setting the bar low so that customers don’t get angry.
I’m not sure how to feel about this, but I put it in the
negative column because it just seems like such a long time to
wait.
I’m not a fan of the heavily-restricted bonuses now
available. All of the site’s bonuses (outlined above)
are aimed at slot players – the list of restricted games is long
and complicated. I also don’t like the wagering requirement for
the referral bonus, which is four or five times larger than at
other online casinos.
All the bonuses below have wagering requirements which must
be cleared by wagering on a list of specific games.
All other games in the site’s library count toward clearing
bonuses.
Europa Casino
heavily advertises a “$2,400 Free Bonus”, but it’s really
just a combination of their three main promotional offers: a
first deposit bonus, a series of eleven monthly reload
deposit bonuses, and the customer’s use of the $25 weekly
loyalty bonus. If a player were to max out all 72 of those
bonuses over the course of a year, they’d have earned a
total of $2,400 in deposit and reload bonuses.
New
depositors are eligible for a 100% match bonus worth up to
$100. The minimum deposit to trigger this bonus is $25. This
bonus carries a 20x deposit-plus-bonus wagering requirement.
Repeat
customers can earn $25 once a week for making a deposit of
$100 or more. Each $25 bonus you earn is subject to a 20x
bonus wagering requirement.
New customers
who deposit $1,000 or more are eligible for a bonus award of
$500. The wager requirement is 20x the bonus plus deposit
amount, or a total of $30,000 in wagers, to clear the full
amount of the $500 bonus. Now you see why it’s considered a
high-roller bonus.
You can earn $50 for
each new customer you refer to the site who deposits a
minimum of $25 and downloads the casino software within a
week of signing up. Referrers are required to wager $1,250
before the entire $50 in bonus cash is cleared. Players can
refer an unlimited number of people to the site but can only
earn $250 a month in referral bonuses.
Europa Casino accepts a long list of deposit methods. I count
forty-five accepted deposit methods, listed with details like
mobile compatibility, average deposit time, available bonuses,
and compatible currency. It’s a beautiful table with lots of
useful details in an easy-to-read layout.
The deposit methods range from the universally-accepted
(PayPal, credit/debit cards, bank transfers) to methods only
available for citizens of a single country (Swiff, TrustPay,
DineroMail). Included is a long list of eWallets, prepaid cards,
and instant banking features.
Withdrawal methods are more limited.
Players are limited to $9,990 (or currency equivalent) in
withdrawals per month.
Here’s an overview of each of the game categories at Europa
Casino:
More than 200 total slot games are available on the site’s
download platform, with nearly that many also available in
“instant play” mode. Slots is the largest category of games –
and that makes sense, considering Europa Casino’s slot-friendly
bonuses.
Playtech has designed a bunch of slots with familiar licensed
themes. These are games based on popular films, TV shows, game
shows, and licensed characters. These slots are just as popular
online as they are at land-based venues. Titles like Iron Man 2,
Incredible Hulk, Gladiator, and Fantastic Four combine familiar
themes with Vegas-style slot play.
Europa is home to classic slots, video slots, and progressive
games. Classic slots have simpler rules and payout tables, fewer
reels and symbols, and little in the way of bonuses or extras.
They’re popular because they’re affordable, easy to learn, and
easy to play. Any other slot game is considered a video slot, so
named for the video and audio effects used to tell a story.
Progressive slots are any slot games with an ever-increasing top
prize.
Europa Casino hosts thirteen different Playtech-designed
roulette games, most of which are just variations in features
like table layout and graphics quality. Roulette lends itself to
a little bit of variation, and Europa covers American, European,
and French rules as well as a decent multi-wheel game. The rest
are just window dressing.
Rather than being a unique category featuring titles you
won’t find elsewhere on the site, the Progressive Games heading
is more like a place to gather up all the titles with jackpot
prizes so that fans of jackpot games can find them with a single
click of the mouse.
Sixty titles with some form of progressive jackpot are
gathered in this category. Some casino sites only offer
progressive prizes on slots – not so at Europa. They include
slot games, casino games, and at least one video poker title in
their jackpot library.
Europa hosts thirteen blackjack variants in this heading –
and as a fan of online blackjack, I was excited to see so many
different versions available.
I was surprised to see just four casino-style card games on
the menu. Casino-style poker is both popular and potentially
lucrative for the house, and lots of casino poker games are
available in both desktop- and mobile-friendly versions. That
said, I believe Europa picked four of the more popular casino
card games to offer, so I can’t fault them for that.
Scratch cards are becoming a big deal online – or, at least,
I’m seeing them more often at online gambling sites. Most of
these collections are sparse at best, with RTG casinos usually
hosting one or two different games. That’s not the case at
Europa Casino – there
is a complete list of forty-nine different lotto-style online
scratch card games available at Europa.
Most of the games gathered in the Video Poker heading are
line variants of Jacks or Better and Aces and Faces. The classic
variants – Deuces Wild, Joker Poker, Jacks or Better – are here,
but the variations outside of those classics are dull.
Europa Casino
P.O Box 1279
Makati Central Post Office 1252
Makati City, Philippines
Europa Casino has been around for over a decade, and it
offers a large download library of casino games in a variety of
categories. I’m not impressed by the bonus offers or terms, and
there’s the whole progressive jackpot withdrawal issue to worry
about.
On the other hand, they have a large library, an
easy-to-navigate site, and a number of currency and language
options to accommodate a variety of customers.
I’m put off enough by the inclusion on the blacklist
that I don’t think I’d make a deposit to this site. I’m no fan
of Playtech, but if you are, or if you’re into slot games, you
might consider opening an account here. Otherwise, I’m going to
stay neutral on Europa Casino.
Here Are Answers to the Most Common Questions I Get About Europa Casino:
Obviously they change all the time, so I recommend you check their
promotions page to see what offers are available. These bonuses
are worth a few percent of a deposit or a small rebate on losses.
It looks unlikely. A few years ago, it looked like the tide of gaming law
in America was changing, but all that change has stagnated. I
don’t see US law changing enough any time soon to be a welcome
home for a Euro-driven service like Europa Casino.
Yes, according to the site’s terms & conditions: “Any wagering
made at Europa Casino Mobile counts towards any ongoing bonuses
on the instant play or download versions.”
No, Europa Casino has their random number generator and other features tested by a
different group, called GLI.