Drake Casino

Drake Casino Review

Drake Casino (not to be confused with the rapper, or the mythical creature) is a European gambling site that has been operating for over a decade now. Recently, they’ve opened their doors to a whole bunch of players, including Australians – and you know us, when we see the opportunity to review an online casino, we pounce on it!

Okay, so Australians can now play at Drake, but the question is, would they want to? That’s the answer we set out to discover as we delved into its European depths, determined to find out whether our neighbors from half a world away know how to make a good casino! To do this, we thoroughly evaluated all of its aspects, including its games, bonuses, special features, safety and more.

So, is Drake Casino a very welcome addition to the roster of Australia-friendly sites, or would we rather fight an actual drake (the rapper or the creature) than place a single bet there?

Bonuses

Match Welcome Bonus – 300% Match up to $2,000 per Deposit

As part of its pivot away from the European market and toward a more international one, Drake Casino have changed their payment options in order to focus more on cryptocurrencies rather than on flat ones. As a result, it only accepts one traditional currency as of the time of writing – US dollars. Please keep that in mind as we begin to explore its bonus options – we’re not talking about Australian dollars here!

Now that we got that out of the way, what are the actual bonuses here like? Well, to start off, you’re going to be treated to something pretty special – three separate bonuses, one for each of your first 3 deposits, each matching that deposit threefold! To be more precise, each of those 3 bonuses will grant you a 300% match up to $2,000, for a total of $6,000 in bonus funds if you decide to take full advantage of them.

However, the bonus may be ruined for some by an extremely high wagering requirement – you’ll need to wager each bonus x50 times in order to withdraw it, far above the average of x30-35 times! But while we understand that these high requirements may be very disappointing to some, it’s also important to note that others prefer to use their bonus just to try out the various pokies, with no real desire to withdraw it. Those players will probably be very pleased with this offering, but trust us, there’s one that’s even better for them!

Free Spins Welcome Bonus – Up to 540 Free Spins per Deposit

What if you don’t care about match deposits, and instead just want to have some fun with spins that you don’t need to think about too much? Well, Drake Casino’s got you! By depositing at least $25, you’ll be able to claim dozens, potentially hundreds of free spins over your first three deposits!

So, how exactly does it work? To help you make sense of it, we’ve compiled the bonus details into a neat little table, segregating it based on how many spins you’d get at each deposit level:

As you can see, the $25 package is the best deal in terms of monetary value, but it also has extremely capped withdrawable winnings, which may not be ideal if you’re feeling lucky. The games you can use your free spins on will also be different, so that’s another thing to consider when choosing your ideal bonus.

Whatever you pick, keep in mind that you’ll need to stick with it. Unfortunately, you can’t mix and match bonuses, and since you can get bonuses for your first 3 deposits, you’ll need to commit to your choice for the long haul – if you deposit $150 the first time and then $100 the second, you won’t get 120 spins, you will get 0, so be careful! Another thing to keep in mind is that once you use up the spins you’ll need to wager their winnings x50 times before you can withdraw.

Crypto Welcome Bonus – 350% Match up to $500 per Deposit

The bonus giving you a 300% match up to $2,000 is only for depositing via card or bank transfer – but what if you want to deposit via Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple or Litecoin? Well, putting down at least $15 in crypto will reward you with a bonus that has both advantages and disadvantages compared to the flat currency one.

For starters, you’ll be getting a bigger match, 350% as opposed to just 300%. On the flipside, your maximum bonus will be limited to just $500, which should certainly put a frown on the face of any high-roller who enjoy getting giant bonuses.

Regardless of how much you claim from your crypto bonus, you’ll need to wager it x50 times in order to withdraw it, just like the other welcome packages – but also like them, you’ll be able to receive it 3 different times, over your first 3 deposits.

Reload Promotions at Drake Casino

Regardless of which of the welcome packages you pick, you’ll only have three bonuses to claim, and that’s it… Right? Not so fast! Once your three deposit bonuses have been made, you’ll be able to take advantage of many more offers. The only condition (besides having already made 3 deposits) is that you need to have $10 or less in your account to claim an offer.

We won’t go into too much detail, but suffice to say, Drake Casino offers a cornucopia of different promotions you can receive as many times as you want! There are weekly promos that will let you get a 75% match bonus or dozens of free spins, limited-time promotions like “Slot of the Week” that will give you extra winnings, even a cashback feature! We’d have to fill out our entire review with just descriptions of the various bonuses the site offers if we were to describe them, that’s how many there are!

Honestly, between the great choice of welcome bonus and the myriad of regular promotions, we can’t help but feel highly impressed by Drake Casino’s bonuses. Granted, they’re not perfect (that x50 wagering requirement is still quite lofty), but we’re sure that a lot of players will be able to overcome their imperfections.

Games

We’ve made it no secret that we really enjoy Drake Casino’s bonuses – but a casino with bad bonuses and great games is still much better than the alternative! So, how does it fare at the moment? Unfortunately, our research determind that the answer is “not so great”. We at casinoaustraliaonline.net always make it a point to judge casinos on what they are, not on what we think they should be – but no matter how you look at it, Drake Casino’s games are pretty scarce.

Starting with what it has, it’s a handful of pokies and juuuuuuust enough live casino games to qualify as a “live dealer section”. You’ll also find a few one-off titles (like a single specialty game or a handful of table games), but really, there’s just not much content here. You also won’t find any sports betting or other casino activities, like bingo or lotteries for example. Overall, there isn’t much to do here, and that’s a problem no amount of bonuses can solve.

Pokies

To put it plainly – we weren’t impressed by Drake Casino’s collection of pokies. Most online casinos will give you thousands of different pokies from dozens of different providers, while Drake Casino will only boast a few hundred to its name, most from very unknown or niche providers. It’s just not going to be enough to satisfy anyone but the absolute beginners.

One thing we liked about this section is that there are a whole lot of options to filter out the content – some might even say, too many. You can arrange them by jackpot, provider, feature, filter them out by game type (like just pokies without any table games) and more. It’s honestly some pretty decent design, but with just a few hundred pokies, it’s also quite wasted.

Live casino

If you thought the pokies were underwhelming and a disappointment, we’re afraid we’ve got some bad news. There are barely any live dealer rooms available here to play – as of the time of writing, we count only seven, and three of them are dedicated to roulette. As for the others, two are blackjack, and baccarat and hold’em have one each. This is it.

If you were hoping to play games like craps, sic bo, dragon tiger, andar bahar, teen patti or any others that aren’t as popular as blackjack or roulette… Well, look for another casino. We have no idea whether this is a consequence of Australian players being more limited than European ones or if Drake Casino’s live offerings are tame for everyone, but it’s disappointing nonetheless.

Deposits & Withdrawals

Sadly, the deposit and withdrawal methods available (or not available) at Drake Casino are yet another disappointment. We already knew going into it that the casino has shifted its focus and orientated itself towards crypto, and that’s not something that is good or bad, it’s just something that is. However, it is absolutely bad for a crypto casino to provide players with a mere 4 crypto methods to deposit and withdraw with. Not even Ethereum and Tether are available!

If you aren’t feeling the crypto vibes, no worries, you can still deposit using your card or bank account. This is about where our compliments for Drake Casino’s payment options begin and end, because it’s also worth noting that, to withdraw, you need $100 in your winnings account. This is an outrageous amount, especially considering that you can deposit as little as $15. If you do, you’ll need to win nearly 7 times your deposit to withdraw!

Withdrawal time

The casino presents you with the option to deposit with either crypto or your card, and you’ll also need to withdraw into the same method you selected for deposit. That, in turn, will affect the speeds of withdrawal.

If you just want to get your money as soon as possible, then withdrawing with crypto is the way to go – after a few days of processing time on the casino’s end, your money will be dispatched into your crypto wallet and you’ll be able to use them in stores that accept crypto or sell them.

On the other hand, a withdrawal into your bank account may be more convenient when it comes to the end result, but it’ll also take up to 10 days, especially when you account for Drake Casino’s own processing time.

VIP Program

We went at length about Drake Casino’s many, many bonuses, for both new and existing players – but sometimes, that simply isn’t enough! What about the existing players who have been loyal to the site for months, maybe even years – sure, they can still take advantage of the reload promotions, but shouldn’t they get something extra?

Drake Casino themselves agree, and have prepared a simple, yet still quite welcome VIP program to show its most loyal players a little appreciation. That program is divided into 10 levels, starting from “Ivory” all the way up to “Red Diamond”. All players begin at “Ivory” upon signing up, then go to “Onyx” once they complete their first deposit, and finally reach “Platinum” once they make their 4th deposit.

The rest of the levels can be achieved by placing wagers, and trust us, you’re going to want to do that – while the rewards aren’t anything mindblowing, you’d still be getting increasingly better rewards, including an extra weekly match bonus that goes up to 200% and an automatic bonus on every single deposit you make (at any point, not just once a week) that goes up to 100%.

Tournaments

We’ve been a bit hard on Drake Casino throughout this review, and trust us, it’s not because we have some bias against it. We just tell things as we see them. Case in point: its tournament system, which is really great! We can’t twist our hearts and say that it’s not when it’s genuinely really fun.

At any point you’ll have over half a dozen tournaments to choose from, as more and more of them keep being added every single day.

Verification

While many crypto casinos have chosen to abandon the process of verification in recent years, the same doesn’t apply to Drake Casino – if you want to withdraw, you’ll have to verify your identity. Luckily, the process is very simple.

When you attempt to execute a withdrawal for the first time, the casino staff will lock your account and urge you to send a few documents in order to be verified. Those documents include a proof of identity (like your passport) and a proof of current address (like a bank statement). If you deposited with a credit card or a bank transfer you’ll need to verify ownership of those methods too, but luckily crypto deposits are not verified.

Once you send photos or scans of every important document it’s the casino’s turn. They’ll verify your account, or let you know if something in your documents isn’t in order – either way, you’ll soon receive a response to your e-mail.

Is Drake Casino Legit & safe?

Legitimacy and safety are two of the biggest concerns when it comes to not just Drake Casino, but any online gambling site. After all, who cares about how much you win if the casino will just scam you and not let you see a cent of those winnings, right? That’s why it’s pivotal to always check the site you’re planning to join thoroughly.

That’s precisely what we did as we examined Drake Casino, and unfortunately, the results were not particularly great. For starters, the site is completely unlicensed and has an unknown owner – something that is a big no-no even for us Aussies, but is especially bad in Europe, the market the site was focused on. Considering the tight regulations of countries like UK and Germany, unlicensed casinos can’t even operate there, which means that Drake Casino was excluded from the biggest casino markets.

There is another possibility – that the casino used to have a license, but has since lost it, or has even been sold off to another company. Looking at the timeline of user-submitted reviews, ones submitted this year are significantly more negative than those submitted a few years ago, which leads us to believe that a major shift has happened. Either way, this is not what one would call a green flag.

Customer support

If there’s something strange in your online casino, who you gonna call? No, not the Ghostbusters, but the casino support team, you weirdo! Luckily, you can do precisely that at Drake Casino, as their support agents can be reached by phone – a rarity these days!

If phone conversations aren’t your thing, you can also connect with them via live chat or e-mail, both of which are stated to be a 24/7 option – which means that despite their international location you should still be able to get an answer to your inquiries pretty quickly.

Mobile casino

It would’ve been weird if Drake Casino didn’t support mobile play, right? After all, most players prefer to spin pokies through their phones, and we ourselves conduct much of our research with the casino’s mobile version for this precise reason. Alas, while Drake does support mobile play, it doesn’t do it very well.

The site’s design is a little outdated and clunky, so it just doesn’t fit the form factor or limited memory of a phone as well as a new, shiny site designed specifically for mobile would. We often found it to be slow or to display graphical glitches that required zooming in or out to find certain elements. Technically, it’s functional – you can do anything on it that you could on your desktop. It’s just not very good.