JB Casino

JB Casino Review

When a casino tends to change its domain very often (like, for example, CasinoName becomes CasinoName777, then Casino-Name, then Casino-Name777, etc), that’s usually a very bad sign – for both the site and its players. But some casinos have been able to rise above that, and JB Casino is one of them.

Founded in the Philippines this year, the site has since attracted quite the Australian audience, and has managed to retain it despite changing its domain several times. Naturally, we were intrigued, and decided to investigate it and compile our findings in this thorough review of the casino’s features, bonuses, games and payment options!

So, is it worth sticking around after all, or are you better off ‘forgetting’ the URL?

Bonuses

No Deposit Bonus – 88php and a Golden Egg

JB Casino doesn’t have a welcome bonus of any sort, as far as we can see. Instead, it offers a no deposit bonus of 88php and a Golden Egg (which is, essentially, a small number of free spins) to anyone who signs up and verifies their account.

Keep in mind that this initial verification is not the same as the one you’ll need to go through when you’re withdrawing (where you’ll need to present your proof of ID and address). Instead, you’ll simply need to verify your phone number with a text and then add your GCash ID to the system.

But that’s not all. You’ll also need to share JB Casino’s Facebook page to your profile and tag at least 5 friends, and then send a screenshot to support. Only then will you receive your no deposit bonus. While we think that no deposit bonuses are neat, this is just way too much effort for less than AU$2.50 and a few spins.

JB’s Lucky Day Roulette

JB Casino offers a few recurring promotions that tend to change depending on the season. Their only permanent fixture is the Lucky Day Roulette offer, which lets you gain a bonus twice a month. As long as you deposit at least 1,000 php between the 1st and 3rd of the month OR 16th and 18th, you’ll receive a bonus of up to 1,500 php. While this is a percentage match, we unfortunately were not able to verify the exact percentage.

Despite its name, the Lucky Day Roulette Bonus doesn’t actually restrict you to just play roulette, you can use it on anything. However, you’ll have to wager it 20x times before you’ll be able to withdraw it. Keep in mind that if you request a rebate (for example, as part of the VIP program) you’ll only get it on your deposit amount, not your bonus amount.

Games

There’s no doubt about it – the diversity of games available at JB Casino is by far one of its strongest features. From the moment you open the casino’s page, you’ll be practically bombarded with over half a dozen different categories of titles that you can place bets on.

Of course, everyone knows pokies and table games, those are a given for every casino. But did you know you can participate in lotteries? Or play bingo? You can even bet on sports, including e-sports like League of Legends! Various tournaments (such as for poker) are also available in case you want to test your mettle against other top players.

Pokies

While not perfect, the selection of pokies available at JB Casino is still rather satisfactory. Once you sign up, you’ll be able to play the offerings of some very popular slot providers, such as Play’N GO, Yggdrasil and Playson. Their games, including “Rise of Olympus”, “Atlantis Megaways” and the legendary “Book of Dead”, are known around the world and popular enough to be actively sought out by new and experienced gamblers alike.

The issue is that most of the other providers are relatively unknown. We personally doubt that the games of companies like JDB, Royal Slot and Bigpot Gaming are going to sell a ton of people on signing up for an account. We’re not saying that pokies like “Funky King Kong”, “Lost Treasure” and “Spinosaurus” are bad… But they certainly have a bit of an aura of being second-rate.

This is exemplified best in the games offered by AMB, most of which use copyrighted characters that they almost certainly don’t have permission to use, given that all of their pokies have made-up names like “Angry Win” (Angry Birds), “Guardian Wizard” (Harry Potter) and “Ho, Yes! Yellow!” (Minions). This kind of thing doesn’t exactly spark confidence in the average player.

Live casino

The live casino offerings at the casino are a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, you’ll get access to many of Evolution Gaming’s best live games, which is actually a big deal. We firmly believe that EG are among the top live casino providers, perhaps at the very top, and so having those games available will undoubtedly bring players hours upon hours of entertainment.

But the rest of the live games providers are… Odd. Not only are they very unknown, but they also seem more focused on gimmicks and cute dealers than actual high-quality games. And with names like Sexy Casino and Pretty Gaming, you’ll know exactly what to expect when you start them up. Maybe these brands are huge in the Philippines, and we’re simply uncultured for not recognizing them, but we doubt many Aussies would, either.

If Evolution Gaming is enough for you, then you’re probably going to have a good enough time at JB Casino’s live section. If not, well… We wouldn’t get our hopes up for anything better.

Deposits & Withdrawals

What’s the most important part of an online casino? Is it the games? The promotions? The interface? Wrong! Actually, it’s the deposit methods! And if you’re wondering why, well, it’s because if you can’t deposit at the casino, you can’t access any of it! It could have the best promotions ever and the greatest variety of games, and you’re still not going to be able to touch it if you can’t place a deposit, right?

As such, we’re sad to say that JB Casino fails rather spectacularly. Most online casinos will offer you a bunch of deposit methods, like e-wallets, pre-paid vouchers and various crypto currencies. Some will only offer you a few methods, like debit cards. JB Casino, however, will only allow you to deposit through a service known as GCash.

GCash may be big in the Philippines, but for us Aussies, it’s hardly a household name, so we sincerely doubt most of you have an account. And, if you don’t want to make one, well, you can’t play at the casino. Simple as that – and disappointing on top of it.

Withdrawal time

Since there’s only one method available for both deposit and withdrawals, it’s relatively easy to estimate the withdrawal time – and the good news is that it should be relatively quick. According to the site, JB Casino’s team will dispatch your winnings as soon as your request is approved (which might take a few days in and of itself).

Once they’re dispatched, they should arrive into your GCash account within the same day, or the next day at the latest. E-wallet transfers are generally very fast, so unless something has gone very wrong, you won’t be separated from your money for long. However, if you decide to withdraw from your GCash account into your bank account (a process that the casino isn’t involved in), it might take a few more days for everything to clear.

VIP Program

In order to retain their players’ loyalty, many online casinos will offer a special program that gives them unique privileges the longer they stay signed up – and the more they play. JB Casino is no exception, as they’ve concocted an elaborate program that allows you to gain bonuses and cashbacks the more you play.

This program isn’t by any means unique to JB Casino, as many other casino sites will let you level up by placing bets. However, what JB does differently is that, on top of having to bet, you also need to have deposited above a certain threshold in order to level up. This isn’t exactly great, because it means having to actively keep giving money to the casino rather than relying solely on your skill and luck to level up.

This is how much you’ll need to deposit and wager at each level, as well as what bonus and cashback you’ll receive for leveling up:

(All depicted amounts are in php, the only currency JB Casino accepts. As of the time of writing, AU$1 = 38 php)

If depositing over AU$130,000 and betting AU$1.3m to get less than AU$2,000 in total bonuses sounds like a bad deal… That’s because it really is. And while the 50% cashback at the end of the road is pretty good, we honestly can’t say that getting there is worth it at all.

Tournaments

When it comes to JB Casino’s tournaments, we have some good news and some bad news. Let’s get the bad news out of the way – the casino does not currently offer any pokie tournaments, as of the time of this writing. We know that this is going to be a huge disappointment for a lot of people, as playing pokies in a competitive setting has gotten very popular lately, but we’ll be sure to update our review if the situation changes.

As for the good news – JB Casino actually offers poker tournaments, which is extremely rare in the realm of online casinos. Usually, poker (when played against other people, at least) is reserved for separate websites, just like sports betting is. It’s very unusual to find a dedicated casino site that also lets you play poker against other players, and not just against an AI opponent.

While it’s very understandable that many will be disappointed by the lack of slot tournaments, we have to say that the surprising addition of PVP Poker more than makes up for it!

Verification

Every online casino that processes traditional payments (so, pretty much 99.9% of them) is mandated by law to verify the identity of its players. This applies regardless of which country the casino is registered at and what currencies it accepts, as it’s done to combat money laundering and other criminal activity by bad actors looking to misuse the casino rather than enjoy it.

While JB Casino’s website offers very little information on how the verification process works, we can confirm that it is, in fact, present there and you’ll encounter it sooner rather than later. Most likely, you’ll trigger it automatically the moment you first attempt to withdraw your winnings for the first time.

When that happens, you’ll need to present the following documents to the casino’s support team:

• Proof of identity (for example, a national ID card, passport or driver’s license)
• Proof of current address (such as a recent utility bill or delivery receipt)
• Proof of payment method ownership (namely, a screenshot from your GCash interface)

While additional documents may also be required depending on circumstances, most players will just need to submit these three things in order to confirm their account. After that, they’ll be able to request a withdrawal once again.

Is JB Casino Legit & safe?

It is incredibly vital for any casino that you intend to play at to be licensed by a certified gaming authority – for example, Malta or Curacao. Not only is it strictly illegal for players from Australia to bet on unlicensed online casinos, but they’re also far more likely to be scammed when playing there. The license (and the threat of it being revoked should the casino misbehave) is often the only thing that keeps casino sites on the straight and narrow.

At first glance, it would appear that JB Casino are in the clear – after all, they’ve got not one, not two, but three distinct licenses. That means they must be three times as trustworthy, right? They claim to have been certified by Malta, the British Virgin Isles and the Philippines, and while we haven’t come across many online casinos that are licensed by the latter two authorities (as they often don’t accept Aussies), we believe that a Malta license is reliable and a great indication that the casino is trustworthy.

So, what’s the problem? Well, we at casinoaustraliaonline.net always investigate the licenses thoroughly, because when we tell you that a casino is licensed, we want to be sure we’re telling the truth. But over the course of our investigation, we simply didn’t find any evidence that the licenses exist. They appear to be linked in the footer of the page, but clicking them does nothing, and when we examine the source of the page, there aren’t actually any links embedded in the images.

This means that not only are JB Casino most unlikely unlicensed, but they’re also lying about it and deliberately creating a deceptive website interface to trick people into thinking that the licenses just aren’t loading for whatever reason. This is unbelievably shady and a red flag the size of Mars!

Customer support

Few people suspect just how vital an online casino’s support team truly is. When something breaks, or your payment doesn’t go through, your only hope would be to reach out and make sure that the dedicated customer support can tell you. Which is why we were so disappointed by JB Casino’s support.

The first thing that sticks out is that there is no option to e-mail them – none that we could find, at least. Instead, their website explicitly asks players to reach out to them on Facebook to get support, which is honestly very unusual and a little unprofessional. What if you need to share personal details that shouldn’t be out in public, or don’t have a Facebook account? Not to mention, Facebook doesn’t permit casino content, so this page is bound to be wiped eventually – what happens to your support ticket then?

If you’d like to avoid that, your only other option is live chat. And while that’s all well and good, it’s not enough. At the barest minimum, all casinos should have at least a dedicated support e-mail, and there is no excuse why JB Casino is sending their players to Facebook instead.

Mobile casino

Much like most online casinos out there, JB Casino provide their players with full functionality on mobile devices – which they should, given just how many players prefer to play on their phones or tablets rather than through their desktop computers!

In all honesty, the mobile version of the casino is really good! You don’t need to download an app in order to play from a mobile device, which isn’t too surprising, as that’s how most casinos do it. But what did surprise us was that the mobile version is completely redesigned, with a brand new layout and different game configurations compared to the desktop version.

In our experience, the mobile app is quite fast and responsive, and it loaded practically any game that we tested. While JB Casino itself isn’t without its flaws, its mobile version certainly isn’t among them.