Kingpin88 Casino

Kingpin88 Casino Review

This Kingpin isn’t the Marvel supervillain who often threatens Daredevil and Spider-Man – instead, it’s a casino from Thailand which has decided to accept international players, for whatever reason. Still, we’re not exactly ones to complain – a casino from a different country often does things very differently compared to how we’re used to, so we relish the opportunity to try out something new and, potentially, unique!

But still, being different isn’t enough! It’s also important for the casino to provide its players with great bonuses, a good variety of games, plenty of payment options and, of course, a safe and secure environment where they don’t need to worry about anything else except winning.

So, is this Kingpin a worthy adversary to the superhero in you, or is it only king of the fools?

Bonuses

Casino Commission – Up to 0.9% Weekly Cashback

Well, let’s start with the bad news – Kingpin88 Casino doesn’t offer its players any welcome bonus. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t offer any recurring, reload or limited time promotions, either. When we asked for something a little different, we certainly got our wish – but it also made us nostalgic for traditional online casinos in the process!

Instead, what you’ll be getting is only a weekly cashback every Monday. The casino calls it a “commission”, but it really has nothing to do with getting a commission and everything to do with them giving you back a portion of your losses as cash. To Kingpin88 Casino’s credit, at least this cashback doesn’t come with wagering requirements, meaning that it goes straight to your funds.

However, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine – not even for such an underwhelming bonus. In order to even take advantage of it in the first place, you’ll need to be at least level 1 in the VIP program. If you’re not a VIP member yet, you’re not getting any kind of bonus out of the casino, and even VIP 1 members will only get a 0.4% rebate. We can’t lie, that’s quite pathetic!

Games

Not every online casino needs a large selection of bonuses in order to be attractive – just look at real life casinos! They seldom offer any bonuses, but people come to them all the time. Why? For their games, of course! Why else?

So, is the situation the same at Kingpin88 Casino? Well… Kind of? The selection of games is undoubtedly really good, with a great amount of live casino providers and some real heavy hitters when it comes to the pokies section. Granted, table games are (mostly) missing in action, technically present but not really to an extent where a lot of players would pay much mind to them. Still, we can’t fault the casino too much for this, given that it makes up for it with its live section.

Putting those aside, Kingpin88 Casino also offers a very big sports betting section – albeit one tailored to the Asian market rather than our own (and understandably so). Beyond that, it also offers a category of games it labels “fishing” which appear to be an Asian-specific genre that we at casinoaustraliaonline.net, as a site that specializes in Australian casinos, are not too familiar with. But if you are, and it sounds like something you’d love to play – that counts for something!

Pokies

We were, generally speaking, pretty happy with the games selection at Kingpin88 Casino. Granted, the number of games isn’t anything to write home about (about 1000 games available overall, but since many of those are not available in Australia, so the actual number is hard to gauge). Despite this, though, we’ve got a pretty decent diversity of developers.

Of course, the big ones like Pragmatic Play, Play’N GO, Quickspin and Yggdrasil are all represented, with many of their games readily available! But there are also a lot of providers that are less well known, and yet whose games may still be to your liking. The casino encourages experimentation, and we certainly liked that about it.

Our biggest issue is that, as mentioned earlier, Kingpin88 Casino doesn’t really filter out its pokies by country – it doesn’t need to, as most of its user base is from Thailand, and the game selection reflects that. However, it doesn’t help us much here in Australia, having to scroll past games by NetEnt and Playtech without being able to actually play them!

Live casino

Overall, our impressions of the Kingpin88 Live Casino are very positive – although not without a few caveats. To start off with the positives: the diversity of software providers is just as impressive as the one in the pokies section, and while you won’t be able to play all of them from Australia (which is a bummer), there’s still enough here to leave an impression.

In total, over a dozen different companies have provided their games to Kingpin88 Casino, including Evolution Gaming, Pragmatic Live, Asia Gaming and eBet. Overall, not bad choices at all, and they certainly ensure that you’ll be able to play a ton of different games which are of mostly very high quality.

But, as previously mentioned, it’s not all good. One thing we noticed is that not all of a provider’s games are available at the casino. Even the most popular providers, like Evolution Gaming, are missing some downright essential games, and that can be very disappointing if you’re a veteran player who is looking for particular offerings upon sign-up.

Deposits & Withdrawals

While the games available at Kingpin88 Casino are quite good, they’re very much tailored to a Thai audience in terms of both genres and availability. And even if you can overlook that, it’s hard to do the same in regards to the casino’s payment options, which very much favor players from Thailand over those in Australia.

For one, the only currency that you can use to both deposit and withdrawal is the Thai baht. Australian dollars, alongside US dollars, euro or any other currency you can think of, are not accepted – and that includes cryptocurrencies. But even if that doesn’t bother you, pretty much every single deposit and withdrawal method available here is catered to Thailand. Most are Thai banks and financial institutions that aren’t even open to foreigners!

This is one of the reasons why it utterly perplexes us that Kingpin88 Casino even accepts international players. While it’s not impossible to deposit there (for example, via TrueMoney, who accept non-domestic accounts despite being a Thai organization), it’s also so difficult that it just doesn’t seem worthwhile. Especially since you can just go to a different casino and use your regular credit card or Neteller account.

Withdrawal time

It is very difficult to discuss the withdrawal time of Kingpin88 Casino in detail, given the fact that most of its payment methods are Thai banks. However, it’s important to note that international bank transfers are very slow, meaning that – even if you manage to somehow withdraw from a Thai bank into your own – you’re looking at a withdrawal time of at least 10-15 days.

VIP Program

When talking about the bonuses of Kingpin88 Casino, you may have heard us mention the casino’s VIP program – in regards to how you can only get any bonuses if you’re part of it. But how does that work? Well, the good news is that reaching the lowest stage of the program isn’t very hard, as all you’ll need to do is make a deposit once. That will unlock your weekly cashback, as well as a variety of other features, most of which are aimed at the sports betting section of the site (free bets, football predictions, etc).

But how do you ascend to the higher levels? Well, that’s where the bad news come in (because there’s always bad news with Kingpin88 Casino. While the Bronze and Silver levels are yours for life once you achieve them, if you want to hold onto the Gold, Platinum and Diamond levels (which is where the big bonuses lie), you’ll need to keep depositing huge sums every single month. Miss one, you go back to Silver.

We’ve seen this model of loyalty program several times, and we can never approve of it. It’s just a predatory way to force people to part with their money every month, not because they wish to play at the casino but because they don’t want to lose the VIP level they worked hard to maintain. A VIP program should be a way to reward loyal players, not an endless money pit!

Tournaments

Sadly, as of the time of writing, Kingpin88 Casino don’t really offer any tournaments. While they do have a “Tournament” button in the navigation bar at the very top of their page, that tab is completely empty and doesn’t feature any tournaments at all. This could mean that the casino in general no longer provides tournaments, or perhaps that they’re simply not available to Australian players. Either way, they’re absent, and players who are looking forward to participating in them should look for a different casino.

Verification

One of the most interesting things about reviewing a casino from a country we don’t usually cover is seeing just how it approaches verification! After all, the verification procedure is a process whose compliance is mostly forced by big international payment organizations (MasterCard, Visa, Skrill, etc), so when you only accept payments from local banks and Thai e-payment options, do the same laws even apply?

Naturally, they do! In fact, the verification of Kingpin88 Casino is far more thorough and in-depth than most casinos that operate from countries like Malta and Curacao. You’d still need to procure a lot of documents, such as a proof of ID and a proof of address, but on top of that, now you have to verify a bunch more things, too! For example, once you input your phone number, you’ll have to confirm that it’s yours with a text message.

Last, but not least, the casino’s staff may hold a videocall with you where you’ll need to answer a few questions and show them your physical identification (such as ID card or passport). Geez, is this a casino withdrawal or a job interview?

Is Kingpin88 Casino Legit & safe?

Another thing that’s very interesting to examine as a difference between international casinos is their approach to safety. Most of the casinos we review are licensed and regulated by an international gambling authority (mostly Curacao), which ensures that their operations are fair. If the casino has been found to be scamming its members, its license will be pulled – which means that casinos without licenses have nothing to lose, and are thus more dangerous to play at.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen that many casinos targeting the Australian market are not licensed, preferring instead to rely on the old-fashioned guarantee of “trust me, bro” – with limited success. And, if Kingpin88 is any indication, Thai casinos seem to be following suit, as the site is completely unlicensed and not regulated by anyone. This, in turn, makes it far more likely you’ll end up scammed, because you have no one to report to. And even if the casino is trustworthy, why take the risk?

Customer support

If you’re experiencing issues with Kingpin88 Casino, there’s no choice but to reach out to the support team and request their help. Luckily, there are many ways in which you can do that… Although admittedly, some are better than others.

Perhaps the most convenient would be to use the live chat function of the site, or to call their phone number. Normally, this would be recommended in order to get the fastest possible response. The problem here is that the default language of the support team is Thai, and it might take a little bit until you can come across an agent who speaks English.

As such, perhaps the best method to use would be to simply e-mail them. While the company uses a Gmail address, which is a little unprofessional, at the very least you’re much more likely to receive a reply in English than you are using most other methods.

Mobile casino

The mobile revolution has been upon us ever since Steve Jobs first unveiled the iPhone, and today, far more players prefer to play casino games on the go rather than at home on their computers! If you’re one of those players, well, Kingpin88 Casino may not be for you, because its mobile version is a bit of a mess.

The interface is extremely cluttered, and it becomes immediately clear that while the site technically supports being accessed on a mobile phone’s browser, it wasn’t actually intended for it. Furthermore, the pages load quite slowly, and on top of that, there are frequent pop-ups that overall make the experience of navigating it quite a chore. If you really must play at Kingpin88 Casino, do yourself a favor and try to enjoy it on desktop.