Near Casino

Near Casino Review

We’ve seen a sharp spike in cryptocasinos these past few years, which makes sense. Not only has crypto in general been on the rise, but also, setting up a casino that primarily accepts Bitcoin and Ethereum over credit cards and e-wallet is surprisingly easy, and a lot of wanna-be entrepreneurs have tried to get a piece of the pie.

Near Casino tries to be a bit different from its contemporaries by being hosted on the Near network. In theory, this means much faster withdrawals and more options for games that wouldn’t be possible on a regular casino. It’s a sound idea in theory, but ultimately, the concept of a casino matters for us far less than the games, promotions, and safety of it.

So, should you keep Near Casino always near you, or is it not Near-ly as good as it sounds?

Bonuses

It’s not at all unusual for an online casino to offer bonuses to its players – we’d say it’s downright expected, even! Pretty much every casino we’ve ever reviewed has offered at least a welcome bonus that a player can claim once they sign up, and many of them offer additional incentives, like recurring promotions or limited-time bonuses.

Well, Near Casino plays by its own rules by… Not doing any of that. Indeed: you will not receive a single bonus for depositing at Near Casino, not even something small like some free spins. There is nothing here to entice you or win your loyalty in any way.

While we certainly admire Near Casino for carving its own path, said path is also not exactly optimal for most players, especially those who would like to deposit a smaller amount and double it with a bonus until they feel comfortable with the casino. Why Near Casino made this choice is a mystery, but it’s not bound to win them many favors with prospective players, especially in the face of nearly every other online casino out there.

Games

Even though the bonus offerings of Near Casino aren’t great, they’re also not the most important part of a gambling site. That is, of course, the games – and, to Near’s credit, the collection they’re offering is actually really good.

To start off with the positives, the casino offers a vast collection of games among a wide variety of genres. While its primary focus are pokies, it also doesn’t neglect table games, live games and even casual games like Minesweeper and Plinko. It’s an overall very cool collection, and the fact that Near also has a dedicated sports betting section on top of it only furthers its appeal.

Now, one thing that’s certainly worth pointing out, which we discovered during our testing, is that some of the games will not work for Aussie players. This is a little strange because Near Casino, as far as we can tell, does filter out most games that are not available to Australia, meaning that you won’t even see them when you log in. Still, some appear to have slipped between the cracks, and although it’s more than likely a technical issue, it was worth bringing up.

Pokies

We were very happy with the selection of pokies available at Near Casino. Granted, it’s not so big that you’d get swarmed by dozens upon dozens of providers that you haven’t heard of – it’s more curated than that, with less providers, but ones that offer better, more recognizable games. A true quality-over-quantity approach, which we certainly find very welcome!

Among those providers are big names like Pragmatic Play (creators of titles like “Gates of Olympus” and “The Dog House”), Play’N GO (creators of “Book of Dead” and “Rich Wilde”) and Nolimit City (creators of “Mental” and “Book of Shadows”). Regardless of whether this is your first time at an online casino or you’re an experienced gambler, you’ll still find plenty to enjoy here!

Live casino

Just like the pokies section, the live casino version of Near Casino is honestly very good. It features about 100 different rooms from 5 different live providers, including Evolution Gaming and Pragmatic Live, which are largely considered to be the best when it comes to live casino gaming. So that’s certainly one hell of a selection.

Between them, you’ll be able to gain access to a whole ton of great casino games, not just the big popular ones like roulette, baccarat and blackjack, but also much smaller titles like craps or sic bo. In addition, Evolution’s amazing game shows, such as Deal or No Deal and Dream Catcher, are all fully available (including to Australian players), and they’re well worth your time.

Deposits & Withdrawals

We have to give Near Casino this – their games are top notch. But if you can’t deposit, you can’t play, and you can’t win. So while we did say that the games are the most important thing in a casino, there is an argument to be made that the payment methods are more important. And this is where Near Casino falters in a big time.

The casino does not accept Australian dollars. It doesn’t accept US dollars either, or any other currency. It doesn’t accept Bitcoin, or Ethereum, or Dogecoin. So how, pray tell, may one even deposit there in the first place? Using Tether. Yep, that’s it, just USDT. Due to the way the casino functions, you’ll only be able to deposit and withdraw in that one currency. If you have no interest in it, then Near Casino isn’t for you. Plain and simple.

Withdrawal time

While only having one method for deposits and withdrawals available isn’t exactly an ideal situation, there is an upside to it – at least withdrawals are all processed fairly quickly. USDT is a relatively quick cryptocurrency, and theoretically, you should have your winnings in your wallet within a few hours after the transfer has been dispatched – usually within just a few minutes.

With that said, though, it’s important to note that this is all just theoretical. In practice, the actual withdrawal time may vary wildly, as the casino does not appear to have an active team to handle withdrawals and customer support. As such, don’t be surprised if your winnings don’t end up arriving on time… Or at all.

VIP Program

It’s not at all uncommon to find online casinos that provide their players with large and elaborate VIP programs, like the kind that let you level up in order to unlock new features, or let you collect points that can be exchanged for real money. This is usually done to encourage player loyalty – something that we believe Near Casino should prioritize, given their lack of bonuses.

With that said, it seems that Near themselves disagree with us there, because they’re not currently providing their players with anything resembling a VIP program. While under normal circumstances we wouldn’t really hold that against it, we also can’t help but notice that the casino is struggling with offering a wide assortment of features. A VIP program would have been an easy and fun way to alleviate that problem, but alas!

Tournaments

Tournaments – especially for pokies – have become incredibly popular in recent years, to the point where we’ve seen feedback from many players who swear that they won’t even consider playing at an online casino unless they can climb leaderboards. And if you’re one of those players, we must regretfully inform you that Near Casino will not have what you’re looking for.

It’s honestly rather odd that the creators of the casino haven’t even considered tournaments, especially given the wide variety of pokies available there. Still, the fact remains that, should you choose to sign up for Near Casino, you’ll only be able to play those games in the traditional way. The same holds true for non-pokie tournaments, for example for blackjack, poker or other live games.

Verification

Every legitimate online casino requires its players to verify their identities. This process is done for legal reasons, and it’s just like paying taxes: nobody likes it, but ultimately, it’s done for the greater good, at least in theory. By verifying your identity, you can confirm that you’re not someone who is currently involved with financial fraud (for example, involved with money laundering), and as a result help keep the casino as a whole much safer for yourself and your fellow players.

However, Near Casino isn’t concerned with such trivial matters like “safety” and “legality”. And granted, it kind of doesn’t need to be, because these money laundering laws are put into place only for casinos that accept flat currencies, like for example through bank cards and bank transfers. Since Near only takes crypto, it’s not technically obligated to verify anyone. The casino still claims that it will if it notices “suspicious activity” (whatever that means), but beyond that, the lack of verification is advertised as a feature, not an omission.

While this might make Near Casino a decent place to launder money, it also makes it rather unsafe for regular players, and as such we can’t really recommend that you engage in it.

Is Near Casino Legit & safe?

Some online casinos will sport a few red flags that they aren’t exactly as safe and legitimate as they present themselves. Under normal circumstances, even one or two of these red flags should be enough to deter you from signing up for a casino. Now imagine our reaction when we discovered that Near Casino has more red flags than mainland China.

To start off, the casino doesn’t have a license at all. This, unfortunately, is very common with cryptocasinos, since a lot of them were made very quickly and… Well, to put it bluntly, without an awful lot of effort. Near Casino is no exception, and it appears that its creators haven’t deemed it fit to hold themselves accountable for their players’ safety by going through a certification procedure.

But who are its owners, anyway? Well, that’s the other big unknown. The site itself will not tell you this information, and our own investigation has failed to produce any decent results. We’ve found information linking the casino to an NV titled OwlDoe Network, but the casino also undeniably shares a design with DogeChain, another crypto casino that is operated by Cyber Galaxy BV.

It’s possible that both of those entities are one and the same (just under different names) and they’re the ones behind Near, but it is also possible that they’re completely unrelated, or that the information is false and Near Casino is operated by someone else. Ultimately, we just don’t have enough information to make a definitive claim, hence why we can’t in good conscience endorse the casino or claim that it’s legitimate.

Customer support

Given what we just wrote about Near Casino being very unsafe, it’s only natural to be curious about the support options. After all, what better way to learn more about the casino than by speaking with the people directly in charge of it, right? Easy peasy!

Well, except for the small detail that the casino doesn’t actually offer any customer support at all. No, this isn’t some kind of oversight on our part, we really can confirm that it is not possible to chat with the support team, call them, or even send a simple e-mail. If you’re experiencing difficulties with it, like unsent withdrawals, well… Too bad. Good luck, sucker!

We at casinoaustraliaonline.net take this very seriously, and we absolutely can not endorse any casino that doesn’t have at least the bare minimum when it comes to customer support. There are just too many things that could go wrong and which would require staff intervention, and the idea that you might not even receive your winnings and there would be no one at all you can contact about this should definitely scare you.

Mobile casino

The mobile design of Near Casino isn’t awfully different from its desktop counterpart, which makes sense given that even on desktop, its design is relatively simple and more reliant on speed rather than flashy effects.

Just like with most online casinos, you can access the mobile version of Near Casino just by opening the site on your phone’s browser, without the need for downloading an external app. Despite this, the mobile version of the site is quite fast and responsive, so it almost feels like you’ve downloaded a dedicated app, but without sacrificing valuable space on your phone.

While our overall impressions of Near Casino aren’t exactly positive, its mobile version is certainly one of its highlights.