ShinyWilds Casino

ShinyWilds Casino Review

Online casinos are, in some ways, just like alcohol. Sometimes, we want to experiment with a new and exciting cocktail that mixes old ingredients in a fun and new way. Other times, we just want a familiar bottle of supermarket wine to sip on during a cozy dinner. Just because we’re in the mood for one doesn’t mean the other is bad.

Well, ShinyWilds Casino certainly aims to be the supermarket wine of online casinos (look at us at casinoaustraliaonline.net – purveyors of online casinos and bestowers of questionable compliments). But, like we said, this could be exactly what many of us need – but is it good enough? To find out, we decided to dive deep into it and explore its games, payment options, bonuses and other aspects, then review each part in thorough detail.

So, does ShinyWilds Casino provide this comforting, nostalgic flavor, or is it the casino equivalent of prison wine?

Bonuses

Welcome Bonus – 100% Match up to AU$500 + 200 Free Spins

There’s nothing quite like a good welcome bonus to draw you to a new online casino. And the casinos themselves know it, too – that’s why they promote them on their landing pages and make sure it’s the first thing new players can see. As such, it’s honestly a bit disappointing that this ever-important first impression isn’t the best at ShinyWilds Casino.

That’s not to say that the bonus is terrible or anything, especially if you’re a fan of free spins. When you make your first deposit of at least AU$10, you’ll automatically be granted 200 spins in batches of 20 over 10 days, which is nothing to scoff at for fans of pokies! However, the main body of the bonus (a 100% match up to AU$500) doesn’t really live up to the promise of the spins. The percentage is too low for casual players, and the maximum isn’t enough for high rollers.

On top of that, this bonus comes with some incredibly lofty wagering requirements – x50 to be precise, for both the complete amount (deposit + bonus) and the free spins winnings. For reference, most online casinos only have a wagering requirement of about x30-35, and there are some that go even lower. A requirement of x50 within 7 days is almost impossible to achieve.

Additional Welcome Bonuses – Up to AU$1,500 + 150 Free Spins

While the first deposit bonus is, indeed, a touch bit disappointing, the good news is that you’ll be able to claim two more bonuses as part of ShinyWilds Casino’s welcome package. That’s right – the second and third time you place a deposit, you’ll receive a fresh new bonus! But are they any good?

Well, your second deposit will net you a mere 75% match bonus up to AU$500, and only 100 free spins – so already a bit of a downgrade. The third deposit bonus is a bit complicated: while you’ll only be getting a mere 50 free spins this time, your match percentage is back up to 100%, and your maximum bonus is the highest it’s ever been: AU$1,000.

Let’s face it, if you didn’t like the first deposit bonus, chances are you’re not really going to fall for this one, either. But if you’re a high roller who wanted to put a really big deposit (and enjoy the benefits of it), you might actually get a kick out of this final deposit bonus. Just don’t forget about the hefty wagering requirements, as you’ll still need to wager it x50 times.

Reload Promotions at ShinyWilds Casino

Okay, okay – when we said that you can get your “final” bonus above, we didn’t mean that final in general, just the last one in that bonus package. As a matter of fact, ShinyWilds Casino offers a plethora of reload promotions that you can claim as many times as you want, so here, there’s no such thing as a “final bonus”!

While we won’t go too deep into the specifics of these bonuses (as more may be added, or existing ones may be removed in the future), we’ll bring a few of them up very quickly.

What bonus you’ll get depends entirely on what day of the week you’ve chosen to deposit on. For example, on Monday you’ll get a 25% match bonus up to AU$100. Meanwhile, on a Thursday you’ll snatch up a much bigger 50% match, but only up to AU$50, which makes it perfect for a little deposit here and there.

Granted, none of those bonuses are amazing, but at the same time, it’s important to keep things into perspective: these are not welcome bonuses, they’re reload promotions you can claim an unlimited amount of times. As such, it’s only natural they wouldn’t be amazing, and for what it’s worth, they’re good enough for what they are.

Games

Bonuses are one thing, but we all know that what players are truly here for are the games, right? So, how does ShinyWilds Casino handle its arguably most important element? Well… The answer will depend on what you’re here for. The main thing that the site has focused on is pokies, and granted, they’re great – we’ll get into that more in a bit.

But if you’re someone who enjoys other aspects of gambling, like table games, sports betting, bingo or even newer advances like crypto games and skill-based pokies, you’ll probably end up being a bit disappointed. Most of these things aren’t even present at ShinyWilds Casino at all, so if you were feeling more experimental, this probably isn’t the site for you.

Pokies

We absolutely fell in love with ShinyWilds Casino’s pokies section! It’s exceptionally rare to find an online casino that offers such a wide diversity of titles, all of which are available to Australian players. Usually sites will either only have titles from a few providers, or, even worse, most of the providers will not have made their games available to Aussie players, leading you to an error when you try to play them.

ShinyWilds Casino, however, offers the games of nearly 60 providers, and every single one of them is available here in Australia! Of course, it’s entirely possible that the real selection is much bigger and we’re just not being shown the unavailable games, but you’d never notice given the spectacular diversity of titles here! BGaming, Yggdrasil, LuckyStreak, Booming Games and many other classics are all here, alongside plenty of more obscure developers just waiting to be discovered!

Live casino

Sadly, the live casino section of ShinyWilds Casino isn’t nearly as good as its pokies. Where before we saw a grand diversity of all sorts of games from dozens of different companies, as far as the live section is concerned, you’ll primarily be playing blackjack and roulette in the company of Swintt and LuckyStreak. In total, there are less live rooms here than there are pokie providers.

Funnily enough, most of the “live” rooms are actually dedicated to sports betting, namely horse racing and virtual sports. Besides them, you’ll find a handful of rooms each dedicated to blackjack and roulette each, as well as a few where you can play baccarat or keno. That’s really about all there is in this live section – overall, a profound disappointment!

Deposits & Withdrawals

Our overall impressions of ShinyWilds Casino’s payment options are positive, albeit not without certain criticisms. For starters, you’ll be able to deposit using a wide diversity of payment types: bank cards, bank transfer, e-wallets or pre-paid solutions. The negative here is that this diversity in types hasn’t translated to a variety of payment methods, as most of the options we listed above will only have one or two methods associated with them that you can actually use, and some aren’t very popular in Australia. Seriously, who here uses Paysafecard instead of Neosurf?

On the flipside, if you’re more of a crypto gambler, then there is little reason to be disappointed here. The crypto options of ShinyWilds Casino are fantastic, and you’ll be able to both deposit and withdraw using practically any coin that’s at least somewhat popular: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Tether, etc. On top of that, it’s worth noting that both the minimum deposit and withdrawal amounts are extremely low, which provides a very reasonable barrier of entry.

Withdrawal time

When it comes to casino withdrawals (not just at ShinyWilds Casino, but at any other), there’s always a choice to be made between speed and convenience. Most people want to withdraw their hard-earned winnings as quickly as possible, and the best way to do that is by using a method that is unaffiliated with banks, such as AstroPay, Jeton or crypto.

This is because banks will often run their own checks and verifications, delaying transfers considerably. Have you ever been told that you got a refund from an online store, only to not see it reflected in your account for 5 days? That’s exactly the reason why. Still, if you don’t mind waiting, there are certainly benefits to withdrawing via your card or bank transfer, like getting to use your money immediately in a wide variety of places (like stores).

VIP Program

ShinyWilds Casino already takes good care of its existing players through its reload promotions, which you can claim even after you’ve already used up your welcome bonus. But did you know that there are even more bonuses you can claim if you stick around? That’s right – the site also has a VIP program where you can get rewarded for your loyalty in a number of ways!

Here’s how it works: for every AU$10 you wager at the casino (in real money only – bonuses will not be counted towards this) you’ll get one point. Once you cross a certain threshold of points, you’ll “level up” and unlock a number of features, like unique bonuses, faster withdrawal times and higher withdrawal limits. The chief prize you’ll get is a cashback on all of your losses that you can receive every week – the higher your level, the bigger your cashback, topping at 20%.

The problem with this program, much like with many others like it we’ve reviewed on our site, stems from the requirements for reaching certain levels. While unlocking the first level (which comes with a 5% cashback) will only require you to wager AU$100, this requirement gradually balloons up to levels that are, frankly, ridiculous. The final level will ask you to collect 1m point, or, as you’ve figured by now, AU$10m. Yikes!

Tournaments

Plenty of casinos have started implementing pokie tournaments in recent years, and with good reason – they’re incredibly popular and very easy to bring to your players, as they make use of pokies that are already there. Unfortunately, ShinyWilds Casino is not one of those sites, as it doesn’t currently offer any tournaments at all.

If you’re disappointed, don’t fret – new features can be added at any point, so who knows, maybe that will include tournaments too. However, as you can imagine, this is a bit of a faint hope, and if you’re someone who absolutely must have tournaments as an option available at any casino they play, then maybe hold off on signing up at ShinyWilds for the time being.

Verification

If you already have some experience with online casinos, then you already have some idea of how annoying verification can be – and if you’re brand new, then oh boy, you’re in for a treat! Basically, to comply with international money laundering regulations (and to, you know, avoid directly funding terrorist activity), every casino needs to verify the identity of any player who wishes to receive money from it. That, naturally, includes ShinyWilds.

So, how does that concern you? Well, the first time you attempt to withdraw, your account will automatically be locked, and you’ll receive an e-mail asking you to submit several documents. Those will include proof of ID (like your ID card, passport or driver’s license) and proof of address (like a bank statement or recent utility bill), as well as proof of payment method (like a censored photo of your bank card).

Once you’ve sent all three of them to the casino staff, they’ll check to verify whether the information you provided during sign-up matches the one on your documents. If it does, your account will be verified and unlocked, and you’ll finally be able to complete your withdrawal.

Is ShinyWilds Casino Legit & safe?

Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to tell for certain whether an online casino is completely safe. Funnily enough, it’s always easy to tell for sure whether a casino is a scam, as the red flags are often too numerous to ignore, but confirming a site as legitimate is much harder. However, if we had to make an educated guess, then we certainly see little reason to doubt that ShinyWilds Casino is safe.

For starters, the casino is fully licensed and regulated by the Curacao Gambling Authority, which monitors its activity and would penalize it if it’s reported to be scamming players. On top of that, the site has a refund policy that, as far as we can tell, is actually being followed – this is very rare, as most online casinos’ refund policy boils down to “No refunds ever”.

The only thing that could potentially damage our assessment is the fact that this is a very new and untested site. There aren’t a lot of user impressions from it, and it’s always possible that a site may appear legitimate without actually being that. However, as far as we’ve been able to determine, there’s little reason to doubt ShinyWilds Casino.

Customer support

If you need some help with the site (like, for example, need some question answered or are struggling with a problem like deposits not reflected properly), then you really have no choice but to reach out to ShinyWilds Casino’s support team. That’s why it’s important for its support feature to be absolutely top of the line, and frankly, ShinyWilds’ could use a bit of improvement.

Don’t get us wrong – when it works, it’s great! When we finally managed to get in touch with its team, they were polite and knowledgeable. But it was the first step of contacting them that proved most arduous. In its current iteration, ShinyWilds Casino doesn’t even have a Contact Us page, which means that you absolutely can not reach out to them if you don’t have an account. This can prove troublesome not just for people who have questions before they sign up, but also for those who can’t currently log into their account.

Upon signing up, we were able to finally find the casino’s e-mail address and live chat feature, as well as a form to submit a ticket through, but even then, the live chat was unreliable and often wouldn’t connect when it was supposed to. Again, when it did connect, it worked great, it’s just that so often it had technical issues (or just insufficient staff) that it was borderline useless most of the time.

Mobile casino

At this point, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that ShinyWilds Casino has a great mobile function. Most online casinos nowadays see most of their players joining from their phones and tablets rather than PCs like the good old days, so it’s practically suicide for a site to not accommodate them. Luckily, ShinyWilds Casino does just that with a sleek and stellar mobile app.

As is often the case, you won’t need to download any files to play ShinyWilds’ games on your phone – just opening the site through your regular browser will be enough. Once you do that, you’ll be faced with a very similar interface, just one that has lost a bit of weight in order to load more quickly and fit comfortably into your phone’s vertical screen. Make no mistake though: the site will still have all its features intact, including all the games and bonuses.