Winward Casino

Winward Casino Review

As crypto has exploded in popularity over the last few years, so have crypto casinos, with many online gambling sites now only accepting Bitcoin, Litecoin and their brethren instead of dollars or pounds. On the surface, it makes sense, as dealing with crypto is much easier, faster and hassle-free than dealing with “flat” currencies tied up in banks and regulations.

On the flipside, those very regulations are what keep gamblers safe most of the time, which is why you should always take very good care to vet any crypto casinos you’re looking to play at. And if you’re not sure how to do that, we’re here to help! In this thorough review, we’re going to evaluate Winward Casino, its bonuses, games, features and safety, and let you know whether it’s a crypto casino worth depositing at!

So, is Winward Casino “for the win”, or should it simply have gone with the wind?

Bonuses

No Deposit Bonus – 25 Free Spins

It’s become exceedingly rare for casinos to offer any kind of no deposit bonus, which is why it’s always a nice surprise to be greeted by one as soon as you sign up! New players will be happy to discover 25 free spins waiting for them as soon as they complete the sign-up process, no bonus codes necessary!

Once granted, you’ll have 7 days to play through your spins, and after that, you’ll have to wager them x20 times before you’re able to withdraw them. Keep in mind that the maximum amount you’ll be able to withdraw from them is AU$100, but that’s still a pretty great deal, given the low requirements and that, you know, you’re getting the spins without having to deposit a single cent!

Welcome Bonus – Up to AU$7,500 + 110 FS

Once you’ve played through your no deposit free spins, it’s time for the real deal – and rest assured, Winward Casino is offering you a mighty welcome bonus! The catch is that you won’t be able to get the full amount right away, and instead it’ll be split up between your first 3 deposits.

Even so, nobody can tell that the first 3 bonuses aren’t generous, as they each offer high limits and higher percentage matches. Here’s what you’ll be claiming from each of your first 3 deposits at the casino:

Once you claim each bonus, you’ll have 7 days to wager it x35 times before you’ll be able to withdraw it. The same applies to your free spins winnings, which have a withdrawable limit of AU$200. This means that if you get a cash bonus of AU$500 and free spins winnings of AU$300, and manage to complete the wagering requirements of both, you’ll only be able to withdraw the AU$500 from your cash bonus + AU$200 from free spins.

Weekly Reload Bonuses

Even though the no deposit and welcome bonuses of Winward Casino are fantastic, they have one fatal flaw – you can only claim them once! What happens after you’ve already used them and want a little something extra while depositing?

That’s when the Weekly Reload Bonuses come into play – a set of bonuses for every day of the week! No matter when you deposit, the casino will always throw in something extra. These bonuses can also be claimed repeatedly (with the only limit being that you can claim them once per day), meaning you can get bonuses literally every day if you wanted!

Here’s what you’ll get depending on the day of the week on which you deposit:

Games

Despite just how spectacular the bonus section of Winward Casino is, their games are a bit of a mixed bag. Granted, if you’re a big fan of pokies, you probably won’t agree with us, as the casino sports hundreds of them from many of the top slot developers. And, with a lot of the pokies offering progressive jackpots, it’s hard to see anyone being disappointed over them.

But if you’re a fan of anything except pokies, well… You won’t really find much to like here. The live casino section, as far as we can tell, has been cut following a recent revamp of the website, and the selection of non-live table games is very limited. On top of that, there aren’t any additional gambling options, like bingo or sports betting, which means that if you don’t like pokies, you might not have the best experience at Winward Casino.

Pokies

The pokies selection at Winward Casino is surprisingly rich, despite its limited number of games. It’s very clear that they chose to go with quality over quantity, hand-picking a few popular slot developers whose games they wanted to provide instead of bloating the site with thousands of pokies, most of which nobody would even look at.

Among the developers are big names like Pragmatic Play, NextGen Gaming and Betsoft, among many others – and they all bring their A-game to Winward Casino! After signing up, you’ll be able to enjoy pokies like “Amazing Kong”, “Caishen’s Fortune”, “Diablo 13”, “Gladiator”, “Good Girl, Bad Girl” and many more!

It’s worth noting that dozens of the available pokies have progressive jackpots attached to them. Titles like “A Night in Paris”, “At The Copa”, “Charms & Clovers” and “Tycoon Plus” all come with the possibility to win 5 or 6 digit jackpots. Rather exciting prospect, especially given the fact that you can win progressives using just your bonus amount!

Live casino

Unfortunately, as of the time of this writing, Winward Casino do not offer any live dealer games. While it appears that a live casino section was, in fact, available at one point, the casino has since relaunched, and as far as we can tell, the live dealer games have failed to return.

We understand that this will be a great disappointment to many, considering just how popular live games tend to be. Rest assured that we’ll keep a close eye on Winward Casino and update our article should the live section return.

Deposits & Withdrawals

Before you even sign up for an account at Winward Casino, it’s very important to be aware of the fact that it’s very much a “crypto casino”. There are no options to deposit using any traditional methods, such as credit cards, e-wallets or pre-paid vouchers, and withdrawal must also be done via crypto (at least for smaller amounts).

This either made you completely disinterested in the casino or caused you to pump your fist in excitement. If it’s the latter, we’ll be happy to let you know that there’s quite the diversity in deposit options available. Aside from the classics, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, you’ll also be able to deposit using TRON, Tether and Litecoin, among others. While we miss cryptos like Dogecoin and Ripple, their absence doesn’t detract from the number of currencies listed.

On the downside, only two of those currencies can be used for withdrawal, namely Bitcoin and Litecoin. This spells bad news for those who were hoping to deposit and withdraw using a different currency, like Ethereum.

Withdrawal time

How long it’ll take to withdraw your winnings will depend solely on what withdrawal method you select. Theoretically, withdrawing using crypto will be the fastest, as the casino will dispatch your winnings instantly. However, Bitcoin is notoriously slow, which means that it might take a few days for you to actually receive the amount.

Bank transfer is the alternative to crypto, but alas, it’s also significantly slower. Withdrawing via bank transfer not only carries a fee of AU$29, but also takes between 5 and 15 business days. While this may be a good option for those who have scored a huge win worth thousands of dollars (by, for example, hitting a jackpot), everyone else would be better off withdrawing via bitcoin or litecoin.

VIP Program

What better way to keep players coming back at your casino over and over again than to reward them with a great VIP program? Some casinos like to give players various levels as they place deposits (which come with a variety of perks), while others give them points they can exchange for cash.

Winward Casino’s VIP program is far more simple and straightforward than that. Every week, all of your deposits are accumulated, and at the end of the week, if you haven’t requested a withdrawal during it, you’ll automatically receive 15% of your deposits back as cashback. You don’t need to contact support or really do anything at all, you just get them! How cool is that?

The amount you’ll receive is also cumulative, meaning that if you deposit AU$50 on Monday, and then another AU$30 on Thursday, the next Monday you’ll get 15% from AU$80, or AU$12, straight into your account. It’s not a ton, but it is free money, and that’s certainly the best way to retain your players’ loyalty!

Tournaments

Tournaments at Winward Casino are called “races”, and they work a little differently than tournaments at other casinos. While many pokie tournaments last for days, weeks or even months, Winward Casino’s “races” last for only a few minutes, making them more intense than ever before!

Aside from getting your blood boiling, these races also level the playing field a lot. There’s no beating around the bush – when you have a month-long slot tournament, the high roller who’s able to spend weeks at the casino placing bet after bet is going to win. And, unless that’s you, you just don’t stand a chance. But when a “race” only lasts 25-30 minutes, who knows who’s going to win? Maybe it’ll be you! And if it’s some high roller, well, the next race starts in half an hour, so no better time to try again.

The bad news is that none of those races will reward you with actual cash – at most, you’ll be able to win some free spins. And while this isn’t an ideal prize, at least it’s a prize, and a way to earn a little bit of extra bonus. As long as you’re fully aware of that, we believe there’s plenty of fun to be had with Winward Casino’s races!

Verification

Every single online casino will require you to verify your identity before a single dollar is sent to you via withdrawal. This is done in compliance with international money laundering regulations, to ensure that the casino is used for its intended purpose (ordinary people playing casino games) rather than for something more sinister, like money laundering. It’s an annoying, but necessary process.

The good news is that you don’t need to wait to withdraw before you can start your verification process at Winward Casino – in fact, you can request it at any point, even before you’ve made a single deposit! To do this, you’ll have to navigate to the “My Account” section and select “Account Verification”.

After that, you’ll have to deposit 3 documents:

• Proof of identity – this can be your passport, driver’s license or national ID card, any kind of photo ID with your name on it will do;
• Proof of address – this has to be a document that shows your name and current address, such as a delivery receipt or a utility bill;
• Proof of payment method ownership – this will depend on what payment method you used when depositing at the casino, and could be a photo of your credit card or something else that will prove it’s owned solely by you.

While uncommon, it’s possible that the casino will request additional documents from you, such as your bank transaction history. Once you’ve submitted all documents, you can go to the “Account Verification” section of “My Account” at any point to check the status of your verification.

Is Winward Casino Legit & safe?

According to Australian law, playing at online casinos that do not have a license is strictly prohibited. This is why it’s very important for Aussies to do their due diligence and verify whether the casino they’re interested in is properly licensed by an offshore authority like Macao or Curacao.

This verification is something we take very seriously, and we go to great lengths to ensure that the casino’s license checks out. Sadly, our investigation has concluded that Winward Casino is operating completely unlicensed. This not only makes it illegal for those physically located in Australia to participate in it, but also means there’s no recourse to take if you get scammed. Nobody is holding Winward Casino accountable.

As you can imagine, both of these raise huge red flags, and should make anyone think twice before making an account at Winward Casino.

Customer support

An online casino’s support team are basically its unsung superheroes. They’re the people who will, or at least should, rush to your aid the moment you get in trouble. If your welcome bonus fails to arrive in your account, or your withdrawal requests keep being denied, you’ll have no choice but to call upon the support team and ask them to save the day.

Sadly, Batman can’t come save you without the Bat Signal… Which is why it’s so disappointing that there aren’t many ways to contact Winward Casino’s support team at all. In fact, you can only do so via e-mail, as it’s not possible to call them or submit a ticket through their site. Even a live chat feature, prevalent in most online casinos, is completely missing in action.

This means that any issues you have will take hours or days to be replied to, and that is if they’re not lost in their inbox at all. Which is a scary prospects if your savings depend on their assistance!

Mobile casino

Most players today prefer to play casino games on their mobile device rather than on desktop. Even if you primarily gamble at your computer, admit it – you’ve enjoyed some pokies on your phone while being lazy on the couch, no need to deny! This is why it’s important for casinos to have a suitable mobile app alongside its desktop counterpart.

And we have to give credit where credit is due – the mobile version of Winward Casino is really, really good. It’s very fast, it looks fantastic, and it lacks no content at all compared to its desktop sibling. It’s very obvious that the casino’s designers took mobile gambling into account when building the site, and their foresight has paid off.

It’s doubly impressive that you don’t even need to download anything to play! Just access the casino’s site through your mobile browser (like Chrome, Safari or Mozilla) and enjoy the games exactly where you left off.