Casino Gods casino review (NZ)

The bonus was marketed as ‘divine’, which instantly got it in my good books as I love a good pun. To be fair to Casino Gods, the bonus is good - $1,500 and 300 free spins are enough to convert anyone.

They also have a live casino bonus of 100% up to $100, while Casino Gods run a monthly bonus of 25% up to $100. This is heavenly stuff indeed!

These bonuses are generous, but the devil lies in the detail. Would Casino Gods be brought back to earth with a bang, or will they continue their beautiful ascent to power? To be eligible for the Welcome Bonus, you need to deposit a minimum of $10 in one instance, you can claim them in your first four deposits, and you need to wager them 40 times before you can withdraw the bonus or any winnings earned from playing it.

Players will get 30 free spins, followed by 30 a day for nine days on pre-selected games. Free spins are valid for 72 hours after activation, so make sure you get spinning!

Deposits made via Skrill or Neteller aren’t eligible for the first four bonuses, which is a bit of a New Zealand standard.

These terms and conditions are, for the most part, pretty standard. The wagering requirement is a little high, the average is about 35x, but the size of the bonus and the number of free spins ease those concerns.

The first thing I was greeted with was a welcome popup, which didn’t properly render so I was left with a Greek goddess-type figure holding a blank role of parchment - although a refresh fixed this issue. But still, it wasn’t the best start.

I deposited the money and was greeted with an extra layer of security: A Westpac authenticator code was sent to the phone number linked to my bank account. This is pretty rare among online casinos, so Casino Gods immediately got a tick in my book for that.

Their homepage hits you with a massive number of slot games straight away, so it’s clear they’re pushing players down that route. So I let myself be led down the garden path and decided to play Augustus, a Roman-inspired title.

It had some cool side-games and the ability to win free spins by collecting gold coins. The combination of free spins and fairly regular wins kept me playing for a little while, and I managed to make a small profit of about $1 for my efforts.

Next up, I headed to the live casino for some roulette. I played a few rounds, spread my bets around the table, and ended up coming out about $15 up - which was lovely. Besides winning, the game played well and a minimum bet of 20c made this incredibly accessible - which is how I like it.

One thing that I don’t like about Casino Gods is that the minimum and maximum bet for each game wasn’t displayed before you. For someone who doesn’t want to roll high, that’s not cool.

I was really disappointed that I couldn’t find a blackjack table that had a minimum bet of less than $100, which ruled me out of any action. The last played section is always a nice touch, and the round icons looked nice as well.

I played Big Bass Bonanza and it ran smoother than Brad Pitt at a cocktail party. On WiFi, and 4G I had no problems. Big Bass Bonanza had an interesting turbo spin opinion, so I had a bash on that and watched as the reels whizzed past my eyes and I banked 20c.

In terms of design, Casino Gods is well laid out, with clear menu options and a bright and colourful design. I really liked this mobile site, it was clear that Casino Gods was carefully created.

I found a virtual blackjack game with a minimum bet of $1.50, and after a few rounds, I walked out having broken even. It worked well, the screen size was well-formatted and everything interacted seamlessly with the display.

Urgh, Casino Gods have a chatbot, not a proper live chat functionality. That always feels a little lazy and it’s always a little bit annoying to find the answers you want. A chatbot will basically just give you a big FAQ list to work through, so I sent an email to find out some withdrawal information. I got a reply saying that Casino Gods had received my email and would get to it as soon as they could, but it still took them over 24 hours to get back to me, which is really poor.

In fairness, the information they provided was fairly useful, so Casino Gods get some points for that.

Casino Gods have let down their believers on this front.

KYC documents are only required if players try to withdraw money after no betting or casino activity. I wasn’t asked for any documents upon signing up, although there is a clearly defined ‘document upload’ area of my account.

I clicked on the button and was told that Casino Gods didn’t need any more information from me right now, but that I would be told when they were required. After a few games, a deposit, and some winnings, I hadn’t been asked to upload anything.

As usual, account withdrawals will be fastest if you use e-wallets, while withdrawals to cards or bank accounts can take anywhere between one and three days.

As I’ve recently discovered, MasterCard will allow you to deposit with them but they won’t accept credits back to the card - which means you can withdraw to the same method that you deposited. That’s not Casino Gods’ fault, but it gave me a little bit of a headache; maybe e-wallets really are the way to go in the future.

My $50 deposit went off without a hitch, but I had to add a little bit more in so I could withdraw to an e-wallet and claim my winnings.