Meister Awards 2024

Best and Worst in Online Gambling

The Casinomeister Awards 2024 is a leaner version of previous awards, with a trimmed-down 13 categories in total. The change in ownership of the forum — thanks for the good times Bryan — was an opportunity to consider the presentation of the awards to suit today’s membership of the forum. 

We hope you enjoy this year’s awards, they have been put together with members’ input and plenty of effort from the moderation team at the forum.

Casino of the Year 2024 — 3Dice

Casino of the Year 2024

Some would consider this the premium award that Casinomeister can bestow, and 2024 has offered us many creditable sites to choose from. Based on forum member selection, our messages of approval, and general all-round goodness we can announce proudly that 3Dice was the clear winner in 2024!

Congratulations to Anna (their rep) and the team! They’ve maintained their presence on Casinomeister for well over a decade now, and have previously won several other rewards. Loved by its players for great customer service and an unrivalled account interface (including its own range of bespoke proprietary games and generous player rewards), 3Dice Casino seems to have only gotten better over the years.

I suppose the correct term to use in conclusion here would be ‘mentioned in dispatches,’ and that list of notable sites in 2024 includes Bitstarz, Lottomart, All British, Betreels, and finally, Bet365. Though Bet365 didn’t quite get over the line as clear winners, they were nominated by forum members for their own variety of positives afforded to the players.

Keep up the fine work in 2025 and thank you all!

Best Customer Service 2024 — Lottomart

Best Customer Service 2024

The time-served stalwarts, whom you will have doubtless become familiar with over the years if you’ve been with Casinomeister that long, are usually in contention for the Best Customer Service award and 2024 was no different. 

There has been a clear winner this time around, with Lottomart scooping up this badge for the outstanding service given to players. This will not come as much of a surprise to old-timers at the forum with who may recall that Mark@Lottomart was often the recipient of this particular recognition during his days at 32Red. That’s what happens when you are dedicated to the players throughout your casino career and build a solid team focused on customer service.

Best Casino Rep 2024 — L&L Jan

Best Casino Rep 2024

Remember those school days when the teacher or headmaster would hand out awards for, say, essay writing or art competitions? Inevitably, the presentation would be prefixed with words along the lines of “The standard this year has been the highest ever and judging was extremely difficult blah blah..” while you all listened and then rolled your eyes? Well this really was the case as far as this coveted Casinomeister award is concerned, with the six top nominees of Mark @Lottomart, Anna @3Dice, @EGO and @L&L Jan, @Betreels Casino & Sports, and @Team.Videoslots.

The person first over the line was L@L Jan who has solved any player issues promptly, helped out with many topics on the forum — often with a good dose of humour. And like the other nominees mentioned, he has not become aloof once his business became Accredited. This has not gone unnoticed among his players on the forum and as a result, the honourable gentleman has received our accolade Best Casino Rep 2024! 

Congratulations Jan and much thanks to all the reps who continue to assist and contribute on Casinomeister.

Best Casino Manager 2024 — L&L Jan

Best Casino Manager 2024

This category does overlap with the Best Casino Rep on occasions but it has a distinct difference. Unlike some reps who perform that role solely on the forum, a manager has the decision-making scope to assist in any disputes, they can change things on their site based on player feedback and, of course, create promotions. 

Over 2024 L&L Jan has been selected for this award by both admin and forum members, so it is with great pleasure we bestow upon him the title of Bast Casino Manager 2024 to add to his enviable collection! At the risk of dating ourselves … Jan is like that Energizer Bunny from years ago, he “just keeps going and going!”. So congratulations Jan (again)!

Best Player Experience 2024 — SYPlayer95 at ABC

Best Player Experience 2024

The best player experience of 2024 at the Casinomeister forum came late this year when @SYPlayer95 let us all know about a decent 4-figure win he landed at All British Casino — see thread

The win was paid out to the player almost instantly, and on a Sunday no less. There was also a further win by the same player of a similar amount, paid out in record quick time. All British even took the time to send a congratulatory email to the player. We were later told by @L&L-Jan, the rep for All British, that the email also shared some important responsible gambling (RG) messaging. This is the kind of player experience we love to hear but unfortunately have been hearing less and less in recent times. Bravo to All British Casino. 

Kudos to all other casinos paying out in full on jackpots and large wins!

Best New Casino 2024 — Pub Casino

Best New Casino 2024

The best new casino award was a tricky category this year, as the number of new casinos entering the fray has been fairly high. However, almost all of them have a license that offers little or no protection to players. Therefore, our final list was fairly short, with only 4 entrants this year. 

There was one casino that stood out from the crowd, which was Pub Casino, from L&L Group. The combination of a decent welcome bonus, reasonable terms, solid customer support, and quick withdrawals, made Pub Casino an easy choice for Best New Casino of 2024.

Wooden Spoon Award 2024 — VBet

Wooden Spoon Award 2024

There was little need to create a shortlist for the Wooden Spoon award (typically awarded to someone in LAST place), as a glaringly obvious candidate made themselves known mainly through their ‘business dealings’ with the previous owner of the forum — Casinomeister (now going by @The Dude).

In a warning thread in April 2024 titled “Vbet – no pay – brainless staff – worst company in the iGaming industry.” Casinomeister let rip about the ‘freaking nightmare’ he endured dealing with this company. Many of the problems experienced were related to delaying or not paying for agreed marketing services, but Casinomeister was convinced that they could not run a casino operation well if this is how they treated suppliers and third-party partners.

The final word was eloquently summed up in the last sentence of the post: “In 26 years of doing business in this industry, this is the worst company HANDS DOWN that I have ever dealt with. That is saying a hell of a lot.”

VBet saved the judging panel a lot of time and effort this year on picking the Wooden Spoon winner, as they made sure no one else could win it.

Fall From Grace Award 2024 — BC.GAME

Fall From Grace Award 2024

BC.GAME, with lots of complaints but no resolutions! 

We can’t quite work out what happened at BC.GAME this year. This is a crypto casino that has seen a phenomenal rise in recent times, fast becoming one of the leading brands in this sector. However, the forum has seen a flurry of complaints about BC.GAME in 2024, which culminated in a warning thread from Senior Forum Moderator @maxd in August titled “BC.GAME, lots of complaints but no resolutions”. @maxd was letting forum members know that we were getting lots of complaints, but very few answers from BC.GAME. 

This led to @maxd issuing a clear warning at the bottom of his post stating “BC.GAME is giving a lot of players the slow-pay/no-pay treatment and ignoring any attempts by players to seek outside assistance. Players are advised to forgo the nonexistent firsthand assistance the casino will inevitably claim to offer and take their money elsewhere.” This isn’t something the staff at Casinomeister need to do very often.

Jump forward a few months, and rumours started circulating in November 2024 that BC.GAME could be facing bankruptcy. It later transpired that a Curacao-based court had declared BC.GAME’s parent companies bankrupt amidst unpaid player claims. The drama rolled on with BC.GAME’s UK operations being closed with no details of when it will return. 

In a bid to fight back against all the negative press, BC.GAME claimed they intend to leave Curacao behind and focus on regulated markets from now on. We look forward to seeing that happen…

Biggest Charade 2024 — UK Government & Ninewin

Biggest Charade 2024

The UK Government has dithered on slots limits, so after what seemed like years of deliberation, they announced that they’d be changing stake limits for online slots in February 2024. 

However, more dithering took place by ministers who seemed reluctant to break the news to the industry and it never actually got officially implemented. With the Tories losing the general election in July, it was then passed over to the new incoming Labour government to deal with. It took until November for the new government to officially announce (again) that the new stake limits would be introduced in the UK. However, regulators can only impose these new limits on licensed operators – which may create a brand new opportunity for the black market.

Ninewin also got an honourable mention in this category. Multiple complaints started appearing on the forum for this casino group, with tons of money owed to players. After numerous efforts to speak to them, @maxd and the team ended up getting the “talk to the hand” treatment from them. They managed to get featured in the last video by Casinomeister, called Tales of Terror, released in time for Halloween.

Weirdest Casino Name 2024 — Lemon Casino

Weirdest Casino Name 2024

So as usual, 2024 has brought forth a plethora of new casinos, some of which may have people question their choice of name. If Ducky Luck doesn’t bring up images of a 1970’s TV show camp, Lolly Bet may make you wonder about the target audience of their particular site. Now, we do understand that some names can sound odd to native English speakers even if not intended that way when plucked from a dictionary by overseas operators, but surely a little investigation before branding?

Winspirit falls into that category and you may ask is there some kind of religious angle to their games? The spirit of winning? Do you get sent a small bottle of vodka when cashing-out?

Wazbee. Now that’s raised a few giggles as ‘waz’ is a colloquial word in English to erm.. pass water shall we say. Do bees even do that?

Luckily we can disregard the risible names above because one stands out above all others: Lemon Casino. Now, ‘lemon’ can mean many things aside from the fruit or the colour, and most of them are derisory. A lemon can mean a gullible individual or an item that fails to live up to expectations, for example buying an unreliable car, in that ‘you bought a right lemon there!’ Which, in turn, leads one to think they may be treated like a lemon while playing there or that’s what the management secretly view their clientele as. 

So congratulations Lemon Casino, ahem! you picked a real lemon there for your casino’s name!

Member Kudos 2024 — jasonuk & mulvern

Member Kudos 2024

For those who have gone the extra mile in 2024! There have been lots of great interactions at Casinomeister throughout 2024, with countless contributions from the members of the CM forum. However, two of those have really gone far and beyond our expectations when it comes to aiding and assisting others.

@jasonuk has imparted his deep industry knowledge to those who need it, day in, day out, on the forum. This often included detailed insight about the complex workings of payment processors, regulators, licensing, casino terms, and legality. On multiple occasions, @jasonuk has guided those in the most desperate of situations, helping them get some or all of their money back, or getting help where they needed it. The team at Casinomeister is very grateful for all the contributions @jasonuk makes, as are many of the members who benefit from all of his insights.

@mulven is a newer member at Casinomeister, having only joined back in late October 2024. However, in no time at all, he has managed to prove himself to be a very helpful and knowledgeable person when it comes to the casino industry. His understanding of licensing in countries like Curacao, Anjouan, and Costa Rica is invaluable. @mulven’s experience stretches way beyond licensing, and he regularly shares knowledge about payment systems, casino terms, and company backgrounds. Like @jasonuk, @mulven will take on some of the toughest questions at the forum and is regularly praised by other members for his contributions.

Biggest Disappointment 2024 — DHV 2 Slot & Nerfed RTPs

Biggest Disappointment 2024

There has been a lot of disappointment on the forum regarding new slots this year. Multiple conversations about nerfed RTPs, new games that just regurgitate old mechanics/features, and the never-ending cycle of Big Bass-themed fishing slots from a handful of very prominent developers.

Nerfed RTPs, is a subject that seems to infuriate many players on the forum, with many turning their back on slots and looking for new games to play. A general feeling that casinos have used lowered RTP’s as a way of clawing back profits that they may have lost through taxes and regulatory costs that have been introduced in the past few years. The popular gold standard 96% RTP’s online have become increasingly scarce, being replaced with 94%, 92% and sometimes below 90%. Forum members have been quick to point out that in Germany most online slots are now well below 90% RTP’s 

In a thread titled “Most disappointing slot-related news of 2024” there was a general sense of frustration at the lack of imagination going into many of the new releases this year. Several members voiced their contempt at the plethora of 3-lives Hold & Win features that have become commonplace along with grid games paying for five adjacent symbols or 8 scattered.

Big Time Gaming also got singled out for several derisory titles this year, particularly Danger High Voltage 2. Many members had been waiting with anticipation for another 4096-way classic along the lines of the original and hugely successful first version. While the game is different and, in my view, not as bad as some may perceive, the Megaways treatment coin falls used on the second version of Bonanza was an unexpected mechanic for the game.

So, having said that, a game is a game: play it if you like it, leave it if you don’t. Simples. It needn’t affect you. This is why, without fear of contradiction, we would have to nominate RTP shaving as the biggest (and ongoing) letdown in the online casino world in 2024. It affects nearly all players at some time, remember just going down from 96 to 94% will on average reduce your spin amount by 25%! And that really is bad news.

Worst Player Experience 2024 — ‘The Free Chip You Cannot Lose With’ Scam

Worst Player Experience 2024

Sadly, due to its very popularity and being a cash-based industry which often transcends borders, the world of online casinos contains many rogue operators and outright criminal scammers. We often witness the fallout from victims on the forum and become aware of the latest methods they use. 

Many years ago legitimate casinos would often offer a free chip to entice new players, along with a limited cash-out. Not unreasonably, they would ask for a small corroborative deposit which you could play and this would prove age and eligibility before withdrawing any winnings. With improved online document checks and the popularity of match bonuses, those offers became rare. In fact, a recent thread and poll on the forum Beware of casinos requesting large deposits to unlock or release player winnings showed around 80% of respondents believed this to be a sign of scammery, despite mainly legitimate origins and you’ll see why below. 

It seems this practice has been revitalized by fraudsters (BEWARE: Hundreds of identical fake scam casinos, AVOID!) who use hundreds of tacky domains with social media and spam advertising offering free chips. You join and find, miraculously, that you win significant amounts because the games are fake and pay well over 100% back. In order to withdraw this windfall you are required to authenticate the account with a deposit. Of course, you’ll be paid nothing, lose your deposit and, to boot, will have handed out your personal details to criminals.

Here, we have just one example of the Worst Player Experience 2024 from a forum member sucked in by this particular scam: Playfortune.io (SCAM Warning). There is little doubt in our view that this and all similar cases are a worthy- sorry, worthless winner of this award. Please beware!

That concludes the Casinomeister Awards 2024 and thanks for all your input!