Vave Review
A pure crypto casino with a generous welcome bonus and 90+ cryptocurrencies
Casinomeister's Verdict
Vave is a bit of a mixed bag — on the one hand, they’ve been around for 2+ years now, they have a feature-rich website with tons of games, several supported cryptocurrencies, a high matching offer on a generous welcome bonus, and responsive customer support. On the surface, it’s all the things a good online casino should be.
However, Vave seems to have recently been put under new management, it no longer has a Curacao license, and is currently based in a very weak jurisdiction. Until Vave acquires a stronger license or establishes a more steadfast reputation, we can only recommend players be very cautious about playing here.
For more details, read our full Vave casino review below. Also, if you’ve had any experience with Vave (pleasant or unpleasant) please share it on our forum.
Great selection of games
From the desk of Max Drayman
At Casinomeister, we’ve had a few complaints about Vave in the recent past, both on the forums and through our Player Arbitration (PAB) complaints service, but nothing of specific concern has emerged. From that point of view, things look pretty good.
What is a bit worrying is their license status. To make a long story short, the casino seems to have changed ownership recently and is now operated by a new company which is incorporated under the laws of Costa Rica. Will Costa Rica then be the new licensing jurisdiction for Vave? Or will something else emerge from their corporate transition? Impossible to say at this point, but everyone knows — or should know — that Costa Rica is not a regulated jurisdiction: they sell business licenses and that’s all a casino is to them, just a business. No licensing requirements specific to the iGaming industry, no oversight, no dispute arbitration process required by the license.
Costa Rica always has been — and until we have proof otherwise, still is — the ultimate “hands off” casino license. That may be well and good for the casino owners but it’s a big black hole as far as players are concerned and should be read as a billboard-sized “player beware” warning. Given the uncertainty, players should be aware that they may be playing at an unlicensed (or very weakly licensed) casino.
First Impression
Vave is a crypto casino that launched in 2022 and is currently owned and operated by Chestoption Sociedad De Responsabilidad Limitada, a company registered in Costa Rica (No. 3-102-876612). It was immediately a bit concerning that the casino seems to have changed owners recently, and it also seems to no longer hold a Curacao license.
Things like this are always concerning, especially for crypto casinos, but Vave raised no major red flags in the past apart from some minor issues regarding withdrawals. The casino supports play in over 90 cryptocurrencies and has a great selection of games from reputable providers, including slots, live games, and a sportsbook, so no complaints there.
The site itself can feel a bit crowded at first glance, but it’s well organized and you won’t have too much trouble finding what you need, as the muted colors also make it easier to skim and navigate.
Pros
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Great selection of games
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High matching offer on the welcome bonus
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Supports 90+ cryptocurrencies
Cons
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Weak jurisdiction
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No responsible gaming tools
Top 5 casinos
BONUSES AND PROMOTIONS
Vave has a decent selection of bonuses, consisting of a first deposit bonus, a weekly reload, and a weekly free spins bonus.
Vave Welcome Bonus
The welcome bonus at Vave comes down to one generous deposit bonus. Players who make a first deposit of at least 20 USDT can take advantage of a matching offer of 150% up to 1.5 BTC or equivalent in another cryptocurrency (about $100,000 at the time of writing), as well as 100 free spins.
And no, that’s not a typo, and it’s not uncommon for crypto casinos to have matching offers that put even the best high roller casino bonuses to shame. The wagering requirement is 40x the bonus amount, which is a bit higher than the standard but you have a full 30 days to meet the wagering requirements. Plus, there’s no limit on the betting amount, so it’s a solid bonus, all things considered.
No-Deposit & Free Spins Offers
Vave currently doesn’t have any no-deposit bonuses, but we’ll keep the review updated if they introduce any. In the meantime, you can check out our no-deposit bonus casino list.
On the bright side, Vave does have a weekly reload and free spins bonus offers that returning players will find appealing.
The reload bonus is only valid for deposits made on Thursdays for players who had previously made at least two deposits, and the casino offers a 100% match on any deposit of at least 20 USDT, up to 2500 USDT. As with the welcome bonus, this comes with a 40x wagering requirement within a 30-day window, so it’s a decent offer for returning players.
Meanwhile, the free spins bonus is available on Saturdays, also for deposits of 20 USDT and higher, and they also come with a 40x wagering requirement. The number of free spins credited to you account varies based on the size of the deposit:
- 20 USDT — 20 FS
- 20-50 USDT — 50 FS
- 100+ USDT — 100 FS
Overall, these are good bonuses for returning players, and the free spins can be used on several games from a list that changes every month, so you have some freedom of choice instead of being restricted to some 95% RTP slot the casino picks out for you. Granted, the list is still curated by Vave, so it’s unlikely the best slots will be available, but having options is always good.
VIP and Loyalty Programs
I was pleasantly surprised by Vave’s VIP program, as they have a completely transparent progression through 18 levels with increasing bonus cash rewards. These start out small with free spins, but ramp up to major prizes expressed in USDT.
The progression points are awarded to your account for every 30 USDT you place in wagers on any slot, which isn’t as expensive as many other casinos I’ve seen. However, the catch is that each reward comes with a 10x wagering requirement, which is kinda heinous. I mean, imagine spending tens of thousands of dollars at a casino and your reward is bonus money that you have to risk losing ten times over.
Additional VIP benefits include priority customer support and exclusive bonuses, but that’s one of those “trust me bro” parts that casinos usually have to entice you without promising anything specific. Naturally, I have no way to test if they’re really going to start bombarding me with amazing bonus offers after I spend an average mortgage on Book of Dead.
Overall, the program itself is solid, but the wagering requirement shoots it in the foot. I’ve seen casinos with comparable rewards that have significantly lower or no wagering requirements on the bonuses, and Vave’s current program isn’t something that would keep me coming back over a long period of time.
Banking & Payment Methods
Vave is a pure crypto casino, and it doesn’t support fiat currency payment options. So, if you’re not interested in playing using crypto, you should take a look at some of our other online casino reviews.
When making a deposit, you can send crypto directly from your wallet. There’s over 90 supported cryptocurrencies for deposits, including BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, XRP, DOGE, TON, ADA, TRX, LTC, BCH, and more. These are displayed in fiat currencies on the site for easier reference, specifically EUR, USD, TRY, PLN, CAD, INR, JPY, or BRL.
Alternatively, if you don’t hold any crypto, you can buy and deposit directly through three different exchanges: Changelly, Kado BTC, and Mercuryo. Of these three, Kado BTC seems to have the lowest fees at the moment, but be sure to check all three if you go this route.
Withdrawal Speed
One of the many benefits of crypto casinos is the transaction speed, as they rarely take longer than half an hour to process. My withdrawals at Vave were quick and in line with my usual expectations. However, they give themselves the “may take 3 days for processing” that many casinos usually do, and the “processing” will likely happen while you’re waiting for payouts on bigger wins.
On the plus side, there are no extra restrictions on the withdrawal methods, but keep in mind that the casino doesn’t convert cryptocurrencies, so you have to withdraw using the same cryptocurrency you deposited.
Responsible gaming
Given the licensing jurisdiction, I didn’t expect any more than the bare minimum in terms of responsible gambling, and my expectations were pretty much on point.
The responsible gaming page on Vave’s site is a grand total of 2 paragraphs of the usual spiel about the importance of responsible gaming, followed by the information on how you can self-exclude with the help of customer support. There are no responsible gaming features to speak of apart from that.
Now, since I’ve occasionally seen licensed casinos go out of their way to hide even the basic responsible gaming features from players, Vave gets a lukewarm thumbs up for doing the bare minimum and informing the players that self-exclusion is an option.
Customer Support at Vave
The customer support at Vave is solid, if a bit counterintuitive. As is common with online casinos, the first and most convenient line of support is the live chat.
However, the live chat option is tucked away at the bottom of the sidebar, while the prominent chat icon in the lower right corner of the screen is actually a live chat for players who are currently online. On top of that, the contact page only lists the two contact emails (one for support and one for complaints). So, I can imagine some players might look over the site, miss the live chat function, and simply assume email is the only way to get in touch with agents.
Apart from that, it was all smooth sailing. The site has a chatbot that will walk you through some common problems you might encounter first, complete with step-by-step guides and screenshots. If that doesn’t work, you’ll be patched through to an agent, and they always replied instantly whenever I reached out.
The alternative is the email, but as it usually goes, it’s nowhere near as responsive, and I waited several hours for a response each time. Still, every agent I talked to was quite thorough and helpful, so only positive things on that front.
KYC
I was hoping to see looser KYC procedures, given the jurisdiction and the fact this is a crypto casino, but there’s still a mandatory verification all users have to go through. Thankfully, Vave is fully transparent on this front: they reserve the right to verify your identity before they release any winnings, and they only require a personal ID.
The casino does state in the terms that they will close your account and confiscate any winnings if you don’t pass the checks within 2 weeks of the process starting, which seems a bit extreme but we haven’t had any complaints about Vave abusing this. Still, it seems to be a very abusable clause and I saw a couple of complaints on other sites that could be related to it, but they all seem to have been resolved.
The bottom line is, there are other crypto casinos if you want to play anonymously, and it’s best to take care of the KYC procedure before making any deposits at Vave, just to be safe.
Vave Casino Experience and Features
The Vave website is more or less in line with what you can expect from online casinos in terms of layout. It’s dominated by muted greens and dark blues. This makes games and promotional banners/buttons stick out more, although I’m personally not too big of a fan of the color scheme.
Navigation is a breeze, as there’s a top bar with the 5 main categories of the casino: slots, live casino, racing, sports betting, and live betting. Meanwhile, the sidebar changes to show subcategories within each category, so browsing is also extremely convenient.
The search function is a bit basic, but it’s good enough due to the preset subcategories and the ability to narrow games down by provider. The only thing missing is the ability to filter games by RTP, but I figure that might be a bit of a hassle to implement since Vave seems to use real play data for the RTP percentages they display.
Brand games
Vave Casino Game Providers
There’s over 80 providers currently available on Vave, and there’s plenty of names that stick out immediately: BGaming, Nolimit City, Playtech, Evoplay, Gamomat, NetEnt, Habanero, Play’n GO, Pragmatic Play, Spinomenal, Spribe, the list goes on.
These are all staple names at most online casinos and you can count on them for high-quality games, but there’s also a bunch of lesser known providers for those who are looking to try something new. In fact, there’s even a handful of games unique to Vave.
Vave Slots
At the moment Vave has over 7500 slots on offer, which makes for about as much variety as you can expect. You can search the games easily or narrow down the selection by provider, but the casino also has a number of useful categories you can browse.
These categories include the most popular slots, the latest releases, slots with bonus buy features, and a special category for non-slot games such as Spribe’s Aviator or Plinko. I would’ve loved to see separate categories for jackpots, high volatility slots, and high RTP slots, though. The latter feels like a missed opportunity since Vave does display the RTP of each slot game on their site, making it easy to spot the ones with the best odds.
Live Dealer Games
Vave’s live casino was nothing short of impressive, both in terms of selection and how it’s set up. There’s a total of 13 providers, including leading brands such as Pragmatic Play, Evolution, and Ezugi, as well as smaller but recognizable names like Atmosfera.
The live games are all divided into their respective categories: roulette, poker, blackjack, baccarat, and game shows. This is a must for any casino with a selection this broad, as it’s necessary both for general UX and for finding specific variants of popular games.
About the Vave Team and History
Vave comes across as a bit of an oddball when you look into its history. It was founded in 2022, so it’s been around for a while, but it seems to have changed hands recently. It used to be owned by TechOptions B.V. and licensed in Curacao. Now, it’s owned by Chestoption Sociedad De Responsabilidad Limitada, it no longer holds the Curacao license, and the operator is registered in Costa Rica.
Unsurprisingly, I couldn’t dig up much about this transition. Maybe the casino was sold, maybe the company rebranded and moved, we can only speculate. The most important thing to keep in mind is that the casino no longer has a Curacao license, and Costa Rica isn’t a very reliable jurisdiction, so we’ll keep an eye out for how Vave fares under this new management.
Complaints and Track Record
We’ve had a few minor complaints about Vave over the years, but they were all minor, run-of-the-mill issues that were resolved without much hassle. However, given the recent change in ownership and licensing, you should definitely exercise caution if you choose to play here.
Want to learn more about how we review and rate casinos? Check out our casino review methodology and the Casinomeister rating system for more insight.
Casino Facts
Founded | 2022 |
Jurisdictions | Costa Rica |
Casino representative | |
Affiliate program | Vave Partners |
Is this casino certified at Casinomeister | No |
Payout Time | 24 hrs |
Reverse Time | N/A |
Payout Limits | USDT 50,000/month |
Weekend Payouts | Yes |
Locks Withdrawals | No |