bowlingbob
Full Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2008
- Location
- usa
Years ago I said I would never play another Rival casino again given how shady and sketchy most of them are. Yet I've been keeping an eye on the Tropica -Baptism by Fire thread and reading most of the glowing reviews of the casino.
I decided to give them a try with a $30 deposit and using a 100% match with a modest 20x WR. I made sure to read the terms carefully. They have a 10% max bet rule on the deposit only. I made sure to go to the banking tab and check the minimum for withdrawls which is 100 which is important to me if I'm making a small deposit that I'm not going to have to chase some crazy minimum withdrawl like some casinos offer. The one bothersome thing is the only withdrawl option is Wire Transfer. There is NO mention of any fees on either the website or in the software so a player can assume that there is no fee's with this option, otherwise it would be stated.
On to playing, I played a mixture of mostly slots and some blackjack as thats a game I fancy a lot. I was very careful not to go over the bet size of $3 on any game. Maybe some of you might see where this is going. After some luck and decent play, I was able to make wagering with a balance of $140. Now I understand the bonus money isn't cashable so that leaves me with $110 and I know from my bank's website that they charge a $15-20 International Wire Transfer Fee so that leaves around $90.
I contacted Dieter on here because many have said he is very easy to work with and is very active with the members. Indeed he was able to get back to me quickly with some concerns I had with filling out the wire transfer because the casinos requires a SWIFT code to process the transaction. My bank and many other smaller banks in the U.S. DO NOT have a swift code. This part of the conversation kind of broke off because Dieter informed me the casino charges a $50 fee for a wire transfer under $250. That's nice to know because no where on there site does it mention that otherwise I simply would not have made a deposit to begin with. This should be a warning to any of you that decide to play here that if you decide to play with a small amount bonus or not and choose to withdrawl a $100-$250 balance your money WILL get eaten up by fees once it's made its way to you.
So in my example, I was left with $140 to withdrawl - $30 bonus - Tropica Casino $50 wire fee - $15-20 bank wire fee - 3% intl bank fee to make the initial deposit I would be left with about $40 only $10 above what I put in. WASTE OF TIME. I can't imagine how disgusted people that play their free chips with the $100 max cashout rule must feel when they finally make the wagering and put in for the withdrawl what they actually end up with in their banks after all the fees.
So after getting no where with Dieter on this because simply put a casino that WANTS to be accredited here should offer the customer transparency with regards to fee's by posting the schedule on their website or in the software. The response back was that it is indeed stated in the software there may be fees however I provided him a screen shot of his software where he told me to go look and nothing is listed. He responded back to me that it's on their back end the rules regarding cashouts for USA players and laid them out nicely for me in a PM. That's nice they back office can see them but the player cannot. Very unprofessional and unacceptable.
After realizing the fees would eat up nearly all my balance that I had I regretted having to play on to achieve over $250 in order for the wire transfer to be free payout. Almost immediately I hit a $200 bonus on a $2 bet that put me over that threshold. I submitted all the documents and used my other bank that does have a SWIFT code however I was reluctant to use that because I prefer for many good reasons like other US players to keep separate accounts for online gaming.
After all that hassle, I get the dreaded email where the casino pulls the FU clause and denies your payout. In the email they stated I broke the max bet rule of 10% by placing wagers of more than $2.50 but wait I deposited $30 so $3 should be the max bet. I went to the live support with a very unfriendly agent who explained to me it didn't matter if it was $2.50 or $3 I broke the rules by playing blackjack at $3 a hand and arrogantly told me to manage my bets more accordingly.
So you ask how did I break this rule because like I stated earlier I was very careful not to place any bets over $3 however in the game of blackjack there is the split and double down option which really is a SEPARATE bet the way the game is played. This is a predatory reason to deny the winnings and imo rogue outfit to allow the user to play Blackjack on a bonus but limit his bets to a total of 10% of his deposit. So with a $30 deposit realistically my max bet was only $1 if I wanted to split or double down. That's really pathetic and the ONLY reason they allow the player to play these table games on the bonus is so later they can come back and deny the withdrawl. Simply put I've played blackjack for 20 years mostly in the casino and when you place a bet and you are dealt A,A for example you place a separate bet besides the original bet and the hand is split to two hands. Same with doubling down, your bet is placed besides your original bet and you are given one card. Therefore it is a separate bet. Adding the bets together is a rogue way of enticing the player to break the max bet terms while playing a table game while on a bonus as some hands you are dealt in blackjack can be split up to 4 ways with double down opportunities when following basic strategies of blackjack. This is a predatory practice that I would expect only rogue casino outfits to employ to deny legitimate winnings to players. This casino and all others who use terms similar to these SHOULD BE AVOIDED.
In closing, I know as a USA player we don't have many options but there are certainly much better places where you don't have landmines waiting for you fall into and be denied your winnings. Based on the ridiculous unstated wire fees and predatory terms Tropica Casino should be avoided. Don't be like me and believe everything you may read on here in other threads. My initial read on Rival casinos years ago was they were all rogue outfits and after my hard lesson learned today that feeling hasn't changed one bit.
As a side note, I recently took a gamble last month and deposited $20 into Cleo's VIP room, inadvisable I know but it was only $20 and using a welcome 400% match(which was cashable) with no max payouts I successfully withdrew $5,000. While they did have a max bet term also of 10% however it was based on deposit + bonus and it DID NOT apply to blackjack where I was making bets on multiple hands of up to $100 per playing spot and had a good run. Yes the cash out process was pretty slow it took 3 weeks to receive the first payment but I wouldn't hesitate to play there again.
Take care and sorry for the long rant but just felt I should share my awful experience at Tropica Casino and help other players who may be on the fence about playing there another players perspective to the many positive reviews listed on this site.
I decided to give them a try with a $30 deposit and using a 100% match with a modest 20x WR. I made sure to read the terms carefully. They have a 10% max bet rule on the deposit only. I made sure to go to the banking tab and check the minimum for withdrawls which is 100 which is important to me if I'm making a small deposit that I'm not going to have to chase some crazy minimum withdrawl like some casinos offer. The one bothersome thing is the only withdrawl option is Wire Transfer. There is NO mention of any fees on either the website or in the software so a player can assume that there is no fee's with this option, otherwise it would be stated.
On to playing, I played a mixture of mostly slots and some blackjack as thats a game I fancy a lot. I was very careful not to go over the bet size of $3 on any game. Maybe some of you might see where this is going. After some luck and decent play, I was able to make wagering with a balance of $140. Now I understand the bonus money isn't cashable so that leaves me with $110 and I know from my bank's website that they charge a $15-20 International Wire Transfer Fee so that leaves around $90.
I contacted Dieter on here because many have said he is very easy to work with and is very active with the members. Indeed he was able to get back to me quickly with some concerns I had with filling out the wire transfer because the casinos requires a SWIFT code to process the transaction. My bank and many other smaller banks in the U.S. DO NOT have a swift code. This part of the conversation kind of broke off because Dieter informed me the casino charges a $50 fee for a wire transfer under $250. That's nice to know because no where on there site does it mention that otherwise I simply would not have made a deposit to begin with. This should be a warning to any of you that decide to play here that if you decide to play with a small amount bonus or not and choose to withdrawl a $100-$250 balance your money WILL get eaten up by fees once it's made its way to you.
So in my example, I was left with $140 to withdrawl - $30 bonus - Tropica Casino $50 wire fee - $15-20 bank wire fee - 3% intl bank fee to make the initial deposit I would be left with about $40 only $10 above what I put in. WASTE OF TIME. I can't imagine how disgusted people that play their free chips with the $100 max cashout rule must feel when they finally make the wagering and put in for the withdrawl what they actually end up with in their banks after all the fees.
So after getting no where with Dieter on this because simply put a casino that WANTS to be accredited here should offer the customer transparency with regards to fee's by posting the schedule on their website or in the software. The response back was that it is indeed stated in the software there may be fees however I provided him a screen shot of his software where he told me to go look and nothing is listed. He responded back to me that it's on their back end the rules regarding cashouts for USA players and laid them out nicely for me in a PM. That's nice they back office can see them but the player cannot. Very unprofessional and unacceptable.
After realizing the fees would eat up nearly all my balance that I had I regretted having to play on to achieve over $250 in order for the wire transfer to be free payout. Almost immediately I hit a $200 bonus on a $2 bet that put me over that threshold. I submitted all the documents and used my other bank that does have a SWIFT code however I was reluctant to use that because I prefer for many good reasons like other US players to keep separate accounts for online gaming.
After all that hassle, I get the dreaded email where the casino pulls the FU clause and denies your payout. In the email they stated I broke the max bet rule of 10% by placing wagers of more than $2.50 but wait I deposited $30 so $3 should be the max bet. I went to the live support with a very unfriendly agent who explained to me it didn't matter if it was $2.50 or $3 I broke the rules by playing blackjack at $3 a hand and arrogantly told me to manage my bets more accordingly.
So you ask how did I break this rule because like I stated earlier I was very careful not to place any bets over $3 however in the game of blackjack there is the split and double down option which really is a SEPARATE bet the way the game is played. This is a predatory reason to deny the winnings and imo rogue outfit to allow the user to play Blackjack on a bonus but limit his bets to a total of 10% of his deposit. So with a $30 deposit realistically my max bet was only $1 if I wanted to split or double down. That's really pathetic and the ONLY reason they allow the player to play these table games on the bonus is so later they can come back and deny the withdrawl. Simply put I've played blackjack for 20 years mostly in the casino and when you place a bet and you are dealt A,A for example you place a separate bet besides the original bet and the hand is split to two hands. Same with doubling down, your bet is placed besides your original bet and you are given one card. Therefore it is a separate bet. Adding the bets together is a rogue way of enticing the player to break the max bet terms while playing a table game while on a bonus as some hands you are dealt in blackjack can be split up to 4 ways with double down opportunities when following basic strategies of blackjack. This is a predatory practice that I would expect only rogue casino outfits to employ to deny legitimate winnings to players. This casino and all others who use terms similar to these SHOULD BE AVOIDED.
In closing, I know as a USA player we don't have many options but there are certainly much better places where you don't have landmines waiting for you fall into and be denied your winnings. Based on the ridiculous unstated wire fees and predatory terms Tropica Casino should be avoided. Don't be like me and believe everything you may read on here in other threads. My initial read on Rival casinos years ago was they were all rogue outfits and after my hard lesson learned today that feeling hasn't changed one bit.
As a side note, I recently took a gamble last month and deposited $20 into Cleo's VIP room, inadvisable I know but it was only $20 and using a welcome 400% match(which was cashable) with no max payouts I successfully withdrew $5,000. While they did have a max bet term also of 10% however it was based on deposit + bonus and it DID NOT apply to blackjack where I was making bets on multiple hands of up to $100 per playing spot and had a good run. Yes the cash out process was pretty slow it took 3 weeks to receive the first payment but I wouldn't hesitate to play there again.
Take care and sorry for the long rant but just felt I should share my awful experience at Tropica Casino and help other players who may be on the fence about playing there another players perspective to the many positive reviews listed on this site.
but any one that plays should no the rule
