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Skol Casino Review NZ - NZ$1300 + 250 Free spins
Kia ora, friends! Today I will be reviewing a brand you probably haven’t heard of yet, Skol Casino, which could be a hidden gem for Kiwis because of 100+ pokie providers. Interested? I will deposit my own real money to play the games at Skol casino, so you can read about my experience, no holds barred. What is the payout of the games? Did I win anything? Were the bonuses easy to claim? Did I get paid quickly? Did I get paid at all?? Read all about that in my own personal Skol casino review, where you can also read about the company behind the brand and see what other players have to say about Skol.
Skol Casino is part of a larger White Hat Gaming group that owns 24 casinos, most of which run on United Kingdom and Malta licences. Think of this organisation as a slot aggregator service that then wraps the games up into specific brands, one of which is Skol, named after the Viking word for a toast to a group when you raise your glass to drink.
Skol Casino
100% up to NZ$1300 + 250 Free spins
- More than 100 pokie providers
- Pokie selection curated
- Some pokies set to highest RTP setting
| Wagering: | x35 |
| Payout time: | 0-5 Days |
| Deposit options: | Paysafecard, Visa, Mastercard, Skrill, Neteller, MuchBetter, PayPal |
| Payout options: | Visa, Mastercard, Skrill, Neteller, MuchBetter, bank transfer |
| Paying rate: | 95.40% | Providers: | 1x2 Gaming, 4ThePlayer, Ad Lunam, AGS, Ainsworth, Alchemy Gaming, All41 Studios, Apollo Gaming, Area Vegas, Armadillo Studios, Asylum Labs, Aurum, Authentic Gaming, AvatarUX, BGaming, Big Time Gaming, Blue Guru Games, Blue Ring Studios, Blueprint Gaming, Booming Games, Buck Stakes, BullShark, Chance Interactive, Coin Machine, Colossus Bets, Crazy Tooth Studio, Crucible, Design Works, DWG, Electric Elephant, ELK Studios, Endemol, Evolution, Ezugi, Fantasma, Felt, Fortune Factory, Four Leaf, Foxium, Gacha, Gameburger, Games Inc, Gamevy, Gaming Corps, Gold Coin, Golden Rock, Gong Gaming Tech, Greentube, Hacksaw Gaming, Half Pixel Studios, Hammertime Games, High Limit Studios, IGT, Infinity Dragon, INO, Inspired Gaming, Iron Dog, Jade Rabbit, Jelly Games, JustForTheWin, Kalamba, Lady Luck, Leander, Leap Gaming, Lightning, Live 5 Gaming, Lucksome, Max Win, Merkur, Microgaming, Nailed It, Neko, Neon Valley, Net Gaming, NetEnt, NoLimit City, Northern Lights, NYX, Old Skool, On Air Entertainment, Oros, Oryx, Pear Fiction, Peter and Sons, PG Soft, Play'n GO, Playzido, Pragmatic Play, Print Studios, Prospect Gaming, Pulse 8, Push Gaming, Rabcat, RAW iGaming, Realistic Games, Red 7, Red Rake Gaming, Red Tiger, ReelPlay, Reel Time Gaming, Relax, Revolver Gaming, Ruby Play, S Games, Scientific Games, Silverback, Skywind, Slingo, Slingshot Studios, Snowborn Games, Spearhead, Spin Play, Spinmatic, Spinomenal, Stakelogic, Storm Gaming, Stormcraft, Swintt, Switch Studios, Synot Games, Thunderkick, Tom Horn Gaming, Triple Edge Studios, Wazdan, Wishbone Games |
| Game types: | Video Poker, Bingo, Online Poker, Roulette, Baccarat, Craps, Scratch Cards, Keno |
| Pokies games: | 3500+ |
| Live games: | 96+ |
| Mobile App: | Website |
| Minimum deposit: | NZD10 |
| Enstablished: | 2021 |
| Licence: | Malta |
Skol Casino Rating
Pros and Cons
- More than 100 pokie providers
- Pokie selection curated
- Some pokies set to highest RTP setting
- Very limited range of payment methods
- No cryptocurrencies
- Bad design and website navigation
- Reduces RTP of pokies, but not all
My Playing Experience at Skol Casino
| Timing: | 12 hours |
| Registration: | 3 minutes |
| KYC: | Proof of ID, proof of address |
| Support: | Fast reply, professional |
| Playing time: | 10 hours |
| Deposit and withdrawal: | I deposited with MuchBetter, requested a withdrawal the same way. |
How much I deposited and what bonus I got
It was a mare to deposit to Skol. I no longer use Skrill and Neteller, and my Mastercard deposit didn’t go through for some reason. The only other options were MyPaysafecard (so, no direct voucher deposit, you need a Paysafe account) and MuchBetter. I opted for the latter, had to sign up and get verified in order to manage to send my Mastercard deposit there (with a 2.5% fee) so I can use MuchBetter to send to Skol. A mare, I’m telling you.
This process took so long that I chose not to claim any bonuses, I just wanted to deposit, play a little, and withdraw what’s left of my money. Let’s see how fast you can do that at Skol!
I must say right off the bat that I dislike the mobile website. The navigation menus and things to click are always where I don’t expect them to be, and I feel Skol isn’t taking full use of the screen, it looks empty, there is no way to ever see more than nine pokies on a single screen at the lobby. If you already have only nine then fill the screen with them, don’t show such small icons. I also didn’t like the splash screen when I clicked the pokie. I just want to play.
I tried to play Secrets of Cleopatra while I was waiting to get verified at MuchBetter, in demo mode of course as I had no real funds yet, but couldn’t. Got a warning that the transaction (my spin) failed because there are no funds at the account.
Then I tried Skol Casino Branded Megaways pokie, and it worked in demo mode. My verification was completed so I deposited some funds and continued playing for real as the payment was fast. It’s a decent pokie even though it doesn’t look very good since it doesn’t have any theme, but the RTP of 96.20% is okay.
After a while, I had formed a habit of quickly glancing at the RTP on the pokie splash screen, and I didn’t play any that had RTP below 96%, no matter what.
Registration Process
The registration was quick but the verification email ended up in my spam folder. So check yours if you aren’t getting the email to your inbox.
Welcome Bonuses
The welcome package gives you a cash bonus plus up to 250 free spins on Starburst. What the.. The 2010s called, they want their low variance pokie back!
I had to read the terms carefully to figure out what’s going on. You can get a welcome bonus on your first five deposits. The first bonus is 100% up to €300 plus 100 free spins, which you’ll get at a rate of 25 per day for 4 days.
Second, third and fourth deposits are progressively worse as you get 75%, 50% and the ridiculous 25% bonus on your deposits, plus up to 75, 50 and 25 free spins respectively. It’s as if they want to reward you less and less. Well done. The fifth deposit bonus is decent at 100% up to €100, but no free spins.
Key Terms and Conditions
- Minimum deposit is €10
- The maximum bet is €5
- Wagering requirement is 35x the total of bonus funds and bonus spins
- Deposits made by Skrill and Neteller don’t apply for the promotion
Bonus Wagering Requirements are Strange
Skol Casino is fixated on not letting you play high-RTP slots to meet the wagering requirements. All slots contribute 100% except for 13 specific pokies that contribute 20% and a long list of almost 500 pokies that contribute 0%! Five hundred pokies! That’s a fifth of the portfolio.
What did Towering Pays Valhalla pokie ever do to you, Skol Casino?
Games you can play at Skol Casino
Skol Casino, being part of an aggregator platform that could honestly launch a new casino brand within a week, does a pretty good job offering the top pokies to Kiwi players. There are over 100 providers to choose from! The live dealer section is a bit neglected but functional. It all sums up to a decent gaming environment.
Pokies at Skol Casino
Skol is taking an interesting approach by including a lot of providers – and I mean a lot. There are well over 100 pokie providers at Skol. However, Skol is carefully cherry picking the slots that they want to include, so they didn’t end up with 10,000 slots – they only got around 3,500 for an average of about 30-35 per provider. That’s an excellent choice. Skol is, effectively, curating the offer of pokies to include only the best ones. Choice!
However, the pokie lobby design is poor. The first few pokies I see – in the Popular section – are Persian Jewels, 4 Masks Inca, Songkran Splash, Story of Alice, Moonlight Fortune, Toro Shogun. I’ve never heard of any of these. This is not a list of the most popular pokies worldwide and definitely not a list of the most popular pokies in New Zealand.
If you’re playing at Skol, you’d better know exactly what game you want to play, otherwise you’d have to rely on their strange lists and you’ll have to click around a lot on a sluggish website.
Pokie RTP Test
It isn’t difficult to do a check of numerous pokies’ RTP values quickly at Skol Casino as they’re kind enough to put all the RTPs on a single page (scroll down to Game RTP). A quick check reveals that they tend to keep the Pragmatic Play pokies set to their lowest RTP settings, as the ones I checked were all at 94.50% and they can be set to 96.50% if the casino wants to. Skol usually doesn’t want to.
When I was playing Big Bass Bonanza the splash screen said the game has an RTP of 95.76%, but when I opened the info screen inside the game it said 96.71%. The Game RTP page also said 95.76%. This is inaccurate, probably a typo, as the Big Bass Bonanza middle RTP setting is 95.67%. The game was obviously set to high anyway.
| Pokie | Provider | RTP at Skol | Maximum RTP setting |
| Rise of Coins | Synot Games | 94.09% | 96.13% |
| Big Bass Splash | Pragmatic Play | 94.60% | 96.71% |
| Goal Blitz | Iron Dog Studio | 93.25% | 96.13% |
| Legends of the Colosseum Megaways | Synot Games | 94.12% | 96.12% |
| Secrets of Cleopatra | PG Soft | 96.74% | 96.74% |
| Fire in the Hole xBomb | NoLimit City | 96.06% | 96.06% |
| Big Bass Bonanza | Pragmatic Play | 96.71% | 96.71% |
I see it as a good sign that Skol has at least some pokies set to their highest RTP setting, and they also tell you what the RTP is on the pokie splash screen before the game is launched so you can see it quickly. It’s totally your fault if you ignore the 93.25% RTP and play Goal Blitz anyway.
I’ve found some high-RTP games: Mermaids Millions at 97.00%, Money Cart 98.00%, Money Cart 2 at 98.00%, Bikini Party 98.00%, Break the Bounty LuckyTap 98.05%, Classic Joker 5 Reels 98.00%, Couch Potato 98.00%, Dragon Dance 98.00%, Marching Legions 98.12%.
So, Skol does reduce RTP, but there are plenty of high-RTP games to choose from. Just be mindful of this. I guess I need to update my criteria – in this day and age, it’s a good thing if a casino has any pokie set to the highest setting when given a choice.
Live Dealer Games
Skol has live dealer games by Evolution, Ezugi, Authentic Gaming and OnAir Entertainment. That’s decent but not world class. Also, there are only around 100 games to play, that’s not much, I expect to see double that at the very least. This is a small live casino that can serve as a break from pokie playing, no more than that. The true live dealer aficionados won’t like Skol very much.
Payment Methods
Deposit
Paysafecard, Visa, Mastercard, Skrill, Neteller, MuchBetter
Withdrawal
Visa, Mastercard, Skrill, Neteller, MuchBetter, bank transfer
Like I said, Skol is very limited when it comes to deposit options. This was the worst part of my playing experience, I must say, as I had to get out of my way to sign up with an e-wallet just to be able to make a deposit to Skol.
Does Skol use NZD natively?
Skol Casino offers NZD as a currency but that’s just a website skin, so to speak, as all the bonuses and everything else on the website is described in EUR. They’ll process your payment in NZD alright, to your NZ bank account too, but this isn’t one of those casinos that cater to Kiwis fully.
How fast did I get my withdrawal from Skol?
A week after I first tapped the Withdrawal button, I’m still waiting. My plan to get in and out quickly was ruined.
It’s the KYC verification that ate up most of the time, and I don’t really blame the casino for this, some do it faster, some do it slower. Skol does it slower as I believe they share the KYC department with the other casinos from the White Hat Gaming group, and there are a lot of them, so a lot of documents to process.
The payment to MuchBetter wasn’t done immediately, and the week had already gone through. I will update this page when/if I get paid.
Customer Support
I was amazed by my experience with the customer support. Take a squiz at this. You know how slow and dumb the customer support usually sounds, right? It’s like talking to a law enforcement officer.
Well, not Günther. The man was so competent and sent out messages so quickly that I asked him if he was a bot. He wasn’t. He sent me my password request email manually, made me choose a PIN so I can access the customer support faster next time, and then tried to sell me some bonuses and enable more marketing channels for me. All that in three minutes. Kudos, Günther. You’re a rockstar.
Skol Casino Company Information and Licencing
Skol Casino is a brand managed by White Hat Gaming Limited, a company registered in Malta with registration number C73232 and a registered office at 85 St John Street, Valletta, VLT1165, Malta. The company has two licences – one for the UK and one for everyone else. This is standard practice.
The United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) licence number is 52894 and the Malta Gaming Authority licence number is MGA/B2C/370/2017, issued in August 2018. The Malta licence applies whenever you’re not a UK resident, which means that Kiwis play at Skol under that Malta licence and are protected by the MGA.
Sister Casinos
White Hat Gaming is actually a casino aggregator platform. This allows the company to launch numerous casinos. At time of writing, I counted 24. White Hat originally started out with a Curacao licence under the company Caddell Limited N.V. so this upwardly mobile group was swimming in murky waters for many years before managing to get their hands on a UKGC licence.
How other players rate Skol Casino
Skol isn’t among the most popular casinos out there so it was difficult to find people who have something positive or negative to say about it.
So I checked reviews for other White Hat Gaming brands. Three of the casinos: Casimba, Grand Ivy and Casilando had the worst reviews, especially from UK players who frequently say they didn’t manage to withdraw funds.
Is Skol Casino legit or a scam?
I can’t say for sure. Look at it this way. It’s not one of those casinos that are legit through and through, this brand is yet another cash machine for the owners. That being said, I can’t say you won’t get paid here. All I can say is that I know people don’t get paid at some other White Hat Gaming casinos.
I like the honesty of always displaying the RTP of pokies though. They have some pokies set to the highest setting, which is, sadly, something that we must pause to appreciate in this day and age.
