WinStar Casino Review:

Launched in 2018 by GAN PLC, WinStar Casino is a bold and bright gaming site loosely affiliated with one of the world’s biggest land-based casinos – the WinStar World Casino and Resort. The online site has an intriguing selection of games for UK players, including many exclusive slots. In addition, you will get a hefty welcome bonus, including free spins and bonus cash, when you sign up and make your first deposit at WinStar Casino.

WinStar Casino takes its branding from – and shares a marketing platform with – the WinStar World Casino & Resort, which is one of the world’s biggest land-based casinos. The UK WinStar Casino site is operated independently by GAN PLC, however, and falls under the jurisdiction of the UK Gambling Commission and Alderney Gambling Control Commission (overseas players). Despite this tie-up and complicated structure, GAN PLC is very much front-facing and accessible, with an address registered in Kensington High Street, London.

WinStar Casino employs TST, an accredited casino software testing body with over 25 years of experience, to test casino games for fairness and randomness. WinStar uses the latest SSL encryption software to ensure your details and any financial transactions you make are secure. The site has received a certificate from GoDaddy asserting that WinStar has taken the necessary steps for encryption and data security.

WinStar Casino is a relatively new online casino site, so there isn’t a massive amount of player feedback as of yet. What we have seen so far, however, is mainly positive. Players are keen to cite WinStar Casino’s exclusive game selection and fast withdrawal times as the main plus points. Both Casinomeister and AskGamblers have given WinStar Casino strongly positive reviews. We also like that the customer service team tends to engage with disgruntled players on review forums, a sign that WinStar wants to build a strong reputation in the UK online casino market.

A broad choice of payment methods, including PayPal, is available at WinStar Casino. Fast withdrawals are offered, with processing completed within 24 hours.

The Welcome Bonus at WinStar Casino offers a boost of bonus cash and tons of free spins to use on five hit slot games. Your first deposit will be matched 100%, up to a maximum of £100. A minimum of £10 is required to activate the welcome bonus, but please note that Skrill and Neteller deposits are excepted from the promotion. The bonus money must be wagered 45 times before it can be withdrawn, with most slots counting 100% towards wagering, and blackjack and roulette counting 10 and 25% respectively. Winnings accrued through bonus funds are capped at £1000.

Once you make the first deposit, you will also trigger a bonus of 100 free spins. These are released in batches of 20 for each of your first five days as a member of WinStar Casino. The free spins are available for five popular NetEnt games: Starburst, Gonzo’s Quest, BerryBurst, Finn and the Swirly Spin and Pyramid: Quest for Immortality. The same x45 wagering is applied to winnings from free spins.

Once you make a second deposit, WinStar Casino will offer you a 50% matched deposit bonus up to a value of £150. Again, the bonus amount must be wagered 45 times before it can be withdrawn and that £1000 maximum win cap is also applied. A £5 max bet is applied to all bonuses in respect to meeting wagering requirements.

Overall, the welcome package looks fairly generous, especially for casual or new casino players. The wagering requirements are somewhat on the high side, but it should be pointed out that it is the bonus funds only that must be wagered and not the total balance of bonus + deposit. We aren’t fans of maximum win caps, but £1000 would still represent a handsome return. In sum, there is enough on offer with the WinStar Casino welcome bonus to allow you to explore the site and perhaps walk away with a tidy wedge should you meet the wagering requirements.

In total, you will find just under 500 games at WinStar Casino. While a few casinos might boast a bigger selection, we are particularly impressed with WinStar’s collection of exclusive games and the use of smaller games developers alongside the well-known software providers. The exclusive games come from developers like Konami, Incredible Technologies and Everi Games, with titles including Total Meltdown, Zoltar and Robin Hood: Riches of Sherwood Forest. Those titles are part of the selection of around 30 unique games that you will not find at other UK online casinos.

Of course, if you want to find smash hit games, WinStar Casino offers those too. NetEnt provides a huge number of titles, including Warlords, Scudamore’s Super Stakes and Blood Suckers, but there are also popular titles from IGT, WMS and Barcrest. We are particularly impressed by the selection of the latter’s signature series – Rainbow Riches – which includes the popular new slots Rainbow Riches: Home Sweet Home and Rainbow Riches: Leprechaun’s Gold. Possibly the only downside to the slot selection is that there is nothing on offer from Microgaming. But the rich offering from other developers and those exclusive titles more than makes up for the omission.

A rounded selection of jackpot slot games is also available at WinStar Casino, with just over 30 titles in total. Like the video slots section, there is a nice blend between big name jackpot slots – Monopoly Millionaire, Cleopatra: Mega Jackpots, Rango – and some progressive games you won’t have seen elsewhere, including Platoon: Wild Progressive and Tetris Super Jackpots.

Virtual roulette, poker and blackjack are well covered at WinStar Casino, with special variants like Blackjack Super 7s and Roulette Double Bonus Spin among the picks from the 40+ virtual casino games. We also like that WinStar Casino has a dedicated video poker section, something which is often overlooked by new online casinos. Top video poker titles from the selection of around 25 games include Five Play Draw Poker and Double Bonus Poker. A nice choice of instant win and arcade games is also available, including the brilliant Rainbow Riches: Leapin’ Leprechauns.

The live casino is powered by NetEnt, offering options for live dealer roulette, blackjack and poker, as well as unique live casino games like Lucky 7 and War of Bets. We would like to see WinStar Casino expand its offering of NetEnt’s live dealer games. However, it’s still a strong selection, and, once again, there are live games which you won’t often find at other online casinos.

A final note on the layout and design of the WinStar Casino site. The designers have used a colorful, yet minimalistic, style, dividing the site into sections like slots, roulette, jackpots etc. A search function allows you to find games by title. It would be nice to have options to search by game developer or special features, but it’s easy enough to get around and find what you are looking for. A further neat touch is the scrolling section that details the latest big winners on the WinStar Casino site.

WinStar Casino has an official mobile ap, which can be downloaded for any modern smartphone or tablet using iOS or Android software. The app is just as slick and speedy as the desktop site, although only around 75% of the total offered on desktop can be played on mobile. Still, there are around 375 titles and the majority of big-name slots are customised for mobile casino play these days, so there is plenty to entertain.

We should point out that on testing the WinStar Casino mobile app, we did detect a bit of ‘bugginess’ on loading some pages, including the live dealer section. However, as it’s a brand-new mobile casino app, we will give WinStar Casino the benefit of the doubt that it will iron out these wrinkles sooner rather than later.

We often see with new online casinos that it takes a little bit of time to roll out a steady stream of casino promotions. That’s normal, and it does become a case of trial and error as casinos work out which type of promos players like. WinStar Casino has a few frequent promotions, but there is definitely the scope to add a few more over time.

The good news is that the current promotions are pretty strong. For example, WinStar Casino selects a Super Slot (currently Zoltar online slot) each month, and it will reward 40 free spins (wagering on winnings is x30) when £40 has been wagered. This promotion is valid once per day, and you do not need to make a new deposit to activate it each time. A similar promo is offered with 15 free spins on Spinata Grande with each £30 deposited. Again, winnings have x30 wagering requirements and you can reclaim the bonus every 24 hours.

WinStar Casino has a personalised rewards scheme – Black Star. You will earn a Black Star point for each £5 wagered on slots, £10 wagered on roulette or £25 wagered on blackjack and other titles. When you accumulate enough points, you can trade them for bonus cash and other rewards like free spins. There isn’t a defined VIP scheme, but you can get better rewards in the store by accumulating more points and moving through the tiers. If you do feel you are a high roller deserving of VIP treatment, we’d recommend you contact the customer service team at WinStar after you sign up.