Casino Review: Ricardo’s Casino

Ricardo’s Casino opened its virtual doors in 2014. And that’s for the second time since it was previously active but closed the year before. Everything about this casino and its ownership group is sketchy, to say the least. Their affiliate program’s website is inactive since 2017. They belong to Cyberrock Entertainment N.V. Casinos. Their online casinos have been blacklisted on several reputable casino review websites.

Over the years, they’ve amounted to a wealth of user complaints about slow and nonexistent payments. They have a ridiculous withdrawal policy, which is poorly explained and buried in the middle of a long Terms and Conditions section, lurking to grab its prey in the shape of an inexperienced player.

Ricardo’s Casino: Your Money Loss

The management was also caught sending threatening messages using aliases to review sites to remove them from their rogue list. They’ve also been tied to the Rome Casino, which used to be a sort of a pinnacle of rogue casinos. Today, many review sites have removed complaints as Ricardo’s Casino was closed, but they are certainly not trusted.

They don’t disclose a list of restricted countries, but after snooping around, we’ve found that people from around 20 countries cannot make an account, such as the Netherlands, Canada, and the United Kingdom. But, Ricardo accepts players from the United States and Australia.

Website Design

Come on now, how cute is that? The last time the word ‘Pentium’ was in use, Oasis was still together, we all used payphones and thought Bill Cosby and Kevin Spacey were nice guys. Since it works with Windows 98 and newer versions, all of you travelers from the future with Windows 2000 needn’t worry.

You can still play (Mr. Clippy, if you’re reading this, none of us miss you). They are even planning a Mac version as soon as Apple comes up with the first one.

Actually, the funniest thing about this is that the casino opened up in 2014, just five years ago. It’s clear they just took someone else’s copy and plastered it onto their website without a single care in the world (we’re not pointing any fingers, but if we were, we’d suggest you compare Ricardo’s FAQ and T&C pages with its sister’s, Tropica Casino).

In fact, you’ll find many similarities in the text. For example, they also have a page that explains how Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, in general, works. Bitcoin has been around for so long it started dying out a bit, yet they represent it as this crazy new thing you probably don’t know about. Let’s face it, and if you don’t know what Bitcoin’s all about and how to pay via this option, you’re not gonna use it then, are you?

The website itself needs a lot of refurbishing — although, you know what they say about polishing a turd, right? The website starts with blue as a dominant color, but it rapidly turns into a ‘white text on black background’ boredom that somehow is still not buried in the past.

Creating an Account

The casino’s age also shows in the fact that it prioritizes downloading a client over instant play. The latter is available; however, it doesn’t open up a registration form when you click on the signup button. Rather than that, it automatically starts downloading the installation file.

You can create an account in-browser only when you click on a game (because they don’t allow you to play a few test spins without an account). And then, the first game begins, called Find the ‘Next’ button. As per usual, the registration form is divided into two or three sections, and you proceed from one to another by clicking the ‘next’ button.

You’ll find it necessary to refresh the page several times and hope for striking lucky for the form to load fully on your screen (if you scroll, the back page moves around, instead of the popup). We’d say you need to restart the form an unneeded amount of times, but anything above zero is unneeded.

On a more positive note, you can easily navigate to relevant pages, like Banking (which doesn’t give enough information at all), T&C, and FAQ are all accessible from the home page. The website is available in English and French.

Licensing

Ricardo’s Casino falls under the jurisdiction of the country of Curaçao, which is one of the rare positives about this casino. Curaçao’s licensing body is not one of the most revered licensing bodies out there, but it still offers respectable service. They have a set of high demands which casinos need to meet to become their licensees. Afterward, the licensing commission offers mediation in disputes between players and casinos, should the two fail to come to an accord on their own.

Terms and Conditions

Again, we come across a dull ‘white text on a black background’ page. It’s quite a workout to go through these terms, as they’ve been written with unnecessary details and complications. For example, when they talk about withdrawals, they express values in credits and not actual currencies. This makes no sense, especially when one credit equals $1. It just adds to the confusion, as if the casino itself is aware that only players who can’t bother reading these T&Cs will hand over their money.

When you start checking it out, the very first two clauses are weird. Irrespective of whether you’re considered an age in your country of origin, Ricardo is not impressed with that. You need to be at least 25 years of age, ‘regardless of gender,’ as they’ve put it.

Sure enough, you can create an account, and they’ll accept your deposits with no warning, but guess what happens? You’ve violated the terms and conditions, and they’ll close your account and withhold your balance. Ouch.

As you can see, we’re only two clauses deep. This means that any time they make a change in their conditions (a minor change in the wording can be enough to affect the terms), you as a player automatically agree to it without even being notified. Consequently, you have to constantly go through the T&Cs if you don’t want to be made a fool of. Saying, “Hey, but it used to be different, I didn’t consent to this!” won’t work.

If you have something to complain about, you need to file the complaint in writing within 5 days. Additionally, if you accept a big win or a jackpot prize, you automatically hand over the rights to the casino to use your first name and your username for their promotional purposes without asking for permission.

Account Cancellation

If you fail to do so, they will not address it. Ricardo’s Casino offers a list of scenarios in which they can delete your account and keep your funds. One of the said scenarios is if you don’t use games ‘as an entertainment’, but rather play professionally. The problem with this is, nobody knows what they’ll regard as professional play.

They can use any number of (made up) reasons for why they’d delete your account. You can ask Ricardo what’s the difference between professional and entertainment, but he won’t say.

They also reserve the right to keep your funds and nullify your account should you be inactive for 90 days (three months). Inactivity means that you don’t place a single wager during this time. You have the right to ask for a withdrawal, but, as they say, they’ll decide on a case-to-case basis, and you can bet your bottom dollar your request will be denied.

Withdrawal Terms

Strap in, this one’s quite a ride. As we’ve said, they express values in credits (1 credit is $1). But, they also express values in USD as well, which makes it even more confusing.

If you make a deposit smaller than $250, you cannot withdraw more than ten times what you’ve deposited. Usually, when there’s a withdrawal above a certain limit, they pay it out in installments. Ricardo’s different. They make the rest of the winnings non-withdrawable, and they void them from your balance.

So, if you deposit $50, you can only take out $500. You can win $50,000, it doesn’t matter, because they will delete the rest as if it never happened. That’s incredibly unlucky for someone lucky enough to win 50k.

They’ve stated that the monthly withdrawal limit is $10,000. However, that’s nonsense. Every transaction, independent of the withdrawal method, takes 15–18 business days to complete. Added to that, the maximum withdrawal limit per transaction is $1500, so it’s mathematically impossible to reach the monthly $10,000 limit. That number’s just for show.

If you request funds north of $1500, they’ll return anything above to your balance, making it essentially locked in your account until a further 20 odd days, as you can’t ask for two withdrawals at the same time. Is that all? No, all methods come with a processing fee of $10–$40, depending on your geographical location.

When you make a deposit, you can’t ask for a withdrawal before you’ve wagered all of it at least once. So, you can’t just add money to meet the minimum withdrawal limit, which stands at $100.

Games and Providers

When it comes to games, there are just under 270 games in the casino’s library. As we’ve mentioned before, you can play directly within your browser via Instant Play. Still, the casino clearly favors downloading a casino client, which grants you access to a greater selection of games.

Alternatively, although there’s no app, they have a well-optimized mobile version of the casino lobby, which you can enter with Android and iOS phones and tablets. The mobile version has around 100 games available.

Rival powers Ricardo’s Casino. Rival is one of the better software providers around, as they create games with amazing visuals and modern designs. One of the things that made Rival stand out is their selection of unique i-Slots. The i-slots are slot machines that come with a storyline.

This way, you don’t just sit around spinning the wheels endlessly. There’s also a story for you to follow. Now you can embark on an epic adventure or have chills go down your spines in a horror-themed game. You can let your mind wander while you’re looking for that winning spin.

The casino doesn’t organize any tournaments, and they have one Blackjack table with a live dealer, but you won’t be able to play that game without downloading the client.

Games Selection

Games are split into slots, i-Slots, table games, video poker, and specialty games. As you’d expect, the majority of the library goes on slot machines. There are 211 slot games. Here, you can find three-reel classic slots if you’re into a bit of old-fashioned fun. Additionally, there are 3D slots with new-age graphics and five-wheel video slots the most players are used to.

You’ll be able to play popular Rival slots like Wild Safari, Opera Night, and Western Wildness. Five machines come with a progressive jackpot, such as Major Moolah, One Million Reels BC, and Money Magic.

Moving on, there are 23 aforementioned i-Slots. You’ll be able to try out some popular titles, including As The Reels Turn, Cosmic Quest, and Japan-o-Rama. Furthermore, you can play 11 table games. These include some of the most common casino games. For example, there are two versions of Blackjack, and there are both American and European Roulette, as well as Red Dog, Pai Gow Poker, and Baccarat.

The video poker section has seven games, and you’ll encounter some of the most popular releases like Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, and Joker Poker.

Finally, there are 16 specialty games. You can test your luck on some lottery games, including several Bingo variants and scratch card games. The game selection rounds off with Keno, Sudoku, and Virtual Racebook.

Financial Information

Before you decide to switch to the real money account, you should know all the available depositing and withdrawing options at Ricardo’s Casino. Available currencies are the USD, the EUR, the GBP, the AUD, and the ZAR.

When you ask for a withdrawal, you’ll need to send a copy of your ID or some other relevant document which confirms your identity. You don’t have to worry about your personal information, though, as the casino utilizes a 256-bit SSL encryption technology, making sure your information doesn’t get leaked to a third party. It takes them up to 48 hours to approve your documentation.

Deposits

When it comes to making deposits, there are several options you can use. The minimum deposit you can make is $25. Depending on which method you choose, the upper limit changes. Here’s the list of all depositing options, together with their maximum deposit limits:

• Visa: $1500
• Mastercard: $1500
• Bitcoin: $2500
• Skrill: $2500
• Neteller: $1500
• PaySafeCard: $2500
• UPayCard: $2500
• FastDebitPay: $1500

Transactions happen instantly and free of charge.

Withdrawals

We’ve already gone through the terms and conditions regarding withdrawals so that we won’t repeat ourselves. To recap, the minimum withdrawal limit is $100, and you can’t go above $1500 per transaction.

It takes them 15–18 business days, and there’s a 10x cashout limit on deposits under $250. Don’t forget, and there’s also a $10–$40 processing fee on all payment methods. There are five withdrawal options: Skrill, Neteller, bank wire transfer, UPayCard, and Bitcoin.

Bonuses

There are two welcome bonuses: a no-deposit bonus and your first deposit match bonus. In the first instance, you get free spins, which come with a wagering requirement of a 60x bonus. The maximum cashout is set at seven times the amount received, and it caps at $100. The bonus amount is non-withdrawable.

All included games have a 70% weighting, meaning that for every $1 wagered, $0.7 will count towards completing the playthrough. There’s a list of excluded games, and if you play them, the casino will remove your winnings. The excluded games are as follows: Baccarat, Craps, DoubleUp, RedDog, Roulette, Sic Bo, and slot progressives.

The first deposit bonus is a 400% match that goes up to $2000. The minimum and maximum deposit limits for this bonus stand at $25–$500. There’s a list of excluded games, which is the same as above. The wagering requirements stand at 35x the amount of bonus and deposit combined. The maximum withdrawal limit stands at three times the bonus plus deposit. In general, match bonuses of 200% and above have a 10x maximum cashout.

Once you complete the playthrough for the 400% match bonus, you’ll automatically receive 100 free spins, a matching withdrawal limit, and WRs of 60x bonus. In the Promotions section, they state that some countries have higher WRs and can find the list of said countries in the T&Cs. There’s no such list.

Customer Support

Ricardo’s Casino offers 24/7 customer service, which you can contact via live chat or email address. A phone call is not an option. In our experience, we’ve found them not to be helpful. They were responsive, as they answered in a couple of minutes. However, they failed to give us a proper answer to many of our queries, and we’ve been left without the requested information.

This casino belongs to a management group that has a list of blacklisted casinos to their name. They have gathered a plethora of complaints regarding slow and denied payments. Ricardo’s Casino is no different. All the more reason why you should avoid them.

Summary

Ricardo’s Casino has around 270 Rival games, which represent a satisfactory assortment of games. However, that’s pretty much where the positives end. They belong to a management group with a shady history of operating rogue casinos and threatening casino review sites.

Their withdrawal conditions are ridiculous. You have to wait at least 15 business days for a withdrawal, and you can’t take out more than $1500 per transaction. There’s also a processing fee, which you’ll have to pay if the casino actually goes through with paying up. Finally, there are several other predatory terms and conditions.

We don’t know who Ricardo is, but one thing is certain: avoid his casino by a country mile. Click here to visit the website and have a look for yourself — some things are so ridiculous you can get a chuckle out of them.

Reputation: 1/5

Software/Games: 4/5

Banking Options: 2/5

Banking Times: 0/5

Support: 2/5

Bonuses: 2/5

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