Whamoo Casino Test and What We Learned from It

As March continues to rock on, we bring you another comprehensive online casino experience as part of our ambitious project “From the Players, for the Players”. This time, we set a new milestone by testing Whamoo Casino, and send a huge “Thanks” to R0UNDER, who kindly signed up for the job on 18 March.

To summarize all major highlights about his experience at Whamoo Casino, sit back and take a look at our quick recap:

• Our LCB tester registered at Whamoo on 18 March, 2021
• On March 18, 2021, the tester verified mobile phone via SMS and completed HooYu KYC procedure
• On the same day, March 18, he placed a deposit of EUR 165 via the smart payment option MuchBetter
• A cashout request of EUR 300.64 was submitted the same day, March 18
• Payment was received 21 hours later, on 19 March 2021

But, how did this test go through and what are the actual details of this entire endeavor? If you’re interested in the answer and feel like exploring, here’s what we’ve learned.

Opening an account at Whamoo started on 18 March 2021 at exactly 4:20 PM CET. After entering personal details and accepting the casino’s Terms, our tester R0UNDER was required to verify his mobile phone with a code that was sent to his mobile device via SMS.

Immediately after the registration, he began the KYC procedure. As ROUNDER found, the verification is a fully automated process that can be easily completed from the user's account overview. For this purpose, the casino uses a KYC technology called HooYu, which combines multiple identity verification tools and a UI/UX layer to minimize customer effort and make the process much easier while meeting KYC compliance requirements. The identification process follows several steps, including ID document verification, digital footprint analysis, geo-location and facial biometrics.

Having completed the registration and identification process successfully, our tester received a welcome email, confirming his membership within the platform.

Withdrawal Policy a Cause for Concern

Before moving onto the depositing process, our tester decided to take a careful look at the casino’s Terms and Conditions. Reading through the withdrawal policy, several concerning rules caught his eye immediately.

According to paragraph 6.9 under Deposits and Withdrawals section of the Terms:

“Any funds deposited must be wagered at least 6 times but thereafter that deposit or deposit winnings in your account balance may be withdrawn at any time.”

A playthrough this high applicable to straight deposits might be considered quite predatory and unfair by some players. Furthermore, the Withdrawal Policy section under Cashier makes no mention of this rule, which can be misleading, however it does provide a link to the applicable T&Cs.

By this calculation, our tester would have to wager exactly EUR 990 to become eligible to withdraw his money.

He reached out to customer support, but the agent confirmed that the only way to withdraw the money is to meet the 6x playthrough.

The Deposit

Though indignant, ROUNDER proceeded with the testing and went ahead to deposit money.

Since he already verified his identity, no additional authentication was needed. Topping up with EUR 165 was instant and without any fees, meaning that the transaction went smooth without any problems.

*Note that the tester did not select any bonus upon registration or prior to depositing. Nevertheless, he was credited with a 50% welcome bonus on his deposited amount which he immediately canceled, as his intention was to play with straight deposits only.

Playing and Cashing out

Whamoo has a few iGaming providers in stock, including NetEnt, Pragmatic Play, Red Tiger, Wazdan, Amatic, Gamomat, Stakelogic and BF Games. Our tester stuck to slots exclusively and had fun with King of the Jungle: Golden Nights Bonus, Tiki Madness, Fishin Reels and a couple of other newer titles.

Playthrough Log

After one or two hours of playing (wagering time without using a bonus) R0UNDER wanted more details about his overall wagering progress.

It was not possible to view the total wager in the transactions section of the player account, since all transactions are merged with winnings into a single list that can’t be filtered or downloaded. There also isn’t an option to have complete transactions sent by email. The casino stores all information about transactions and bets in a single list.

Our tester was forced to use this massive 200-page list with over 2000 transactions, without filtering option and only 10 results listed per page, to try and find relevant transactions and calculate his overall playthrough up until that point.

To make this even more difficult, the list automatically resets to page one every 15 seconds!

Seeing the futility of this, he gave up and contacted live chat for help. The support could not provide this information and instructed the tester to submit a request to a designated email address. As if this was not frustrating enough, the email request went unanswered.

It is at this point that ROUNDER decided to make some more bets and make sure that the required turnover of EUR 990 has been wagered, and then attempt a withdrawal. On 19 March, 2021 he submitted a request for EUR 300.64 via MuchBetter.

Surprisingly, the cashout went without a hitch and took 21 hours from the time of the withdrawal request for the money to be credited to our tester’s e-wallet.

It might be reasonable to assume that the 6x playthrough on the deposit had been met, but without a wagering log, the tester cannot be absolutely sure and it remains a mystery. As it can be seen on the last two screenshots, R0UNDER received a confirmation in regard to processing the payout, while his total stakes can only be roughly estimated even until this day.

This concludes another exhaustive review of online casinos from our far-reaching directory, and we would like to show gratitude to R0UNDER for taking his time and providing valuable information about his experience at Whamoo.

We hope you’ll stick around for more upcoming reviews, so drop a comment below and until next time!