Stake.com Casino Review

Stake is a Curacao licensed online casino that was founded back in 2017. It is owned and operated by a brand that doesn’t seem to operate any other online casinos and it has a large and growing memberbase, as evidence by the amount of reviews that exist for this online casino.

In this Stake .com review, we’ll see how this casino compares to other iGaming offers, considering its cryptocurrency payment options, its bonuses, its games, and everything else that a new player needs to know.

Basics

Stake is a proud member of the Crypto Gambling Foundation, but in all honesty, we have no idea what this is. On further inspection, the organisation has a website that doesn’t load (at the time of writing, it has a database error) and a Twitter page that hasn’t been updated in close to a year.

It seems like the organisation has the right goals at its core, but it also seems to be inactive, which makes it completely useless and doesn’t bode well on casinos that advertise their inclusion. Still, don’t let that distract you, as Stake.com is a fully paid up legitimate casino and it works with several major gambling brands.

Perhaps more reassuringly, Stake seems to be closely associated with PrimeDice, which many of you will have probably heard of. PrimeDice has a very good reputation in the online gambling industry and has been around since 2013. The parent name of these two companies is slightly different, but make no mistake about it, it’s the same company, as the license number and address are identical.

PrimeDice, by the way, is also a proud member of the Crypto Gambling Foundation, but let’s not go there again.

You can view the Stake website in a multitude of languages, including English, Russian, German, Spanish, Indonesian, Polish, and several others.

Limitations

You can play Stake if you are in the United Kingdom, but there are limitations.

The main Stake Casino website is licensed by the authorities of Curacao and offers cryptocurrencies for all deposits and withdrawals. This site cannot be accessed by players from the UK, and all UK players will be directed to a dedicated site.

The name is the same, but there are some massive differences between these two websites.

Firstly, the UK site doesn’t accept Bitcoins or any other cryptocurrencies. In fact, at the time of writing, it only accepts Visa debit cards, which is a bit of a letdown. The games and bonuses are also different, and that’s because it operates under the jurisdiction of the UK Gambling Commission and not Curaçao eGaming.

These regulators don’t just decide whether a casino has the green light or red light. They don’t exist just to stamp their authority and grant access. They set a number of rules concerning deposits and banking options, as well as KYC and AML regulations. What’s more, individual gaming providers need to be licensed by specific authorities before they can offer games in those regions, so there are some big changes between the gaming selections.

For the purposes of this review, we’re going to focus on Stake Casino and Sportsbook as it appears for non-UK players. After all, we’re a cryptocurrency review site in the main, and the UK site doesn’t accept crypto.

Bonuses

New Stake players are usually offered a sizeable Welcome Bonus and we have talked specifics in the past, but it’s constantly changing and the best way to see what’s on offer is just to click the link in the sidebar and pay them a visit.

As a loyal member, you can also collect Free Spins, take part in regular races, and secure free bets on the sports betting site, but you won’t be offered the big 1 BTC to 5 BTC bonuses that you can find on sites like 7Bitcasino and BetChain Casino.

Here are a few of the Stake bonuses offered in 2022 to give you an idea of what you can find here:

• Stake’s Daily Races: Every day, players are given the chance to win a share of $100,000 in the casino’s Daily Races. These are leaderboard promotions that reward prizes and perks to the top 5,000 players. You will earn points every time you place a bet in the sportsbook or make a wager in the online casino.
• $50,000 Giveaway: All players who wager $1,000 or more on the site will be entered into a prize giveaway for the chance to win a share of $50,000. You can win multiple tickets to this giveaway and every ticket will increase your chance of success.
• Stake vs Eddie: This promotion tasks you with beating a multiplier on the slot of the week. This is a win multiplier and it’s often fixed in the hundreds, such 300x. If you beat it, you can win a share of $20,000. The great thing about this bonus is that it’s based purely on win ratios and not total stakes or payouts, so you can win even if you’re wagering the smallest stake.
• Casino Challenges: Daily promotions that task you with completing certain challenges to earn cash prizes. These tasks often have the same goal as Stake vs Eddie in that you need to meet specific multiplier amounts.

Stake is definitely a long-term casino, one that you join because you’re looking for your new virtual home, as opposed to one you join simply to cash a big Welcome Bonus.

One of the great things about this online casino is that it has a somewhat generous Loyalty Scheme. The including of such a bonus is always a welcome sight, and something that we don’t see often enough.

The Stake VIP Program is designed to provide perks and rewards to true VIPs, the players who deposit the most, bet the most, and make many wagers throughout the week.

As part of the Stake VIP Scheme, you will be given your very own dedicated VIP host, and can also collect weekly and monthly bonuses, as well as cashback offers, and more. You can’t gain access to these programs if you’re depositing and betting small amounts, but if you are a medium to high stakes player, you may receive an invite before long.

We’re not sure what the exact range is, but you may get this information by speaking directly with the Stake customer support team, discussing your planned deposit amount, and asking them if this will be enough to become a member of the VIP scheme.

Games

Stake works with a small selection of premium iGaming developers and has a wealth of top slots from these creators. As with all online casinos, many of the games you see will be familiar to you, especially if you have played at a lot of online casinos in the past.

However, Stake avoids the constant feeling of déjà-vu by utilising unique thumbnails instead of the generic offerings provided by the developers.

It’s a small touch, but it’s one that works really well, and while it ultimately doesn’t change the game or your chances of winning, it does make everything look more original.

When we first published this review around 2020, there were only a handful of developers supplying titles to the Stake games room. In fact, we even mentioned that there were just around 200 slots. It may have been an underestimation on our part, but there are definitely more than 200 games now.

The site seems to be stocked with well over 1,000 slots, including hundreds of games from some of the most sought-after creators.

Stake has grown immensely in the last couple of years. It has gone from a site working with a few niche developers (Bgaming, Thunderkick, Big Time Gaming, Relax Gaming, and No Limit City), to one that has signed big deals with numerous top creators. In fact, there are over 200 slots just from Pragmatic Play, as well as over 100 from the brilliant Betsoft.

As noted above, you’re unlikely to see the same selection if you are in the UK. The 200 or so estimation is probably in line with what you would find there. Betsoft is one of the main absences, as it’s rarely included on UK casinos, but there are others and the selection is generally very tame when compared to the non-UK site.

Get the most out of these games by taking part in the regular races. You will receive pop-ups about these races when you are active on the Stake website. To join in, just opt-in, stake your money, and play the games. It’s a great way to earn some extra points and prizes, and you’ll also get all of the money that you win while participating in these tournaments, making it a win-win.

Moving away from the slots and traditional table games, Stake has a dedicated Live Casino with over 40 games listed at the time of writing.

Evolution Gaming is arguably the biggest creator available here and this is where Stake gets all of its Live Casino titles, including the Lightning series, Deal or No Deal Live, Caribbean Stud Poker, Crazy Time, and Texas Hold’em Bonus Poker.

One of the great things about the site is that it’s clearly devoted to updating, upgrading, and improving its gaming selection. In fact, while the layout of the site is almost exactly the same since we first published this review, there are some huge changes with regards to slots, Live Casino games, promotions, and more.

It shows that the operators are dedicated to improving on what they have and continuing to provide their players with a premium gaming experience. That should be standard for most online casinos, but it’s not. Many of the smaller ones seem to give up after a few years and end up with an outdated selection of games, a boring list of promotions, and obsolete software.

Kudos to Stake for staying active.

Originals

In addition to all of the above online casino games, Stake .com has its own selection of games. These “Stake originals” include an assortment of Dice and card games and there is a varied selection to choose from.

However, we recommend sticking with the games that you know from the developers that you like. This is nothing against Stake per se, we just have a natural aversion to proprietary games.

Many years ago, one of the biggest gambling sites in the UK was found to be inadvertently cheating its customers when it was discovered that one of the developers creating its games was cheating the system. These “cheats” came in the form of a “double or nothing” slot offer that was actually weighted nearly 80% in the casino’s favour, even though the rules stated otherwise.

It wasn’t quite proprietary software, but it was the next best thing (or the next worst thing, as the case may be) and if that can happen to a massive brand that has been around for close to half a century, it can happen to an online casino that has existed for a few years.

Highlights

• Nice Aesthetic
• Original Games
• Multiple Promotions
• Mobile and Desktop Friendly

Payment Options

Stake is a cryptocurrency only online casino and you can’t use traditional currency payment options here. You can, however, take your pick of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum, Tron, and Ripple.

Of course, it’s a different story if you’re in the United Kingdom. UK players can’t use any cryptocurrencies, as the regulators have not yet warmed to that idea. Instead, they are offered some basic deposit and withdrawal options, including Visa debit.

There’s a good chance these these options will increase as time goes on, and if the UK regulators start letting casinos use cryptocurrencies for deposits and withdrawals, we’re sure that Stake will be one of the first to take advantage. Until then, your options are somewhat limited as a UK-based player.

You don’t need to worry about withdrawal limits and while there is a pending time, this is typically under an hour. This means that you should have your money as soon as you cash out.

If you find yourself depositing more money than you can afford to lose, and your feel that your gambling is getting out of hand, take advantage of the casino’s responsible gaming tools. These include deposit limits, which are always recommend, regardless of whether you have a problem or not, and self-exclusions, which will force you to stay away for a pre-determined period of time.

User Reviews

There are a few things about Stake that we don’t like, a few things that need to be addressed and haven’t been dealt with as we would have liked. It’s because of these reasons that some people have labelled the casino as a scam, but the truth is, if you type the word “is [any casino name]” into Google, the term “a scam” will always appear high on the search results.

Players are naturally distrusting of this industry and they also get very angry and suspicious when they lose, leading them to label the site as a scam, and not fully understand that sometimes, luck just isn’t on their side.

In the case of Stake .com, it is a fully licensed and legitimate online casino.

The main issue we have is the way that the casino deals with reviews. Its Trustpilot page has a score of 4.4 overall and these come from close to 150 reviews (at the time of writing). That’s very promising for an online casino, but what’s not promising is that only 16% of negative reviews have received a response.

Imagine having an issue with a casino, going to the extent of leaving a bad review to vent and voice your frustrations, and then having them ignore it. It’s not good practice, it makes players angrier, and it doesn’t look good to potential new members.

It’s a similar story with reviews on other user-centric gambling sites. In the past, we’re highlighted casinos like CryptoWild Casino and have noted how hard these guys try to impress and how much effort they put into responding to reviews and ensuring all customers’ needs are met.

Only one person needs to be assigned to this role and for the sake of one person working a few hours a week, you can have a process that massively benefits players, turns unhappy members into satisfied ones, and encourages non-members to join.

Of course, 16% is not 0%, so they have responded to some bad reviews, but these responses are worse than nothing, quite frankly. In one instance, they seemed to blame a customer for not installing two-factor authentication and then tell everyone reading the review that the onus is on the player to keep their account safe.

This might be true, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to say. If a customer leaves a 1-star review saying, “terrible casino. Didn’t let me win anything and refused to give me money when I asked” you don’t call them an idiot and move on. Again, it might be true, but that’s not how you deal with customers. You thank them for their review, apologise profusely, even though they are the ones in the wrong, and tell them to contact you if they have an issue that needs to be resolved.

This is how the best casinos do it and it’s how all casinos do it, but clearly Stake didn’t get the memo.

Support

The customer support options leave a little to be desired at Stake. In fact, the first time we wrote this review, the “Live Support” link, which is shown in the left sidebar at all times, didn’t work. And the same was true when we tried the Live Chat icon in the bottom right of the screen.

We’re assuming that these services were just down, as they only seem to operate during business hours, but it would make more sense if we were directed to an alternative operation or at least informed about the outage. We imagine it will be frustrating for players who actually have an issue that needs to be addressed.

Upon updating this review, we’re happy to see that it’s in full working order, but less happy to note that the “Live Support” link and the little message icon in the bottom of the screen are worthless. They merely direct to FAQ questions, suggesting that Live Chat is only offered to active members.

This is one of the things that frustrates us, and it’s something that’s found on about a third of all online casinos. We understand the importance of reserving valuable customer support time for active members and not wasting time with questions that could be answered in FAQs from people who might never join.

But what about players who have a genuine concern or question and need an answer before they join? What about players who are locked out of their accounts? After all, they are members, and they have a genuine issue, but if they can’t sign in, the Live Chat doesn’t treat them as members.

Gambling sites need to stop this nonsense and start treating all customers equally.

FAQs

Conclusion

We highlighted some issues with Stake .com casino when discussing casino reviews. But these are minor and generally they are nothing to worry about. Nor should they distract you from all of the benefits that this casino provides and all of the great games and gambling experiences it offers.

Sure, there are minor problems, but that doesn’t make it any less valid or worthwhile and if you like the look of this online casino, we recommend joining.

Of course, that’s assuming you are outside of the UK and in a country that is covered by the jurisdiction of Curacao. if you’re in the UK, it’s a different matter.

We didn’t conduct an extensive review of the UK site, but what we did find suggests that it’s a very limited offering for UK players and they might be better off elsewhere. The UK sportsbook is good and definitely worthy of your time, but the same can’t be said for the online casino, which is somewhat limited.

If you’re in the UK, and you’re looking for a big casino and sportsbook, you will be better off with a site like bet365. It doesn’t accept crypto, but if you’re on the UK, Stake won’t either.

When joining Stake from outside the United Kingdom, remember to claim your Welcome Bonus. That way, you can start your Stake gaming experience with a bang.

Updates

When we first wrote this Stake review, the site was on the up and attracting a lot of positive attention. Now, it is one of the biggest online casinos and sports around and has taken 2022 by storm. The above review offers some insights into why this site has grown so big so quickly, including new features such as its growing games selection, its improved bonuses, and a new UK offering.