Sun Vegas - Online Casino Review

July 20, 2005

Overview

Sun Vegas opened in November of 2002 and is part of the Vegas Partner Lounge Group. They run Microgaming software, are licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake, Canada, and are members of eCogra. Sun Vegas is audited monthly by PriceWaterHouse Coopers and have their archives posted all the way back to the beginning in November 2002. Players can access the site information in the following languages: English, French, Spanish, German, and Japanese. Pro-cyber handles their financial services, keeping your money and information safe. Sun Vegas has won six awards from gambling.com.

Customers from the following countries have toll free phone to contact customer service: USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Israel, Germany, Portugal, Hong Kong, Italy, France, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, and Denmark. Email and Live Chat support are also available. I've checked both their phone support and their live chat and they work.

There's something wrong with the navigation of their website. It's a technical glitch, and will probably be fixed before you even go to check out the site, but it's really annoying. I was on the "refer a friend" page and tried to get to banking. I clicked on the link in the top navigation bar and the page didn't change. I clicked on the link in the bottom navigation bar and I got another progressives counter (there's already one on the page – now there's two) and the actual text was about 1 inch or 2 centimeters high. There's also no working link to get back to the home page. Someone needs to wake up in their site maintenance department.

Their Live Chat response time is slow. If you are in a country that has a toll free line I suggest that you simply ignore the Live Chat. As you can see, they take their time to respond (every All operators… is another 5 minutes and by the time you get an answer you just don't care anymore):

Please wait for a site operator to respond.
All operators are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. An operator will be with you shortly.
All operators are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. An operator will be with you shortly.
All operators are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. An operator will be with you shortly.
All operators are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. An operator will be with you shortly.
All operators are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. An operator will be with you shortly.
All operators are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. An operator will be with you shortly.
All operators are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. An operator will be with you shortly.
You are now chatting with 'David'
David: Welcome to the Vegas Partner Lounge Casino Support Desk. How can I help you?
shira: what is your minimum deposit amount?
shira: and your minimum cashout amount?
David: Which casino are you referring to?
Deposits

Minimum deposit amount is $20. Players can deposit in $ US dollars, $ Canadian Dollars, £ British pounds, and € Euros. They offer the typical range of deposit methods:

Visa
Mastercard
Solo – UK residents only
Switch – UK residents only
Delta – UK residents only
Neteller
Click2Pay
FirePay
Citadel
PaySpark – A daily spending limit of US$3000 per day.
UseMyBank
Moneybookers

Withdrawals

Minimum withdrawal amount is $50/ €50/ £50. Yes, the minimum withdrawal amount is 2.5 times the minimum deposit amount. Even if you made a first deposit to get the bonus and changed your mind you would be out of luck. I think it's a nasty trick to do to your players and its becoming standard in the industry.

The following are listed under their withdrawal options:

Solo – UK residents only
Switch – UK residents only
Check – FedEx cost $35.00 and takes 3-5 working days
Click2Play
Neteller
FirePay
Wire Transfer - $25 fee
CFT (Credit Fund Transfer to Visa Cards) - Only available to European Based Visa Card Holders.

The maximum amount they can credit to a Visa card in Europe is £2,500 a day. Players are required to supply proof of identity, copies of their credit cards, a signed purchase history of their transactions and /or other appropriate documentation when they make their first withdrawal request and may be required to sign further forms with subsequent withdrawal requests.

Terms and Conditions

Casino Vegas is serious about closing you out if you step over the line "Vegas Partner Lounge reserves the right to cancel your account for any reason whatsoever at any time without notice to you." Make your life easier and be certain that you enter the same name and address information on your casino account that you use for your deposit account. Any discrepancy there will give reason to the casino to shut you out. That was the most exciting bit of the terms and conditions. They were basic and no-nonsense and your average terms.

Bonuses

Casino Vegas's bonus selection is updated regularly. Check the site monthly for new updates

They offer a sign up bonus and several regular bonuses on offer.

150% match bonus on first deposits of $40
Deposit bonuses ranging from 5% - 15% per deposit – includes a bonus for regular credit card deposits (which is rare). This bonus has a minimum deposit requirement of $100.
Refer a friend bonus – this is a tiered program which gives you a percentage of their total bets converted to points in the loyalty program. The more your friends play the more points you receive. If they refer people you receive even more points. It's a clever set up.

Vegas Partner Lounge is running a raffle for an amazing 2005 BMW Z4 worth $35,000.

Their Loyalty points program is standard. Every $10 bet is 1 loyalty points. One nice thing, you get an automatic 250 points for free once you open a real account. The points are converted as follows:

Loyalty Points	Free casino chip
500	1
1000	2.2
1500	3.3
2000	4.8
2500	6
5000	13
10 000	30
20 000	60
25 000	82
50 000	200

One small kink in the loyalty points, roulette and craps do not apply.

Promotional Terms and Conditions

The wagering requirements are very nice and fair. For the initial deposit bonuses players must wager 15X the deposit plus bonus amount. This means if you deposited $40 and received a $60 bonus you would have to wager $1500 ($40 deposit + $60 bonus = $100 * 15 wagering requirement = $1500). However, for the deposit method bonuses (between 5% - 15%) the wagering requirements are only 10X the deposit plus bonus amount. The initial deposit and the 5% - 15% deposit bonuses can not be used together.

All versions of blackjack do not count towards the initial bonus wagering requirement. For all further bonuses Video Poker, Blackjack, Roulette, Baccarat, SicBo and Craps games count one quarter (1/4) of all wagering requirements.

Danish, Chinese, Japanese, Polish & Israeli Players must wager at least 20X the total deposit and bonus amounts. This counts for all bonuses in their casino.

The maximum total NETeller, Payspark, Click2Pay, UseMyBank, Wire Transfer, FirePay, MoneyBookers and Credit Card bonus payable in a month is $3000.00.

Here's a confusing one: "If a player fails to qualify for the 15% bonus in the case of NETeller, Payspark, MoneyBookers, Click2Pay, UseMyBank and Wire Transfer as per the terms and conditions listed above, the bonus will automatically be deducted from the player's balance on cashing in or on a subsequent purchase." Now, I already encountered this rule at their sister-casino, Crazy Vegas. As such I can let you know with authority (as I have already checked) what this really means. Depending on the player's history with the casino (i.e. been with them for awhile and no signs of bonus abuse) a player can decide that they just don't feel like making the wagering requirements for the deposit bonus (5% - 15% only) and write in a request for the bonus to be removed. This is approved on a case by case basis and purely by discretion of casino management. I think that is fair enough.

Overall

I don't understand why it takes so long for their Live Chat to respond. It should be 5 minutes maximum – not an average of 1/2 hour minimum. The bonuses are ok. I would have appreciated some tournaments. The wagering requirements are some of the best I've seen lately. Overall a fine casino.

PROS	CONS
Fair wagering requirements. Low compared to most casinos.	No tournaments in bonus selection.
Loads of toll free phone numbers.	Customer service takes too long.
Part of a group of casinos, which means, the drawing available will always have a huge win attached.