Simon’s Mandarin Palace Casino Review – Scam Alert

About the casino: Mandarin Palace casino is a neglected, small online gambling platform, which belongs to the infamous Genesys Group of online casinos.

This a rouge casino, known to steal money from players and affiliate partners (detailed review of this scam and proof can be found here, in the review of their main casino, Black Lotus).

They haven’t always been these lying, scamming, stealing criminals they are now. For years, things worked out fine, and they even advertised on this site.

/Comment: Not this casino though, this was always a neglected secondary platform, only their main casino advertised on this gambling blog./

I’ve seen them expand from their very humble beginnings into a bigger casino group with 18 casinos in total. They are in operation for 8+ years.

However, I assume due to financial difficulties (this is still considered a small casino company) they have stared stealing money from players and affiliate partners.

They also regularly publish fake, paid reviews on gambling blogs, who are willing to publish lies for money (every positive review of these scammers is a paid fake review you can identify it easily, they always have a banner ad of the casino on the page, they tried it with me too, as you can see it was not successful).

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Mandarin Palace casino licence: They have a Curacao license (you can check the licence here).

Curacao licenses are among the worse, more shady gambling licenses.

They are known to openly harbour criminal online casinos (e.g.: like all of the Genesys Technologies N.V. casinos), who openly accept US players, even though the country claims publicly that they don’t allow their license holders to do such things*.

/Comment: Both the EU and the Netherlands are pressuring them to abide by the international rules and laws**, they of course don’t, because they get too much money from these criminal gambling sites. Not to mention, all of these Caribbean offshore tax havens are disgustingly corrupt places, where much of the dirty money of the world is kept, and they are routinely used for tax evasion and money laundering./

About 90% of the Curacao licensed online platforms, including Mandarin Palace Casino, does accept players from the USA, illegally. It’s actually best to avoid any of the Curacao licensed casinos pretty much.

/Comment: But I have to admit, not all of the Curaçao licensed online gambling platforms are bad. But quite a lot of them are./

They also accept credit cards from US players, which is also illegal (due to anti money laundering laws, international laws, and political pressure from the USA), and the country of Curaçao publicly stated that such behaviour among licensees is not tolerated.

Regardless, they have been doing it at least since 2013, which is a good indication as to what sort of company this is.

And the USA is not the only country they accept players from illegally, that would be a long list.

UPDATE 2021: If this wasn’t enough, Curaçao was implicated in the worst and biggest online gambling data leak in the world, when the details of 108 million wagers were exposed online. Attached to these exposed bets were such vital private info as:

• real names of players
• residential address details
• e-mail addresses
• phone numbers
• details about date of birth
• user names at the different sites
• and most importantly and worryingly: information about the credit card used

 

Sources:

*European Gaming: Curaçao to Tighten Gambling Licensing Rules

**Malta Today – Curaçao pressured to introduce gambling regulations

***Curacao Online Gambling Data Leak

 

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Genesys Club Casinos: The other casinos of this scammer group are: Lucky Creek, Lotus Asia, Treasure Mile, Big Dollar, Black Lotus, make sure to avoid them as well, same company owns them, same customer support (or lack thereof), same affiliate program, same games.

 

Not all of the casinos of this rouge network have dedicated reviews on this site (I only reviewed the bigger ones of the group), the other low quality scam platforms of this group are:

• www.lakepalace.com
• www.bellavegas.com
• www.casinograndbay.com
• www.betlakepalace.com
• www.jupiterclub.com
• www.treasuremile.com
• www.jackpotwheel.com
• www.betcasinograndbay.com
• www.betjupiterclub.com
• www.betbellavegas.com
• www.jumbabet.com

 

Avoid all of them.

Additionally, sometimes they hide behind the following programs and shell companies:

• Top Refer Affiliates
• Lotus Affiliates
• Ultimaterevenue
• Ardway Limited
• Genesys Technologies

 

All of these companies are registered in tax havens, and in addition to illegally accepting players from the USA, and credit cards form US players, they work with shady payment processors and they are actively evading paying any taxes (there are also yet unconfirmed allegations of money laundering as well).

 

Conclusion:

If you don’t have the time to read the full review below, just read this short summary: PLEASE AVOID THIS CASINO AT ALL COST! AND ALL THE OTHER GENESYS CASINOS! They started to scam and steal money from their players, and affiliate partners. /Instead of this online casino, I wholeheartedly recommend the following gambling platform (click to see). They have significantly more games, and they have sports betting and poker too. And they are not involved in any scandals. And they have been around for 15+ years. It’s currently the best rated US player accepting online casino on this site. And it is my current personal favourite US casino as well./

 

 

 

Mandarin Palace Scam

Before we get to the review, I have to deduct -20 points for them stealing money from me, and other players. And because of this, the review below is just symbolic (but I tried to be as objective as I can, despite the theft).

Under no circumstances should you trust this criminal casino group with sensitive information, credit card number, passwords, etc…. They will abuse it! And if you look around online (past the first page, because that is full of their fake, paid casino reviews) you can find plenty of horror stories.

A quick Google search for “Mandarin Palace scam”, “Mandarin Palace casino didn’t pay me” or “Genesys casino affiliate scam” or “genesys casinos group doesn’t pay affiliate commission” will quickly reveal other similar horror stories from both players and affiliate partners, who were scammed by Genesys and their casinos.

 

Scam: -20 points

 

Mandarin Palace online casino review

 

The review of Mandarin Palace mobile casino consist of the following sections (click on the links below to jump to that section):

• Mandarin Palace list of restricted countries, registration process
• Mandarin Palace games selection
• Mandarin Palace deposit and withdrawal options and other payment methods
• Mandarin Palace casino uniqueness
• Mandarin Palace casino’s rating

 

 

1., Who can play: The most important thing for any new player in a casino is whether you can actually play or not, here is the list of all the restricted countries at Mandarin Palace Casino.

/Clarification: The country of your residence, your official address, what’s on your ID card (or address card if it’s a separate thing in your country) is what you should be checking, not your current residence.

This is really important, because if you win, they will ask for your ID and/or address card to make sure you are who you said you are on the registration form.

And they will check the address on your ID.

If it’s not the same as what you put down during registration, they will instantly perma-ban you. And all your winnings will be confiscated, no matter how much you won! Be careful! /

 

 

A very short list, I ward them +1 points for accepting players from many different countries.

I added a question mark symbol at United Kingdom and United States.

Because they lie about them in the terms and conditions (huge red flag!), they claim that they don’t accept players from those countries.

Clearly, you can register and play from the USA, or the UK.

This is actually one of the few selling points of the these low quality gambling platforms.

They are always described as a casino accepting US players on every gambling blog and casino review site.

And if you check the registration form you can select both the UK and US as your country when trying to register. Clearly not true.

Lying in the terms & conditions is the hallmark of any scam casino, -2 points deducted.

/Comment: The reason for lying is that they officially shouldn’t be accepting players from these countries. But they do so anyway, illegally.

And they also accept players illegally from at least 20 other countries./ 

Just like all the other casinos of this network Mandarin Palace aggressively tries to push visitors into registration, it’s unnecessarily agressive.

You can’t check out the games, no demo mode, can’t read the details of promotions, almost everything on the website is hidden behind the registration form, -1 point.

 

Summary:

Accessibility, number of countries accepted: +1
Issues with the terms and conditions: -2
Aggressively pushing registration: -1

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Total: -2

 

2., Games: The second most important thing is the number, and also the quality of the games.

Mandarin Palace works with Saucify (a good software developer) Betsoft (average, below average games), Genii (below average and some bad games) and Rival (below average and bad games).

It’s a mixed bag but there are some good games there, above average quality for a US casino. However, there are only around 200 games, mostly slots, table games, no poker, no sports betting,  no live dealers, nothing interesting or really good. It’s a very small selection, -1 point.

 

 

Most of these games are mobile compatible, except for the really old ones.

Games: -1

 

3., Deposit and withdrawal options: The third most important thing to any player are the deposit and withdrawal options.

You obviously can’t win anything unless you bet real money (with the exception of no deposit bonuses of course, which they don’t have). And Mandarin Palace needs to improve in this area too.

To deposit money the following options are available:

• Credit cards
• Skrill
• Neteller
• Ecocard
• Bitcoin

 

Mandarin Palace Casino accepts credit cards! Which is great for US players, because due to legal reasons credit card companies refuse to deal with most US casinos.

/Comment: They also accept credit cards illegally, by working with the least reputable payment processors. Officially, Curacao licensed casinos, ever since the WTO lawsuit, shouldn’t be able to accept credit cards from the USA.

They do so anyway, illegally, -2 points./

They also accept Bitcoin, +1 point. More methods than most casino that accepts US players, most of them definitely don’t accept credit cards and also crypto.

However, these were only for depositing money.

When it comes to withdrawing money, players only have the following options:

• Skrill
• Ecocard
• Bitcoin
• Neteller
• Cheque

 

Just like every other US casino, credit cards are not available for withdrawal.

It’s definitely an inconvenience that they don’t just send your winnings to your credit card, the same card you used to deposit, but that’s the law.

Payment processors are independent third party legal entities and it’s really strictly regulated, international transactions especially.

Luckily they still do Bitcoin, Neteller, cheque, wire transfer.

Another issue is that they have a minimum withdrawal amount of $150. I can understand a limit of $50, because of the extremely high cost of wire transfer in the US, but $150 seems excessive, -1 point.

 

Summary:

Illegally accepts credit cards from the US by working with shady payment processors: -2 points

Cryptocurrency accepted: +1

High minimum withdrawal amount: -1

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Total: -1

 

4., Uniqueness: And the last one I think we all are looking for in an online casino is innovation, unique and interesting new online gambling games and features. Anything that makes you “Wow, that’s amazing.”.

Does Mandarin Palace have the so called ‘wow-factor’?

No, it’s a small, forgettable, 12 a dozen online gambling platform with very few games and lots of issues.

 

Innovation, interesting, unique features/games: 0, none

 

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The following are less important optional factors, but still contribute to the total score:

 

-Live support chat: Mandarin Palace has live chat support, 24/7. +1.

 

–VIP, loyalty program: They have a very detailed, extensive loyalty program called Lotus Player Club, it has 4 tiers and all the casinos of the Lotus group are part of it.

However, all bonuses earned from the Player Club have wagering requirements of 40x or more, which makes it impossible to win any money, and it is designed to make players lose money.

Not to mention, it’s a hassle to keep track of the playthrough limitations.

 

-Mobile compatibility: The casino is mobile compatible, most of their games work on mobile devices. All the games are instant-play, accessible right from the browser, no download necessary.

Everything is cross-platform and cross-browser compatible.

 

-Other reviews: It’s always important to check what others say about a casino, to make sure it’s not a scam and Mandarin Palace Casino has very few reviews, but the few out there are usually bad ranging from 1/10 to 6/10. The 1/10 reviews are especially scary.

In those reviews players claim that they never got paid (I can attest to this, it’s true).

According to player testimonials, even if you get your winnings, it takes months. Even if it’s as little as a $1000.

The casino has a very bad reputation, -1 point.

 

-Casino bonuses: Mandarin Palace, just like the other casinos of this group, has really bad bonuses for new players, usually 40x wagering requirement or more (anything above 30x is considered a bad bonus), -1 point.

 

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Total score: Mandarin Palace gets 0/10, 0/5 stars, it’s a scam casino that is stealing money from their players and affiliate partners, avoid it, and stop playing at this gambling site as soon as possible.

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Back to the casino reviews section.

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Last updated: 2021-08-02

 

Miscellaneous other info about the company, in case you need to contact them:

Official name: Ardway Limited,  using the gaming license of its holding company Genesys Technology N.V.
Encryption: 128-bit SSL
Live Chat: 24/7
Head Office: DSLR Suite 413, Ftieh Street, Birkirkara Bypass, BKR2940 Birkirkara, Malta
Licence: Curacao
Phone: no phone number, just email
IT-Security: COMODO
Self Exclusion: Available
Email: info@ardway.com but use the contact form on the website instead, better, faster response
RTP Analysis: eCOGRA
Anti Money Laundering: ID-Check Required

 

Last Updated on 2021-08-02 by Simon