Playhooley

Playhooley is a newly-launched casino, ran by Aspire Global International Limited. This is one of the most experienced casino operators nowadays, and you might have played on one of their houses before. It is licensed with the prestigious MGA, which means that its brand new gambling house is also under its oversight. So, Playhooley had some pretty big shoes to fill right from the get-go.

However, this casino turned out to be rather disappointing. It has no particular theme, and its rather boring website is a hassle to navigate. This might sound superficial, but since the casino has tons of games, and since these games cannot be sorted by their Suppliers, themes, or their mechanics, finding what you want to play takes ages. Another issue with the house is the lack of transparency about certain aspects of its services. For instance, its withdrawal policies are mostly kept a mystery from the player, and the minimum, or the maximum, value you need to cash out is not explained at all!

There are other things about this casino we are not particularly fond of, like its lack of bonuses, and the opaque policy around its Loyalty program. So, overall, while the house is licensed, we believe other casinos out there might provide you with a better service. Here is a full breakdown of the positive and negative aspects of the casino, which will examine why that is:

Bonuses

The list of promotions Playhooley offers is pretty short. In fact, there are only three types of them available at the time of writing! Here is what those are:

Let's start with the Welcome bonus that is available with the house:

• This promotion offers a pretty good amount of cash – up to €200. This bonus will add 100% of the amount of money you have initially cashed in, and the minimum deposit requirement to claim it is pretty reasonable. You need to come up with only €10, which is lower than the average casinos demand – twice as much, and even more! There is also a decent bundle of Free Spins which is part of the bonus, with up to 100 Spins up for grabs for the player who makes use of the bonus. To withdraw the money and the winnings from the Spins, you need to wager it a certain amount of times, and that is the case for the vast majority of bonuses nowadays. This wagering requirement is set to 35x for the promotion, which is reasonably small. Most casinos set their requirements to 30x-40x, so Playhooley is right down in the middle of the range we consider acceptable. There is no cash out limit, though, and you can withdraw as much from your winnings as you wish.

The main issue with the Bonus policies of the house is that the player has barely anything to do after they complete the generous Welcome Bonus. All that is left for them would be to participate in the Tournaments or the Rewards Program. Let's take a look at the Program first. Playhooley assigns Points to your account the more of your money you wager. Each €40 awards you one Point, and these can be used to level up your account. There are seven levels in total, and the rewards you can get from this program are pretty diverse – take a look at them below:

• The first type of reward you can unlock are the Level up bonuses. These are available once per account, upon reaching the next tier in the promotion. The bonuses offer you different perks, ranging from Free Spins to multi-tiered deposit bonuses. These are pretty generous, but the casino does not mention what their wagering requirements are, or even if such requirements exist!
• There is a Birthday Bonus which is available for all tiers of accounts. We assume that this bonus gets better the higher the account level gets, but there is no information about that. Playhooley has not explained what the bonus even consists of!
• Next, players who reach the second tier of account will start getting Sunday Spins. These are Free Spins which seem to be credited to your account without needing to deposit, every Sunday. The number of Spins is between 5 and 50, and you get more the higher the tier of your account is. How much can you cash out from them, and how many times do the winnings from the Spins need to be wagered? Since Playhooley has not mentioned that at all, your guess is as good as ours!
• There is a special Monthly Cashback, available for players with accounts of level 4 and higher. The Cashback recovers a certain amount of money to their account, based on their monthly losses. However, we don't know more about the bonus, because it is not explained in the Terms of the Rewards program.
• Finally, the casino offers a number of Account features to players with higher account levels. These consist of higher withdrawal limits, faster processing for cash outs, personal account managers and so on.

The problem with the bonuses which are part of the casino's Rewards program is that the maximum you can cash out from it during any day is €100. So, given this very low maximum, the size of the rewards you can get is probably quite tiny.

Finally, we mentioned that there are Tournaments hosted by the casino, and we'd like to expand a little on them. Tournaments are a great way to compete against your fellow players, in order to see who can wager and win the most on your favorite games. The player who wins the most over the runtime of the competition is then selected to be the winner, and they, and the runner-ups share a prize pool of a certain size. At the time of writing, Playhooley featured a tournament called Monthly Madness. It had a prize pool of €20 000 and a top prize of €2 000, drawn monthly. The money you could win from it is not bound with any kind of wagering requirement or cash out limit.

However, tournaments are not really great substitutes for casino bonuses! They are difficult to win and have a limited runtime. Who knows whether the promotion we outlined will even be active when you are reading this? We prefer casinos offer a reliable set of promotions which players can obtain in a predictable manner instead!

License

The regulatory background of this casino is quite impressive. We mentioned it was operated by Aspire International Global Limited, which is licensed in Malta, by the Malta Gaming Association (MGA). This much is evident from the website of the house, as you can see from the following paragraph:

Of course, we did not take this claim at face value, and quickly checked the register of the MGA, to see whether the casino was listed on the page for Aspire Global International Limited. Here is said page:

And here is a list of the domains that the regulatory body knows are operated by the license holder:

This is a very short excerpt from said list, because Aspire Global International Limited runs tens of casinos. However, as you can plainly see, Playhooley is among them, which means there can be no doubt as to the regulatory status of the house!

But what does all of that mean? Well, the MGA is among the strictest casino oversight bodies, and it has developed a regulatory regime which provides players with high levels of protections. Getting a license in Malta means complying with some of the highest standards for online gambling! Here is what some of the more important protections are:

• The MGA takes the integrity of casino games seriously, and that is why it has required any license holder it oversees to submit the random number generators, used within each of them, for review on a regular basis.  These generators are complex mathematical algorithms and determine the outcome of pretty much any game you can play. The audits certify that there is no undue bias in said games, and that you are playing actual games of chance!
• Secondly, casinos licensed in Malta are required to help combat problem gambling. How is that done? There are actually two different sets of policies that houses need to comply with. First, they need to offer information about what the problem looks like and where to seek help, to their players. Secondly, they need to provide self-exclusion measures, like the ability to set custom deposit limits, or even close down your account. These measures are always at your disposal with licensed casinos!
• Thirdly, the players data, which casinos need to collect in order to combat money-laundering and other such financial crime, is to be protected by some of the strongest encryption protocols available nowadays. This means that your sensitive information is in safe hands, and is important because data leaks and hackers breaching the databases of the house can cause some real damage!

We are quite happy with the license Playhooley has managed to obtain, and have no notes when it comes to its regulation. Now, let's get back to our review of the casino. Here is a list of the languages its website can be viewed in, as well as a list of the countries from where players are not going to be able to open accounts:

Languages: English

Restricted countries: United States, United States Minor Outlying Islands, Virgin Islands, U.S.

Deposit and Withdrawal

When it comes to cashing in or out, the casino has a lot of options available to the player, which is great! It also features a number of different currencies you can open accounts in. Here is a list of all the deposit methods and currencies you can use:

Currencies: Canadian Dollar (CAD), US Dollar (USD), Euro (EUR), British Pound Sterling (GBP), Australian Dollar (AUD), Norwegian Krone (NOK), Swedish Krona (SEK), Brazilian Real (BRL)

You can cash in via credit cards, several e-wallets and even Paysafecard e-vouchers. The only thing which is really missing is a crypto payment option! We should mention, however, that some of these methods are restricted to, or within, specific countries. Interac is only available to Canadian players, and Credit cards cannot be used to cash in to casinos in the UK, to give two examples.

The minimum deposit amount is pretty low, sitting at €10. What's more, the house does not charge any fees, and you'll just need to cover the payment provider's charges, if any are applicable to your transaction. Now, let's take a look at the withdrawal conditions:

We should mention that most casinos nowadays require you to wager your funds a certain amount of times before cashing out. This is a pretty common AML measure, but Playhooley does not mention it in its Terms and Conditions. Possibly, it has not opted to enact it.

The only deposit method you cannot withdraw with is Paysafecard, because e-vouchers cannot be used for cashing out in general. However, the processing times for all of these payments take ridiculous amounts of time, and we hope that these waiting times, which are listed on the website of the casino as well, showcase how long withdrawals can be at most.

There's no information about the minimum and maximum withdrawal amounts. We hope the minimum is as low as the deposit requirement, but we cannot really speculate on what the maximum you can cash out is. We should also mention that what we said about fees applies to withdrawals as well – the house does not charge them, but you need to cover third party fees! This is, once again, nothing out of the ordinary.

Here is a fee that Playhooley does charge, to inactive accounts:

Both the type of charge and its size are common with casinos and raise no concerns!

Games and Game Suppliers

There is a good amount of Game suppliers with the casino, and we counted 55 of them in total. Here is a list of said suppliers:

Game providers: Authentic Gaming, Microgaming, Play'n GO, Blueprint, Evolution, Yggdrasil, Ezugi, Lightning Box, Tom Horn, Salsa Technology, Gamevy, Hacksaw, Atomic Slot Lab, Skywind, Oryx, Red Rake, Eyecon, ISoftBet, Betsoft, IGTech, PragmaticPlay, Playson, Wazdan, Spinomenal, High 5 Games, Leap-Gaming, Stakelogic, Betixon, Gamomat, Ggames, Skillzz Gaming, RubyPlay, Ainsworth, Booming Games, PariPlay, Amatic, Quickspin, NetEnt, Other

The games library is pretty big, but, as we said before, it is a hassle to navigate. Still, here is what you can play:

• Slots: Playhooley partners with some big suppliers, so casino classics like Gates of Olympus, Big Bass Bonanza, Dog House:Megaways, Book of Dead, Sweet Bonanza, Wolf's Gold and so on are available.
• Table Games: There are a couple of virtual dealer versions of casino classics like Baccarat, Poker, Blackjack and Roulettes, which you can play with the house. Live dealer versions are also available, if that is more your style.
• Game Shows: We are happy to report that the house also features a couple of Game shows, like Crazy Time, Funky  Time, Boom City and Crazy Coin Flip.

Even though this is a good enough games library it is just that – good enough. There are certain genres of games, like Crash games, which are missing altogether as well. Given how annoying finding what you want to play is, as well, we are just not impressed with the games of Playhooley at the end of the day!

Conclusion

This casino is a safe option to play in, and it has a couple of pretty positive aspects. However, we don't see how it would be anyone's first choice! There are barely any bonuses, and we don't like the lack of withdrawal information. And even though there are tons of games, their unappealing presentation makes us wish we were playing somewhere else. So, we recommend checking out the other houses on our website, in order to find a more competitive casino experience!