As soon as you open the casino you are welcomed by a graphically appealing site. The color scheme is a very basic dark gray, red and white. All the icons animate when you hover over them and the logo is simple yet effective. It is a flame with a wolf in it. It rotates on the page and really is eye-catching.
On the left hand side of your screen is a community chat which you can minimize if it gets too distracting. You can find the support live chat in the bottom right hand corner, and the menu is neatly tucked away in the top row of the web page.
Howl’s mascot is named Howly and you will see certain references towards them in the communications which is quite a cute feature offered.
Account Setup
To create an account with Howl you need to simply enter a few pieces of information: Email address, Username and Password.
You then need to accept the terms and conditions and complete the hCaptcha field and you are ready to roll.
You are also able to use your Steam, Twitch or Google accounts to link to socials and register that way, but I went old school and simply entered my information.
You will receive a verification email which you are required to complete.
Games
Howl have neatly packed all their games into 6 different categories. It really does get rid of the clutter and repetition we see at other crypto casinos.
Slots
There are over 4000 slot games to choose from and these are sorted by Popularity, Feature Buy-in, A - Z, or Z - A. You will also see Howly’s Top Picks which are recommended by the team behind Howl.
You can also choose which game you would like to play by filtering by one of their 34 available providers.
If you come across a game or provider that is restricted in your region, you will see the game is grayed out not allowing you to enter. This is a helpful feature.
Live Games
Here you will find the 208 Live Dealer games on offer by Evolution, Ezugi, PlayTech and Pragmatic Play.
They are categorized by Popular, Game Shows and All. You can find games such as Roulette, Blackjack, Dragon Tiger, Mega Wheel, Sweet Bonanza Candy Land and other wonderful games here. There is also a space for you to search for a specific game using a search bar.
Blackjack
This is an in-house version of the game. It is very basic in its principle where you draw a card, select Hit, Stand, Split or Double.
There is a fairness tab where you can check the seeds and rotate seed pairs.
The Wheel
Here you will find another in-house version of the traditional game, the wheel. You can place 4 different types of bets, 1, 3, 5, and 10. This will take $1, $3, $5, $10 and pay out x2, x4, x6 and x11 accordingly. There is an 18 second window between spins which allows you time to decide which wager you would like to contribute.
Jackpot
This game is directly connected to your Steam account and you compete against other players for Rust skins. There is not much more information relating to this on their site, and I was “waiting for players” to join for over 15 minutes before I gave up.
Coinflip
Howl have created a unique version of this game which requires you to be linked to Steam through your account. Once you have linked your account, you will create a match between yourself and someone else in the community and bet accordingly. It is still based on the classic coinflip game but instead you are playing against another member of the community and not just a bot, increasing the rate of luck.
Promotions
Howl have many different and wonderful promotions available for you to take part in. Howl shies away from the usual “deposit and get” match and spins offers like we see at many casinos, instead they offer Rakeback, Reload and Daily Cases. I am going to take you through these offerings in more detail:
Daily Cases
Every day as you login you are prompted to open the Daily Case. These cases are dependent on your tier and you start off with a Bronze 1 chest. As you move up the tiers you will receive increasingly more valuable cases, or chests, with better offerings.
This first case offers 10% rakeboost, 10 free spins, 20 free spins, a stack of coins, a bag of coins or nothing. I opened my case and received a dismal “Nothing, better luck next time” which was disappointing, but it was not my day I guess.
Rakeback
There are 4 different styles of Rakeback available for you to claim.
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Instant: This is claimable as soon as you have completed your round
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Daily: This will become available once every 24 hours
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Weekly: This is available every 7 days after your last claim
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Monthly: This is available once every 30 days after your last claim
If you are chasing the big bucks, it would be wiser for you to not claim the instant and daily rakebacks, instead let it accumulate and claim the weekly or monthly batch.
The higher you go up the ranks, the bigger the percentage of rakeback will become.
Reload
Once you have reached Platinum 3 tier you will be eligible to receive reload bonuses which are based on your losses from the previous 7 days.
Deposit Bonus
There is one deposit bonus you can receive, however, you need to accept another set of terms and conditions for that bonus which raises a bit of a red flag for me.
The match bonus is between 50% and 200% up to $20,000 based on the option you selected.
There are 3 deposit bonus options you can choose:
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1.5x (150% match) which carries a wagering requirement of 32.5 times the deposit + bonus combined.
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2x (200% match) which carries a wagering requirement of 37.5 times the deposit + bonus combined.
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3x (300% match) which carries a wagering requirement of 50 times the deposit + bonus combined. This bonus is only available for crypto and gift card deposits and your maximum bet amount per spin or wager has to be less than 2% of your initial deposit.
Rain
If you are active in the community you have the opportunity to claim from the Rain feature which means that all bets placed contribute towards the “Rain Pool”. There is a ticker on the home page which shows you the total amount accumulated for that 30 minute slot.
VIP Program
The VIP program is calculated based on your wagers placed. The more wagers you place, the more xp you accumulate and the better the rewards become and the benefits increase. It is a 26 tier program which I am going to summarize for you:
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Coins and Payments
Howl is a hybrid casino which means it allows for fiat and cryptocurrency depositing and only cryptocurrency or Rust skins when withdrawing.
The methods on offer are: Visa, PaySafe, PayPal, Google Pay, Gift Cards, Rust (through Steam), TF2, CS2, DOTA skins, and BTC, ETH and LTC crypto coins.
When using a Fiat method you are required to purchase a gift card to the value of your deposit which will incur fees so be sure to check that before you dive in with this method. The minimum deposit amount at Howl is $5 across all platforms.
When it comes to withdrawals, it gets a bit trickier if you are hoping to withdraw in Fiat. This option simply does not exist. You can only withdraw using BTC, ETH, LTC and Rust or TF2 Skins.
The minimum withdrawal amount when using BTC is $20, but for ETH and LTC it is $10. There are network fees that will affect the amount you receive in your wallet.
Customer Support
Howl offers 24 hour live chat support. You have to go through a series of bot questions before you get to a person. The person I spoke to was quite abrupt and had zero “bedside manner”. They also responded quite slowly. Howl offers email support as well if you are not ready to face the live chat experience. A great feature though is that after every live chat you will receive an email of the transcript of the chat.
There are also Steam, X and Discord communities available for you to use to acquire information if you wish to explore alternative channels.
Geos & Languages
Support is only available in English, but the casino is available in a wide variety of languages such as: English, German, Spanish, Russian, French and many more. When you update the language of the casino, you are automatically updated in the community chat which is a fun feature. You can also play the casino in one language and enjoy the community chat in another language, a fun feature.
As Howl holds a Curaçao License, there are strict jurisdictional restrictions placed on registration. The top countries not allowed to play are: USA, UK, Australia, Portugal, Spain and a few more.
There is also a strict rule on using VPNs and your account will be closed and funds will be frozen indefinitely.
Site Response Time
Howl lagged a bit when loading games and general scrolling through the site. I used a few different browsers to test if it was my side, but the same issues crept up.
I ran Howl through our website testing service and they agreed. It had a very low response score citing that the network payloads are enormous and the cache policy is not up to standard.
Platform Compatibility
Howl has not yet developed an app, but you are able to play the casino and all games using your mobile phone. It does experience less delays than with the browser version when using Portrait mode, but the moment I moved over to landscape mode there were delays and sizing issues.
The mobile version of this casino is not great, and needs quite some energy put into it to get it where the world wants it to be.
Security and Community reputation
The security of your account is a priority to Howl. You are required to enter a strong password, verify your email and 2FA is strongly recommended. You are able to link your Steam, Discord, X, Twitch and Google accounts, but this does open your personal information up for “cross pollination” which I am weary of, so I stayed away from that.
The community is not very thrilled with Howl. There are poor ratings everywhere and quite a few complaints of “normal system glitches” being claimed by Howl when items are not added or mysteriously get removed from accounts. TrustPilot has a public rating of 2.8 of 5, with many claims of it being a scam site.
I also came across a very worrying video by a YouTuber who happened to be playing against the site owner, Bean, and it was going well, until it wasn’t for the YouTuber. It is old, from 2021, but it is concerning nonetheless.
Verdict
If you are not into Rust gambling, or gaming in general and you want to stick to crypto gambling, this might not be the place for you. It is very focussed on gaming and pushing Rust skins, and less about crypto casino and crypto gambling in its purest form. There are many crypto games to play, and all is Provably Fair, which is great, but the focus often gets pushed towards other game styles which can become frustrating. I also expected a great mobile version of the casino which simply wasn’t there. I would err on the side of caution when playing here, so be sure to start off small and work your way up if you feel comfortable.
Alternatives
If you are looking for something more casino focussed with a bit of a sportsbook to it, we suggest you try:
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BetPlay: With over 5000 games, including a Sportsbook, you will find something fun and be sure to check out the VIP program!
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Winz.io: This crypto centric casino offers over 7000 crypto games and quite a fun promotional package.
