Lucky Hippo Casino (LHC) is an online gaming site with Rival-Powered slots, table games, and specialty games.

The website is presented in a minimalistic fashion in red, green, yellow, and white colors. While the combination may seem garish to some without muting the greens, it is undoubtedly dynamic. That should translate to exciting, but we're not looking at the surface... we want to know what's under the paint.

The first thing we can tell you is that US and Australian players are accepted. We can also see that they are still offering rather huge signup bonuses, but we'll get to that later in more detail. We also noticed a decent range of deposit and withdrawal methods by US/AUS standards, including Bitcoin.

The site is young, so it's not too much of a surprise that the onsite Blog is lacking any meat on the bones. As of review time, it's simply a skeleton with no actual content. The VIP scheme is non-descript but does state that they do play favorites with their more loyal patrons.

Beneath the Surface

We see the domain appear online for the first time in March 2018. There are no mentions of licensing, but the servers are located in Costa Rica.

Presumably registered with the Costa Rica Commerce, Industry and Economy Ministry (MEIC), Lucky Hippo most likely holds a special commercial license there.

However, CR does not issue any sort of online gaming licenses. Were LHC licensed in Curacao they would be required to display a clickable validator onsite. Since that dynamic chevron doesn't exist, and we know they have to be licensed somewhere, we'll go out on a limb and say it is in Panama.

All online gambling sites, except for pop-ups running pirated software that appear for a month or two before scamming customers, have a license somewhere. As this property insists on document verification prior to paying out winnings, you can assume they do that for a good reason.

A Panamanian online gaming license requires very few things, but among them is that the "operator's system can identify different sources of the money used in betting and can verify the identity of the people involved."

We don't really need to know who owns the site, that is a rare commodity outside of the heavily regulated jurisdictions which cater to publically listed companies anyway. And we don't really need to know where they are licensed to determine if this is a good place to play or not.

Unless you have the protection of the UKGC, Malta, or another robust regulatory body, your play is always based on trust anyway. Curacao won't protect your bankroll, nor will Panama, Seychelles, Montenegro or any other "smalltime" jurisdiction which basically only demands their licensees can:

• Pass a background check
• Show they have enough money to run the operation
• Show they have someone on staff to operate the backend
• Show they know where the money's coming from and where it's going (AML/CFT, which translate to KYC to us, or "know your customer")

With that said, let's look under the hood a little bit and maybe kick a tire or two!

It's only fair to mention that the site states: "...the team is happy to assist with any questions, comments or concerns you may have," and we didn't ask. We'd rather dig in and see what's what.

Software and Games

As of late 2018, some or all of the games were instant and delivered in Adobe Flash. That's not unusual, as we're in a transition time between the Flash player and HTML5 deployment across the entire online gaming industry. Most online casinos have a mixture of the frameworks, and the games play just fine if you have a Flash-enabled browser. If you watch Hulu you probably have the plug-in enabled.

We weren't able to try any games for free without registering an account. As we don't want any preferential or any other extraordinary treatment, we decided to review the site based first on "what they say" before looking elsewhere to see if what they say is what they do.

The site seems to have all of the Rival games including:

• Slots - Look for the newest games as well as old favorites - they're all here!
• I-Slots - From the high RTP Cosmic Quest to the inimitable Hole in Won
• Table Games - Blackjack, European roulette, baccarat, craps, Let'em Ride, you name it
• Video Poker - Jacks or Better has a 9/6 paytable with the expected full pay 800:1 Royal
• Specialty Games - Bingo, scratchers like Itchin' 2 Win, and number games

Bonuses and Promotions

The welcome and reload offers look very generous. The current offers will be found elsewhere on this page, so we won't add specifics that may change over time.

We will take a look at the bonus terms and conditions.

While the match bonuses look yummy, they do have max cashouts and the bonus chips aren't cashable. 40x Deposit plus Bonus makes this a game-time extender rather than a lucrative offer though.

Here it kind of starts to fall apart with unclear and/or contradictory terms.

• The bonus chips are unredeemable and will be removed from the associated cashout

Just two lines below that we see:

• To withdraw your bonus, winnings and deposit amount you must...

Okay, it's a young site, we'll make a mental note and carry on.

Ouch. Players from Europe must wager twice as much, so 80x D+B

Banking and Customer Service

Online support is stated as available 24/7. At a late hour, we found the Customer Service team online and available but, understandably, the Finance and Security teams were offline.

The banking options look flexible and usable for US and other players. Like in Canada and Australia, most American online gamblers have to either use Bitcoin to deposit and withdraw or deposit using a credit/debit card, then cash out via check (regular mail or courier) or wait for a bank wire.

Rather than bank wire, US players can opt for an ACH payment. That's great because they are cost-free and usually happen quicker than bank wires! ACH is the same pathway your boss uses if you get Direct Deposit payroll.

It would appear that players anywhere else should cash out via Bitcoin or a paper check.

Oops, falling apart again. You can only withdraw BTC "using the same address you submitted while initially making a Bitcoin deposit." Okay, a young site, CS could probably straighten that out for us.

We like the fact that they say BTC payments are instant. We don't like "your withdrawal will be processed within 3-4 days and then transferred." But that's not a terribly long time to wait.

Cashout methods and weekly limits

• ACH – Worldwide payments to a savings or checking account via Automated Clearing House on amounts from $150.00 up to $3,000.00
• Checks via Regular Mail – Worldwide on amounts from $150 to $400
• Courier Check – Worldwide on amounts from $400.01 to $2500.00
• Bitcoin – Worldwide from $20.00 to $2000.00

However, they have a caveat of "player class" with five tiers. Newbies can take home up to $1,000 per week and Platinum members can cash out up to $5,000 with $1k increments in between for Bronze, Silver, and Gold members.

Pitfalls

• Must wager any deposit at least 5x or unspecified processing fees will apply
• All pending withdrawals on hold until "every single deposit" has cleared, including Bitcoin deposits
• Inactive accounts (no activity 180 days/6 months) can be seized in toto - every penny.

The Final Word

While not revealing the operating company and not displaying a license only gives pause, not a reason to censure, this site is simply not seasoned enough to recommend based on a lack of verifiable, long-term information.

That's not to say I won't submit docs for approval first, then try out the welcome package with a couple of small BTC deposits. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I do get the feeling I 'know' the operators based on some of the terms.

Someone with less experience and a tighter grip on their hard-earned cash may come to another conclusion for themselves.