LeoVegas UK Casino is an online casino home to a ton of games such as video slots, traditional table games and they have a live casino. Players will be able to pick and choose from some fantastic. Will we all be playing slots on 70% payout 5 years from now?:p I think I'm switching to Euromillions if that happens. Slots Magic, LeoVegas, Redbet, Winning Room, Play Frank, Dragonara, Cashmio for example have Book of Dead RTP at 96.21% – 96.27% whereas Rizk, Kaboo, High Roller, etc and all their white labels used to have it at 94.25% (probably still do for the UK due to certain regulations stating they must provide all rtp data) but have now removed the.
LeoVegas launched in 2012, but has already become one of the busiest casinos on the web. This Swedish operator has won a dozen awards since its inception and was ranked the 6th most popular internet casino in 2017 by traffic volumes. They currently host over 1000 different casino games and a top tier mobile application to play them on. They’re also a genuinely international casino, accommodating players from all over Europe and most other countries. Unfortunately, players from the United States and Australia have been left behind.
As for the negatives we found during our review, most were bonus-related. The bonus terms at LeoVegas can be a little confusing, and there is a £3 charge on withdrawals for players who make more than three cashouts in one month. The LeoVegas desktop website was also far from the most efficiently designed online casino we have seen, which is particularly disappointing when considering the size of their game collection.
Safety and trustworthiness
Before you hand your hard-earned cash over to an online casino, you’ll want to know both your funds and personal data will be safe and secure. Any casino that can’t guarantee that, isn’t worth your time. Sure, LeoVegas is a globally known operator – but do they do enough to keep customers’ information safe? Let’s find out.
Launch date & location
LeoVegas was founded in 2011 by Gustaf Hagman and Robin Ramm-Ericson as a mobile-focused online casino operator. They officially launched in 2012, and now have offices in Malta (LeoVegas Gaming Ltd Level 7, The Plaza Centre, Bisazza Street, Sliema SLM 1640) and Stockholm (Sveavägen 59, 113 59 Stockholm, Sweden).
Governance structure and ownership
LeoVegas Casino is owned by parent company LeoVegasAB, who are listed on the Nordic Stock Exchange. LeoVegasAB also own a few other companies in the online casino industry, including Royal Panda and streaming service Casinogrounds. The current CEO is still co-founder Gustaf Hagman, who has been involved in the online gaming industry for 20-plus years. He has a built solid team of internationally experienced staff around him, including former employees of Goldman Sachs, Ladbrokes, and the Bettson Group.
Gaming licenses
LeoVegas Casino holds a trio of online casino operator licenses, from the Maltese, Danish, and UK gambling authorities. Their most recent Maltese license number is MGA/CL1/1115/2015, which was issued in January 2018. 000-039198-R-319450-007 is their United Kingdom Gambling Commission license number for casino operations, which was accredited in 2014. Their Danish permit number is 15-1660384.
In our experience it is unusual for a casino to have three separate licenses for the European market – so it’s good to see LeoVegas going the extra mile.
Encryption and data protection
LeoVegas promises to keep your data safe with “industry-standard encryption techniques across the board.” They also assure customers that they run an “information security awareness program, designed to specifically ensure we embrace security best practices” in their offices. This is great to know and shows LeoVegas’ dedication to all aspects of their business.
Although Google Chrome didn’t mark LeoVegas’ security certificate as fully trusted, their 2048 bit RSA and SSL Encryption technology is provided by DigiCert – a reputable and well-known company in the security industry.
Software fairness
As far as we could ascertain during our research, LeoVegas games specifically are not audited by any official third party organization. Of course, they do have the aforementioned trio of casino licenses, from European organizations who conduct regular investigations into the conduct of casinos they license. Several of LeoVegas’ game providers are audited by eCOGRA, however.
It’s also worth noting that most regulating authorities do not require licensees to share the name of the auditing agency responsible for auditing the fairness of their software.
LeoVegas Casino abuse reports
LeoVegas has a good reputation, based on customer reviews at third-party websites. We found a few complaint or dispute threads, more than for some rival casinos, but the majority of these (at least 90%) were solved to the satisfaction of both parties. This includes decisions that required extensive investigations from LeoVegas’ side. We also found a few cases where the casino refunded players’ original stakes as a ‘gesture of goodwill’ – even though they were not at fault.
Problem gambling tools
LeoVegas features a completely separate site to house all of its problem gambling tools and guides. Concerned parties can visit Leo Play Safe for a repository of helpful guides, contact information for addiction hotlines, support groups, and more. When it comes to built-in tools, LeoVegas offers the following:
- Deposit Limit
- Loss Limit
- Wagering Limit
- Session Limit
- Player History
- Time Limit
- Account Pause
- Self-Assessment Tools
Despite all these tools and a dedicated anti-addiction website, in 2018 LeoVegas was fined over half a million pounds for failing to provide adequate protection to known problem gamblers. The UK Gambling Commission found that nearly 2000 customers who were known to be at risk were sent marketing materials over a two-year period.
Anti-money laundering policies
LeoVegas upholds the right to “suspend, block or close your Member Account and withhold funds if suspicions of money laundering occur, in accordance with any applicable Prevention of Money Laundering Act.” They also state that they may share relevant portions of your personal data with “credit rating agencies, fraud detection agencies, and anti-money laundering agencies” if they suspect any untoward activity.
LeoVegas also promises to adhere to Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures, which is standard practice at most online casinos. This includes requiring the submission of identity documents before withdrawals, as well as web-based location checks.
Awards and Accolades
LeoVegas has won a plethora of awards since their launch in 2012. They won Online Casino Operator of the Year at the International Gaming Awards two years in a row, from 2016 to 2017. They also cleaned house at the EGR Nordic Awards for several years on the go, picking up ‘Mobile Operator of the Year’, ‘Slots Operator of the Year’ and ‘Best Innovation in Casino of the Year’ distinctions, amongst other ones.
Disconnection Policy
LeoVegas disconnection policy is very simple – ‘If you disconnect your session with LeoVegas during an active game, the amount of the stake will be returned to your game account.’
In the event that the fault is on their end, LeoVegas also promise that ‘bets will be considered null and void and the amount of the stake will be returned to you’. This blanket position is much better the convoluted policies at some casinos, who will look at disconnections on a case by case basis and then decide what actions to take.
Banking options at LeoVegas Casino
Deposit options
LeoVegas offers a decent range of deposit options, including the world’s most popular e-wallet PayPal. This list includes:
- Bank Transfer: Normally this is the slowest method of banking at online casinos. However, despite calling it a bank transfer, once you click into the option you will see that this deposit method is really provided by Trustly – a payment processing company that offers instant transactions in multiple countries. There is a minimum £10 and a maximum £1000 limit per deposit.
- VISA or MasterCard: Also instant when depositing at LeoVegas, these two cards are probably the most popular ways to bank worldwide. The minimum per deposit is £10, but the maximum is £3000.
- PayPal: This widely used e-wallet also offers instant deposits and a maximum per-deposit limit of £1000.
- Neteller: This e-wallet is probably the best option for high-rollers as it has a £10,000 deposit maximum per transaction.
- Skrill: Another e-wallet, Skrill also offers instant transactions at LeoVegas. The transaction minimum and maximum limits are £10 and £1,000, respectively.
- PaySafe Card: PaySafe offers prepaid top-up cards, available on sale at many brick-and-mortar stores throughout the UK and Europe. They offer an extra layer of security, as none of your financial or personal details are given to the casino at any stage – only the number on the back of your purchased card is shared. PaySafe cards are also good for limiting your spending, as you have to top them up before you can make a deposit. Deposit limits are set at £10 minimum and £1000 maximum, per transaction.
These methods comprise the selection for Europe-based players. However, LeoVegas does have a range of international banking options. We had to contact customer service to see them, who replied to us within 24-hours with a friendly email.
Here is a list of all payment methods supported by LeoVegas, excluding the ones mentioned above: Adyen Credit Card, iDeal, Paytrail, Paypal, Zimpler, iDebit, InstaDebit, AstroPay, Interac2Pay, and ApplePay.
Withdrawal options
Withdrawal options available at LeoVegas are:
- Bank Wire Transfer: 2-5 days
- Neteller: Instant
- Visa: 1-3 days
- Skrill: Instant
All withdrawals have a processing time of 24 hours. This puts LeoVegas’ withdrawal times at about standard for an online casino. However, if a player makes more than three withdrawals in a 30-day period, they will be charged £3 per subsequent transaction made during that same period. This is not standard, as the majority of big online casinos offer free withdrawals across the board.
Interestingly, we also found a clause in the terms and conditions which states that LeoVegas may charge a 10% fee on any withdrawals where the funds in question are not used for gambling purposes.
Cryptocurrency withdrawals
LeoVegas does not currently offer any cryptocurrency withdrawals or deposits. Due to the anonymous nature of the cryptocurrency arena, and the potential for money laundering it offers, we don’t see this changing in the near future.
Game selection and variety
LeoVegas spreads a huge selection of slots, with nearly 1000 titles available at the time of writing this review. That is a truly impressive collection, and we doubt you’ll find more than that anywhere else. There’s also a decent array of classic casino table games, live casino titles, and video poker games.
Game software providers
With this many slots available, we were bound to find multiple game developers represented at LeoVegas. There were 27 game providers listed in the casino’s lobby when we conducted this review. Covering some of the online gambling world’s most prestigious software developers, the collection includes:
- Yggdrasil
Slots
Game selection
There were 990 online slots titles at LeoVegas when we looked during our review. This collection is constantly growing, too, so no doubt they will break the 1,000 mark sometime soon. Their selection includes LeoVegas exclusives, pop culture-licensed titles, classic slots and progressive jackpots. Below are just a few of the most popular slots at LeoVegas:
- Ted™
- Game of Thrones: 243 Ways
- King Kong Cash
- Rainbow Riches
- Paranormal Activity
- Blazin’ Hot 7s
- Book of the Dead
- Ramesses Riches
You’ll find all kinds of interactive elements to these games, including bonus rounds, free spins, and video cut scenes.
At the time of our review, there were 65 progressive jackpot titles at LeoVegas. Prizes started at £61,000 (Golden Offer) and went up as high as £6 million on Mega Moolah: Isis.
RTP
LeoVegas specifically is not audited by eCOGRA, so there is no definitive list of their average slot RTPs. Considering the large variety of slots available, however, you will have access to games that cover the spectrum from 85% RTP to 98.5% or higher.
Blackjack games
Game selection
There are 26 online blackjack games at LeoVegas – not counting the dozens of live blackjack casino tables. Most of these are made by Swedish developer NetEnt. The rest are provided by Felt Gaming and Relax Gaming. Some of the titles include:
- Double Exposure Blackjack
- Blackjack Pro High Limit
- Single Deck Blackjack Pro
- Lucky Ladies Blackjack
- Multi-hand Blackjack
Compared to other internet casinos, this is an extensive selection indeed. Bets start at as little as £0.10 on any of the games labeled low limit and go all the way up to £2500 a hand on Blackjack Pro: VIP.
RTP
Given a perfect strategy, NetEnt’s single deck blackjack pro will give you the best RTP – 99.56%. It is advantageous to avoid side bets no matter what variety you play, as these can knock 5% or more off your return-to-player.
Roulette
Game selection
There are 17 non-live online roulette games at LeoVegas Casino. Again, NetEnt was the biggest provider in this category – followed by Realistic Games & Felt Games. Some of these titles are:
- 100-1 roulette
- European Roulette
- Roulette VIP
- Double Ball Roulette
- Key-Bet Roulette
Despite featuring a table called 20 cent Roulette, the actual lowest bets start at £0.10. The highest bets are on NetEnt’s VIP roulette where they reach the dizzying heights of £65,000 a spin.
RTP
The best roulette tables to maximize your RTP are the French Roulette varieties, and LeoVegas has four of these 98.35%-return games. Close behind is European roulette with 97.30% return-to-player, of which there are five variants available. American Roulette, with its two zero fields, has the lowest RTP of the common roulette varieties (less than 95%) and should be avoided by all value-minded gamblers.
Video poker
Game selection
There were eight online video poker titles available at LeoVegas when we looked. This was the only part of their game selection where we felt Leo was a little lacking. Most games were made by NetEnt, one is by Play’n’Go, and the other ones are provided by Felt Games. Here’s a complete list:
- Texas Hold Em: Professional Series
- Oasis Poker: Professional Series
- Red Dog
- Pai Gow Poker
- 3 Card Hold ‘Em
- Carribean Stud
- Jacks or Better
- Joker Poker
RTP
NetEnt Jacks or Better pays nine on a full house, six on a flush and 4000 on a maximum bet royal straight flush. This gives it an RTP of 99.5%. Such a return is quite standard – mainly because NetEnt is the most popular Jacks or Better developer, and you will find this particular video poker game at many online casinos.
Live casino games
Leo states that they have 60 live dealer casino tables available. But as with many online casinos, once you access the Evolution Gaming, Extreme Gaming or NetEnt lobby – you’ll find there are many more game than what the casino advertises. Evolution provides over 80 tables by itself; Extreme Live Gaming provides 22; NetEnt brings the rest with 12 tables. In total, that’s almost double what the Leo website lists.
This 100-plus collection includes:
- Dream Catcher
- Speed Roulette
- Dragonara Live Casino Roulette
- Auto Live VIP Roulette
- Celebrity Live Blackjack Party
- Dragon Tiger
That’s a diverse range of tables, including a dozen-or-so LeoVegas branded tables (here called Chambre Séparée) and some FIFA World Cup-themed tables as well. Also available are a few of Evolution’s private 1-to-1 live dealer blackjack and roulette tables. These offer high bet limits and 100% dealer attention for a true VIP-like experience.
Live blackjack bets start at £5 and go as high as £5000 per hand. Live roulette bets start at £0.50 and go up to £20,000. Baccarat bets start at £5 and go up to £15,000.
Bonuses and promotions at LeoVegas Casino
No deposit bonus
LeoVegas doesn’t offer a no-deposit bonus as such. Instead, they offer no deposit free spins on a selection of slots titles – an offer which we will detail below.
Free spins
UK Players
LeoVegas offers 20 free slots spins on signup, with no deposit required. They are valid on the following games:
- Gonzo’s Quest (96% RTP)
- Starburst (96.1%)
- Mega Fortune Dreams (95.9%)
- Swipe & Roll (96.35%)
- Witchcraft Academy (96.38%)
These spins expire three days after being claimed. Any winnings made from them come with a 35x wagering requirement that must be met before the money can be withdrawn.
European Players
The offer for European players also includes 20 free spins, no deposit required. It follows the same terms and conditions listed above, except for the fact that the only game your free spins can be used on is Book of the Dead (96.21% RTP).
First deposit bonus
The offer
UK Players
Leo offers a two-pronged first deposit welcome bonus to players from the United Kingdom. The casino will match your deposit 100% up to £300 and throw in 30 free bonus spins on top. For example, if you deposit £150 – you’ll get £150 in bonus money. But if you deposit £350, you’ll only get £300. Either way, you still receive the free spins, which can be played on the same five games that are valid for the no deposit spins offer.
European Players
European players at LeoVegas get a bigger deposit bonus than their UK counterparts – up to €3000, split over their first four deposits. Players can bag themselves up to a 200% match on their first deposit. The deposit match percentage goes up on a sliding scale, as follows:
- €10-40 = 100% up to €40 max
- €41-60 = 150% up to a €90 max
- €61-250 = 200% up to a €500 max
On your second deposit, you can get a 75% match up to €750, and then the same offer again on your third payment.
On your fourth deposit, you will receive a bonus of 100% up to €1000 if you deposit €41 or more. Deposit less than €40 and you will only get a 50% matched deposit up to €20.
The fine print
First deposit bonuses are not available to players who made their first deposit using Skrill or Neteller. The remaining terms and conditions are identical for players in all jurisdictions.
To get any bonus money, you are required to deposit a minimum of £10. You will also need to wager the bonus amount 35 times before you’ll be allowed to withdraw it. This means, for example, that if you deposited £100 and received a £100 bonus, you would have to wager £3500 before you would be able to withdraw.
At LeoVegas, only wagers made using bonus money will count towards the wagering requirement. However, any bets you make will first be taken out of your real money balance. So if you received a £50 bonus, you would have to wager 35*50 (£1750) plus the original £50 of real cash first – totaling £1800.
Any bets over £5 do not count towards the requirement either. So if you receive a £50 bonus, you will have to place a minimum of 360 (1800 divided by 5) separate bets to clear it.
The free spins also come with their own 35x wagering requirement on any winnings generated from them, and you will need to wager £5 in real money to receive your spins. All free spins at LeoVegas are valid for three days, counting from the activation day.
Reload bonuses
As far as we saw during our review, LeoVegas offered no reload bonuses. This may of course change in the future, so keep an eye on their promotions page for the latest bonuses.
Other promotions
Since the FIFA World Cup was on at the time our review, most of Leo’s promotions were football-related. In fact, there was only one casino-related promotion available – and even that had a football betting part to it.
This bonus gives you £25 bonus money to use in their Live Casino when you use your smartphone to bet £100-199 on football during one 24-hour period. However, this bonus money can only be claimed once by any one player and comes with a 70x wagering requirement. All the standard LeoVegas bonus terms apply as well.
Game contribution table
At almost all online casinos, different games contribute different amounts towards the playthrough requirements of any bonuses. LeoVegas is no exception. The percentages for each game are:
- Slots – 100%
- Table Games – 10%
- Video Poker – 10%
- All other games – 100%
However, bets on the following slots titles count for 0% towards any bonus requirements:
- Forsaken Kingdom (RTP: 96.54%)
- Pearls of India (96.5%)
- Kings of Chicago (96.5%)
- Zombies & Robin Hood: Shifting Riches (96.8%)
- Wishmaster (96.6%)
To give an example, if you receive a bonus with a £1,000 wagering requirement, you would need to be the following to clear it:
- On video poker: £10,000
- On roulette and Blackjack: £10,000
- On slots and other games: £1,000
As you can see, the difference is significant. However, the other side of the coin is that games with higher wagering requirements feature significantly smaller house edges.
Cashback
LeoVegas doesn’t offer any cash-back program or reward points that can be exchanged for cash.
Loyalty program
LeoVegas boasts a loyalty program, called the LeoVegas VIP Experience. Details were a bit hard to come by, however, even when we delved into the Terms & Conditions. If you opt into the program, your VIP progress bar will increase by, and we quote, a “little bit” each time you make a cash bet.
There are 70 VIP levels to get through, with each bracket of 10 offering new rewards and prizes. These include:
Leovegas Stock
- Invitations to VIP exclusive events
- Dedicated Account Managers
- Personal payment and withdrawal service
- Unique Birthday rewards
- Exclusive LeoVegas Roaring Reward bonuses
- Monthly VIP prize draws
We contacted LeoVegas support and requested details on how many wagers are required to move up the ladder, but did not receive a forthcoming response.
LeoVegas’ casino software
Accessing games
LeoVegas markets itself as a mobile-focused online casino, so it’s no surprise that it has dedicated Casino, Live Casino and Sports Betting apps for both iOS and Android devices. That’s six different apps, where some casinos struggle to offer one. All the LeoVegas apps are available from the App Store or Play Store for iPhone and Android smartphones, respectively.
Desktop players can access the LeoVegas casino in their browser, with no download or installation required. The website is available to both Mac and Windows users, and can be accessed using any modern browser.
For tablet users or gamblers who don’t like to download apps, the LeoVegas mobile site has seen as much work as the dedicated applications have. The lobby is responsive, and the menus are easy to navigate, which is important when you have over 1000 games to choose from.
Software usability and stability
From a purely user-experience perspective, the LeoVegas mobile applications are a joy to use. They run smoothly and are well designed for a top-tier mobile experience, even on the oldest devices they are specced for. Almost all games, with the odd exception from a smaller developer, load up in 10-20 seconds and run without hitches, graphical glitches or clunky mechanics.
However, this mobile focus does have some drawbacks. The desktop site really suffers from navigational issues. The search function, in particular, is only helpful when searching for game titles. It can’t be used to perform complex searches, such as filtering games by developer name, features, and wagering limits.
The “recently played” ribbon that hovers at the bottom of the page while you’re browsing the lobby is more of a visual hindrance on desktop than a useful addition, although it does have its uses on a mobile device. This is symptomatic of the rest of LeoVegas’ usability problems. Features that are great on the mobile site don’t necessarily translate to the desktop website well.
We must say though; all aspects of the LeoVegas operation do look great, with clean branding and appealing design choices. It’s just a shame the desktop site couldn’t hold up to the user experience offered by the mobile applications.
Technical support
LeoVegas offer the following methods for contacting customer support:
- Live Chat
- Phone (+44 808 169 9799)
- Email (support@leovegas.com)
- Support Portal Contact Form
They also have a decent FAQ section, with three or four Q and A’s provided in each of multiple categories. However, we found these answers could sometimes be a little vague – and there simply weren’t enough of them.
LeoVegas live chat agents are referred to as Customer Support Lions. Despite the silly name, they were friendly, helpful, and responsive. We usually received a response within a few minutes, even at peak traffic times. Unfortunately, neither the live support team nor the LeoVegas’ email customer service was capable of answering questions relating to the specifics of their loyalty program.