StarBets casino review UK

By Megan Elswyth

StarBets review

StarBets is an unlicensed online crypto casino, featuring a library of slots, live casino and in-house titles. One of the key features of the online casino platform is the dividend system, which claims to redistribute its profit between the users on the site.

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Key information

What is StarBets all about? 

Bonuses

It was a little difficult to find information on bonuses at StarBets, because there’s no dedication ‘Bonuses’ or ‘Promotions’ section. 

There is a welcome bonus, which can be found in your account after you sign up. This is a 100% match deposit bonus with a 30x wager requirement that you’ll need to play through before you can claim the winnings. 

The dividends scheme seems a little complicated, even by crypto casino standards. StarBets explains that its dividends system is a “way to distribute platform’s profits between our users”, and your dividend amount will depend on the percentage of STAR Tokens you hold. STAR Tokens are ‘mined’ every time you make a bet.

There is a rakeback scheme, but this has to be unlocked first at Rank Three.

Available games/sports to bet on

While there is a large library, filled with some of the hottest names in online gaming such as Pragmatic Play and Evolution, many of these are not available in the UK region. This means that if you’re trying to access the casino from this jurisdiction, you’ll be severely limited in what you can play.

However, we could access the house games on the site, which included Plinko, Texas Hold’em, Dice, Keno, Limbo, Mines and Coin Flip. 

User experience and interface

The user experience for UK players will be limited, due to regional restrictions. 

The site is also quite difficult to use and it seems like it’s been translated into English without any further localisation. The ‘About Us’ section can be found under ‘White Paper’ and there isn’t an easy way to see all of the bonuses available. Instead, these are scattered across ‘My Bonus’, ‘Rakeback’, ‘Dividends’ and ‘Referral’. 

Mobile and app compatibility

StarBets doesn’t have an app, but it is fully functional on mobile devices. All you need to do is access it from your iOS or Android device and go to StarBets in the native mobile browser. The mobile website will let you access your account and play any of the games available in your region.

VIP programmes and loyalty rewards

There wasn’t much information on the VIP programme, even on the dedicated page for it. The operator explains that in order to reach VIP status, you need to reach Rank 10 and then you’ll be rewarded with a range of benefits. These include a cash prize, free spin bonuses, higher cashback and rakeback bonuses, spins on the Wheel of Fortune and early access to new games.

To find more information about the ranks, you need to head to the ‘Cashback’ page and scroll down. Here, it explained that I needed to wager a total of 0.1 BTC to advance to Rank 1, which is about £5,000.

In order to reach the VIP status, you need to wager 60 BTC, or the equivalent of £3 million.

The closest thing to a standard VIP programme is the Dividends scheme that we explained in the Bonuses section.

Pros & Cons of StarBets

Diving deeper into StarBets 

Licensing

As far as we can see, StarBets is completely unlicensed. There’s no mention of a licence in the footer of the page, nor in the terms in conditions. There’s also no information whatsoever about any kind of owner or operator to be found either. 

This makes it incredibly risky to play at this site, because it means that no-one will be able to step in and rectify any issues should you come across them. This could affect deposits, withdrawals and any personal information you submit to the platform.

Payment methods

As StarBets is an online crypto casino, it’s no surprise to see it accept a range of coins. These include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether USDT and Binance, among others. This isn’t a particularly long list of accepted currencies for a crypto casino, but it does cover the main ones.

If you want to play at StarBets but you don’t have crypto at the ready, then you can buy crypto through the site using MoonPay. This is a fairly common method utelised by online crypto casinos to support a larger audience who may be new to the concept.

Software providers

StarBets has a really good range of providers on its site, even if we can’t access all of them from the UK. These include industry giants such as Pragmatic Play, NetEnt, Evolution, Nolimit City and Big Time Gaming.

One upside to StarBets is that if most of the providers are blocked, as they are in the UK, then this online casino platform also offers in-house games. These are focused on arcade-style titles, like Plinko and Mines, but they provide a reliable alternative to region restrictions.

Security and fairness

Like many online casinos we’ve reviewed at First, StarBets takes security seriously. There are a few dedicated sections of the site which talk about this and explain how player funds and personal information are secured behind vaults and other protocols. 

However, there are several additional security measures in play here, which we love to see here at First. The two-factor authentication was automatically turned on and activated when I tried to sign in on my mobile device, which was reassuring to see. There’s a way to link the account to the Google Authenticator and there’s even a list of login activity which shows dates, activities, devices and IP addresses. 

This is a really good standard of security to have and it’s something we wish we saw more of at First. 

As for fairness, StarBets also has a verifiably fair random number generator attached to each game and explains how players can use this to check the fairness themselves.

Responsible gambling measures

Rather than having a dedicated responsible gambling page like many other online casinos do, StarBets has removed the middle man and the link takes you straight to the GambleAware site. While it’s good to have this resource available for players, it would’ve been nicer to see StarBets take a bit more accountability themselves and discuss responsible gambling measures themselves without the need for external links. 

We couldn’t find any responsible gambling tools either, such as deposit limits or self-exclusion periods. 

First rating: 1.7/5 stars

While StarBets does some aspects really well, like its security measures and in-house game selection, there are too many flaws that reduce its overall score. 

The lack of licence or any information about its owner creates too much doubt about its legitimacy and there’s minimal responsible gaming measures which makes me think that none of these are important to the operators.

Ultimately, if you use StarBets then you are doing so at your own risk. There is very little protection at this site if something goes wrong.

Cryptocurrencies Available Among Accepted Payments

FAQs

Is StarBets legit?

Without a licence or any information on its owners, then it’s difficult to paint StarBets as legit. Use this site at your own risk.

How can I contact customer support at StarBets?

If you want to contact customer support at StarBets then you can email them at support@starbets.io, or alternatively you can use the live chat function. Both of these are available 24/7. 

How do I reset my password at StarBets?

Resetting your password at StarBets is easy. All you need to do is press “Forgot Password” when logging in and the instructions will be sent to the email associated with your account.