Northern Lights Casino Review

Adding to the burgeoning iGaming industry in the UK is a new Northern Lights Online Casino. This exclusive Nektan-powered brand is registered under the UK Gambling Commission and primarily caters to the UK clientele.

Launched in 2015, under the Nektan Gibraltar Limited subsidiary, Northern Lights online casino features a heavy-set collection slots and variety of casino games provided by multiple software developers, that includes NetEnt, Microgaming, Pragmatic Play, NYX, NextGen, and a long list of new and emerging providers, alongside, of course, Nektan’s own games.

General Overview

Point to be noted, the name Northern Lights is in semblance with a Minnesota (US) based casino hotel, as well as a software provider. Whereas this casino is not a direct online version of the casino hotel, nor is powered by the software. They are all just different brands of the same name.

Northern Lights Casino Games Hub

Slots are the power source of all online casinos, but Northern Lights casino is among those that are more or less a hub for finding the most diversified range of slots. They have more than 600 slot machines provided by a repertoire of over 25 software providers. Their catalog includes jackpot slots, 3D slots, 3-reel classics, 777 slots and many unique and innovative ones, plus recent releases.

However, despite the certain partiality towards the reels and rows, you are not likely to miss out on options when you are looking for some table and cards games. There are subsequent options including, Blackjack, Baccarat, Roulette and Card Poker, few of which are available on mobiles.

There is also a dedicated section for Bingo games, but so far we found only one game, that’s Candy Swap, even though it’s actually a slot machine.

There is a small section of live dealer games available too. Though there are no video poker games on offer, neither are there any tournament events. All in all, the games lobby has most of what is wished by modern punters, and since this is a new casino, we are inclined to believe there is more to come.

• Slots

Whether you are looking to keep track of new slots releases by industry leaders like Microgaming and NetEnt or want to try out innovative slots by emerging software providers you haven’t probably heard of yet ( such as India based, Rocksalt Interactive, Inspired Gaming or Iron Dog Studio), when you have a slot collection like that, you may not need to look elsewhere!

You have all-time favourites like Starburst, Gonzo’s Quest, Immortal Romance, Thunderstruck, Bonanza Megaways, Madame Destiny, Medusa and a host of others. You can have the first-hand experience of fresh new slots like NetEnt’s AAA style game, Narcos, and the recent Microgaming-Rabcat launch, Sherlock London. Here are some more of our handpicked titles you must try:

• Mystery Reels
• Cave Raiders
• Holy Diver
• Dwarf Mine
• Kaiju
• Astro Legends
• 300 Shields
• Planet of the Apes
• The Invisible Man

There is a decent lineage of progressive jackpot slots, that can come with a large potential of wins, whether you are a high roller or a budget player. While most of the slots are available on the mobile site, you will find that the best jackpot slots are available on the online casino, such as Mega-Moolah. For mobile jackpots, you have Devine Fortune and Cleopatra and about fifteen other titles.

• Table & Card Games

There is only a handful of table and card games that include a variety of Roulette, along with Blackjack, Texas Hold’em and Pontoon. These are mostly NetEnt games, so good points in terms of quality, if not quantity.

• Live Casino Experience

The live casino experience is just 3 games as in 2019. So if you are more into the authentic casino experience, then this casino has two Roulette tables and a Blackjack table on offer at the moment.

Desktop Casino Experience

The sleek website and mobile casino run on an HTML-based instant play platform, specifically designed to be super fast and smooth, having cross-platform compatibility with seemingly all kinds of devices and operating systems. We tried it out with basic Linux systems with flash player, and it works really smooth.

We were a little confused with its way of approach, though. When you log in to the main website spread on a background of the Aurora or Northern lights, there you find enough info on the home page, with the banners for Welcome Bonus and other promotions, featured games, banking and licence details on the footer, all well structured on a crisp layout.

However, when you go for the games lobby, there is little you can do with the main page. Because there is only one page for a “slots” section and one page for a “casino” section, without any search tab or filter, so you just have to scroll through the catalogue. It’s up to you to discern between regular video slots and progressive slots, or virtual games from live casinos since everything goes into one page.

Now, when you click on a casino game, it redirects to another games lobby, that is different from what the main website shows. This is actually the mobile site that you access via desktops, and therefore, the games differ.

Mobile Casino Experience

The Northern Lights mobile casino experience is better than the desktop version. There is no mobile app you can download, it’s the mobile site that you can visit via your mobile browsers.

You get to really dig into the Games Lobby here, which is neatly designed, save from a little glitch as per streamlining your games search and filtration. For instance, the filter section largely concentrates on filtering the software providers along with categorized games in a somewhat abstract manner.

You don’t have the conventional tab options like slots, table games, speciality games and so on, instead, you get to choose between “hot games,” “instant wins,” “live dealer,” “casino games” and “bingo” among some others. Therefore, games navigation needs some improvement.

Northern Lights Casino Bonuses & Promotions

Northern Lights casino promotions come at a standard frame, nothing extravagant, but decent enough. There is a lineage of welcome offers, given for casino deposits and bingo account deposits.

On the main casino website, they have a layout in a way it suggests that you get up to ￡500 bonus plus 100 free spins, which is not as simple as it conventionally means. The ￡500 is a sum total of different bonuses and is not really a match bonus, but a combination of “cashback on losses” and free spins. Here is an overview.

• Welcome Bonus: Free Spins

As of now, the welcome bonus is counted on, when you have newly registered at the site and made your first deposit. The minimum deposit of ￡10 to ￡50 activates free spins, and only if you deposit more than ￡50 on your first deposit, you activate both free spins and the cashback bonus. Here is a layout of the scheme.

The free spins are valid on selected slots only and attract a wagering requirement of x20 of the bonus earned, not the amount of deposit that activated it. The winning cash that you achieve with the free spins is capped at x2.

• Welcome Bonus: Cashback Scheme

The 10% cashback scheme worth up to ￡200 is activated with a minimum deposit of ￡50. It is a one time bonus that applies for first deposits only. Do not confuse this scheme with a “match bonus” which readily fills your account with the bonus cash right after a deposit. Instead, this cashback will get you a subsequent return on your investment, when you lose more than ￡200 playing the casino games on a timeframe of 24 hours.

The practicality of this scheme is rather scarce, which first of all, has limited chance to make a full-fledged ROI. Secondly, you must have the cash ready to lose to get close to this bonus.

We also came across a special welcome bonus for “Bingo Account Holders” which is another strange thing, since we did not find any such Bingo games on offer on the site as of now. Anyways, this offer rather activates 10 free spins on the slot game, Candy Swap, and a 300% match bonus worth up to ￡90. This is probably a temporary offer.

• Promotions and Achievements for Existing Customers

Apart from the welcome bonuses, there are some offerings for existing customers as well, which includes “Deposit and Spin the Wheel” bonus, which offers random free spins on selected slots on a standard deposit.

There are certain seasonal and occasional offers to add to it, altogether giving you quite an eventful time at the casino, even though the offerings are not as high as it would be at other casinos.

There are no loyalty programs or VIP schemes offered by the casino at the moment.
The promotions are a bit baffling for sure. And for the fact that they shuffle their bonus offerings from time to time, also makes a point that players should always do their own hunt at the “promotions” section of the site for recent updates, no matter what a casino review says.

Payment and Withdrawal Methods

The casino does not have a dedicated cashier section, and a glimpse of the banking methods are aligned at the footer section. You can only view the payment options at the time of placing a deposit or withdrawal.

• Deposit Options

All deposits are free except for Boku mobile transfer, which attracts a 15.00 % tax and can be used for minimum deposits of ￡15 and maximum ￡30 per day. Whereas, the standard minimum deposit is ￡10 unless you are trying to activate a bonus with particular deposit specifications. The deposits reflect instantly on your casino account. Here’s a complete overview of the deposit methods.

• Bank Transfer
• eWallets – Neteller & Skrill
• PayPal
• Paysafecard
• Zimpler
• Boku
• Sofort
• Giro Pay
• Trustly

• Withdrawal Methods

Just like at other casinos, withdrawals are not valid on all the payment options. Moreover, there is a fee structure for certain payment options. Withdrawals are not valid on Boku, here is all that you can use to withdraw your winnings:

• Bank Wire Transfer
• Neteller & Skrill
• Paysafecard
• Trustly

The minimum withdrawal amount is ￡10, while the maximum withdrawal limit is capped at ￡5,000 a month. There is a withdrawal fee levied on amounts less than ￡30 or equivalent in respective currencies.

A fee of ￡2.50 will be deducted from the amount you are trying to withdraw. However, withdrawals above ￡30 are free. You don’t get too much of free withdrawals offered by casinos, so this is a cool thing to have.

There is limited info about many important attributes that punters may need to know about casinos, especially about the payment methods and options, even though they have instated a pretty bulky FAQ section.

Licence and Security

The UK Gambling Commission Licence and IBAS memberships are the primary attributes of this new casino, along with the license of Gibraltar Government, that truly speaks for its security and trustworthiness.

Moreover, being a Nektan casino, Northern Lights automatically inherit their UKAS and ISO accreditations. Therefore, you can rest assured from the vantage point of safety and security when you think of registering at this casino.

Furthermore, the casino and its games are regularly audited by third-party authorities, citing its randomness and fairness. The site is encrypted with SSL technology that substantiates completely safe and consistent payment gateways, especially since this casino caters to mobile gamers at large. We also noticed that the payments functionality work really smooth, and is quite adept with even basic shabby devices. That is a great thing to have.

Jurisdictions & Languages

Northern lights casino does mention that it restricts users logging in from the United States of America since the strict and complex iGaming laws in the US. Other than the US, there is no definite mention of restricted territories. Instead, they have indicated it up to the customer’s discretion, based on the gambling laws of their respective jurisdictions.

We can guess from the available languages and currencies, that they are largely operational around the European territory, including Sweden, Finland, Norway, Ireland and outside of the EU, jurisdictions they allow Australia, New Zealand, Jordan, South Africa, Malaysia. However, you must cross-check the validity of your region or just contact the customer support.

Customer Support

It is perhaps the customer support of Northern Lights casino that has evolved the most since their inception. Though we came across a lot of complaints regarding a meek and slow response, they have improved a lot.

The customer support is available in a rather elaborate framework, that includes live chat, live phone support and of course, email. However, the support does not come in 24*7 frame. Instead, it follows the standard GMT/BST civil time, limited between 8:00 am and 12 a.m. midnight. Even though the emails are cited to be 24*7, it doesn’t really make much sense, since they take up anytime between a couple of hours to entire 24 hours to respond.

The live chat is the most proactive form of communication if you are looking for a quick resolve. Live chats are available in Dutch and Swedish languages apart from English. They can also guide you on the phone. Good to know that they do not incorporate chatbots or machine-generated answers on their phone lines, you get to talk to actual people attending to your unique queries.

The customer support still has a long way to go, in terms of all-time availability as well as proactiveness, but now it’s better than what its earlier impression was and better than what many of its contemporaries offer. This is a sign that they have a penchant for improving themselves, which is all that matters.

Some Terms and Conditions That You Must Know

First of all, the terms and conditions of this casino are much foggy, though they have a crisp and well-formatted layout.

At one instance, they say that their withdrawal limit is capped at 5,000 GBP or equivalent, while at another phase, they indicate customers to call customer support in order to higher the limit. So you have an option for withdrawing a higher payout, but you have to work for it.

Not all currencies have all the payment methods. However, the options are quite reasonable, keeping in mind the most popular methods used at respective jurisdictions.
You can’t reverse your deposits, but you can reverse withdrawals in no time and without losing on the fees you have paid for.

The site has a high payout rate, with a maximum win from a single spin being ￡250,000. However, there are no cappings for Progressive Jackpot games. Moreover, per single spin except for any Progressive Jackpot payout that is indeed paid in full.

All withdrawals are reviewed for AML Compliance and take a minimum of 3 days to payout.

If your account has a balance of less than ￡5, you may not be able to change your deposit option, even if you want to. You have to use the default deposit option, transfer your money, and then change the option. Moreover, the default deposit method will even be locked when you have a pending withdrawal in line. The casino prefers you to deposit your funds in the same method that you are most comfortable to receive the payouts in.

Conclusion

If you are a slot lover, you can just as well become a loyal customer in this casino because not only do they have the best slots by the best providers in the industry, there is also ample scope for you to try the new and emerging lot of software developers and their innovative games. A crisp and simplistic layout of the website will make it a breeze for mobile users to play on the go.

There is no shortage of security and trustworthiness, and the casino is very open and transparent about their licences as well as terms and conditions. If you have played at other Nektan casinos, then this has all the similar qualities, though it’s not among the popular, you have the decency of useability and promising potentials of big wins without much ado.

However, don’t expect to hit a treasure trove by means of the bonuses that are just about standard. There are no Loyalty Programs offered by the casino either. So the current layout of this casino concentrates on “return on investment”, radically lived up by their cashback schemes, and radically low wagering requirements for free spins and other bonus offerings.

There are some things about this site that can definitely use a bit of improvisation. Different is one thing, we all love a little bit of uniqueness, but there are some elements about this casino that are plainly confusing. It is readily noticeable as with the site layout and promotional schemes, both of which we have mentioned above. Though it’s not hard to get by, and they have standard schemes, where there is nothing much to lose, but these factors matter when staging a new iGaming establishment at a considerate position in such a highly competitive market.