Emu Casino Review (NZ)

Bonuses and Promotions at Emu Casino

Emu casino’s bonuses and promotions have a decent amount of variety. Again, it seems they have honed in on what NZ players like. We see all too often, other casino sites trying to enter the NZ market but missing the mark on what local players want. Emu casino NZ on the other hand, seem to have got it spot on.

Emu Casino No Deposit Free Spins

Straight of the bat, 20 free spins with no deposit, are on offer. These free spins are available to play on the Eddy Dundee pokie.  Once you register your new player account, check your email for the activation link to get the Emu casino free spins.  After you click on it, you are directed through to the lobby again. Click on claimable bonuses, then click on registration free spins.  Here are the finer details:

• Max bet size: $0.25
• Max cash out: $15
• Wagering: 30x

Emu Deposit Bonus Welcome Pack

New players at Emu casino NZ also have the option of going for their deposit welcome bonus.  This totals $300, which can be split across the first 3 deposits. Yes, a $300 bonus isn’t a groundbreaker, but in reality, players never go much more than that on a deposit match bonus anyhow. So in a nutshell, deposit $300 across 3 deposits and you get $600 to play with.

Exclusively for players in NZ, Emu also bolts on 50 free spins to each of your first 3 deposits in this offer as well. So if you max out your first 3 deposits, you get $600 + 150 free spins to play with.

Loyalty Program Promotions

Emu also has a decent range of regular ongoing casino promotions for players, under their loyalty player scheme.  These aren’t mega promotions but they are decent enough to keep you playing and engaged. From what we can see, a lot of the smaller Emu promos come and go, so there is every chance that by the time you read this review, they might have changed.  So with that in mind, we’ll give you details of the 3 most popular loyalty promotions that have been active for a long time.

Slot Missions

Emu didn’t have the balls to call this promotion pokie missions.  However, given the other countries they accept players from and the probable misinterpretation over there, we’ll give them a pass on this one.

This offer runs each week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and involves different pokies. Players receive a different set of missions, which they then try and do on the mission’s pokie. An example would be, placing a minimum $0.50 on Leprechaun’s Lucky Barrel on Wednesday and you could win 1,000 Emu Points or Free Spins.

Casino Race

This casino race promotion has stuck around on the Emu casino site for a long time, due to its popularity.  Players are entered into the promo automatically and there are 10 prizes up for grabs. The top prize is $400 and it goes down to $40 for 10th. Simply, you get a point for each pokie spin you do, so the more you play, the higher up the leader board you get. The biggest spinner of the day gets $400 cash, no catches.

Birthday Bonus

This birthday bonus offer is available to all real money players. So if you have made a deposit at any time after opening your account, you qualify.  You also need to have an uploaded ID confirming your birthday, but if you play with real money, there is every chance you have already done this at some point.  You then need to jump on their live chat or send them an email to claim your birthday bonus, anytime within 3 days of your birthday.  I’m guessing that there are some players that either can’t be bothered or forget to do this.  If you don’t want to be one of them, set a reminder to do it (not for your Birthday!).

Game Variety at Emu Casino

Emu’s game range is decent, which should be expected from a casino site that has been servicing Kiwi players for over a decade. Many of the casino sites we review, throw up all of the casino games they can get their hands on. Emu on the other hand, seem to have done away with the crap and are only listing the games that we know, and they seem to know, are popular with players in NZ.

Pokies

We still aren’t sure why the 1st pokie listed on their site is the Aus Dem Tal game. I guess calling the casino Emu wasn't enough for these guys. Our tip for them would be to forget about the alphabetical ordering and drop that pokie title further down the list.  

Moving further on, they do have some decent pokie games and have integrated with most of the powerhouse pokie developers.  The filter options aren’t the best though and they could do with adding some more filter options in there.  Their search function works, but only if you get the pokie name spot on, it won’t help you out on typos or misspellings.

Free Spin Pokies

Yes, you read it correctly, free spin pokies are offered right from the get go. This is where Emu casino’s NZ experience shows, because free spin games are always a win win among Kiwis. The Emu casino free spins pokie range is actually pretty decent also. Unbeknown to most players, pokie sites do have access to a lot of free spin or demo games from the developers, but very few of them go the extra mile to incorporate them into their casino sites. Emu clearly knows what local players want, so they have gone ahead and delivered on it.

Crypto Games

Emu NZ have recently included crypto games into their portfolio. In short, these are the same as normal pokies, but can be played with using crypto as a payment option.  Taking a normal pokie game and adapting it so it can be played with crypto is massively more complex than it sounds. Because of this, the range of crypto pokies available online has been lacking over recent years, to say the least.  There has been a surge in crypto game development over the past year or so and Emu casino have taken full advantage.

Casino Table Games

On the casino table game front, computerized dealer options are limited to roulette and blackjack. If you’re looking to settle in for a decent playing session and want a live dealer, they do have the full suite of Evolution live casino games.  Here is the catch though - they have partnered with the best live casino game provider in the market, but we struggled to get the table games to load properly. The system was very glitchy, which is the last thing you want when you are on a live table. Hopefully by the time you read this review, they have resolved this issue.

Jackpots

Emu do have a jackpot range but the range of jackpots is fairly limited.  At the time of us reviewing the Emu NZ casino site, there were 32 jackpot pokies available, which is respectable. However, Emu are missing many of the familiar jackpot titles.  The titles this website has, could be great pokies, but if they aren’t that common, how many other players use them and how big are the jackpots?  Having said that though, 99.9% of us would be happy with any jackpot win, so you guys can decide if we are being too picky here or not.

EmuCasino on Mobile

Emu casino’s mobile site is similar to the desktop version we tested in some of the earlier parts of this review.  Playing on mobile doesn’t give you anything fancy and it is far from being state of the art. However the Emu mobile casino site is simple, works well and has a decent fixed menu across the bottom that has the options most players will be looking for. 

We do think that the Emu mobile casino does have room for improvement though. It looks and feels like their development team have taken a desktop website and changed it around, to make a mobile website. Yes, this can work in other industries, but for casinos, you really have to go beyond that. Mobile casino apps are massively different to their desktop counterparts, because that is what is required for players when they spend hours playing pokies from their mobile. If Emu can’t provide their players with a mobile app, they should at least try and get their mobile site’s look and feel as close to an app as possible. They are missing the mark on this.

Payments and Withdrawals 

The range of payment and withdrawal options for players at Emu are impressive.  There is a decent range of debit and credit card payment options, e-vouchers including Neosurf, e-wallets like Neller and the increasingly popular cryptos like Ethereum and Bitcoin. The minimum deposit is set at NZ$10.

How fast the casino withdrawals are, depends on your chosen method. Most of the cash out methods are processed instantly, whereas other banking methods require ID verification and can take a few days to complete.  Most of the cash out methods have a $2,500 per transaction limit and are free from processing fees on 1x withdrawal every 30 days.  After your 1st withdrawal within 30 days, Emucasino 'reserves the right’ to charge 3.9% per transaction.

Given the large number of banking options and varying cash out times, we’ve put together an easy to follow chart for you:

Customer Support

The customer support for Emu casino’s NZ players is contactable 24/7 via email and live chat.  In our tests, their live chat began responding to us almost immediately and were knowledgeable enough to handle our query.  

Emu also has phone support, available locally from 1 pm - 10 pm.  The good news is that it is on a local number, (+64) 09 9515843. The not-so-good news is that when we tried it, they didn’t pick up. 

Responsible Gambling

Responsible gambling safety measures at Emu are mediocre. When you are logged in, you can set your own spending limits, which is becoming the norm nowadays. There are various responsibility protocols that could be adopted, but Emu focuses on 2 key areas. The 2 areas of focus are done well though, which are underage gambling and player timeouts.

Underage Gambling Checks

Emu casino’s website offers free play games, which can attract underage gambling. However, when a player decides to start playing with real money, Emu’s compliance team carries out checks to confirm that the player is 18+. If these checks are inconclusive, the player will generally be asked to provide ID.

Time Outs

The time out feature, otherwise known as self exclusion, is compulsory for many casinos in Europe nowadays. The team at Emucasino have followed this responsibility trend and rolled this out into NZ as well. If you want or need a break from playing and do not want to be contacted, there are time out periods of 24hrs up to 6 weeks.  If you want to take it a step further, you can go for a temporary self exclusion, from 6 months up to 5 years. You can also go for a permanent self exclusion, but remember, permanent means permanent and it cannot be reversed.

Final Thoughts on Emu Casino NZ

This casino didn’t exactly hit the ground running, when they decided to call themselves Emu casino, prior to entering the New Zealand market. That said, they have clearly put in a bit of work since then, to understand what Kiwi players want and they seem to be delivering on it.  Their casino site does what it says on the tin and their bonuses, pokies, free spins and customer support, all work well. 

The biggest gripe I have with this Emu is the quality of their mobile casino website, which I feel is probably due an update. The mobile design is OK and yes it does work, but given that 80% of online pokie playing is done on mobile devices nowadays and technology moves quickly, Emucasino should slide a mobile revamp to the top of their To Do list.