Griffon Casino

Griffon Casino Review

Well, here’s a casino that wants you to do some Googling and get some education! What’s a griffon? Well, it’s another way of saying “griffin” which is a mythological beast that combines two of the top beasts in the real world – the eagle and lion – into one big mess of preditoryness!

So we Googled it to save you the time, the truth is that a Griffon is what you get when so many casino names have been taken that there really is nothing left that is even vaguely related to actual gambling. Blame the Internet, not the good people at Griffon Casino, who, according to the website are Aspire Global, of Malta.

Malta is one of the hubs of the world’s gambling industry, and Aspire is registered there, and runs its UK sites through another company called AG Communications.

However, AG has a large number of licenses under their name AG Media. The company runs a number of these sites itself, including Generation VIP, HOPA, Karamba, and Scratch 2 Cash. They also have a large number of so-called White Label sites, like Barbados Casino, Fortune Jackpots, and Slotzo. They are also licensed as bingo providers and software developers.

White Label casinos are just a version of a franchising model. This means that a company like AG Media builds websites, supplies games, and a lot of the other services that are needed to run a casino but leaves the branding and some details of the operation to another group of people. There’s nothing shady about this model, but it does mean that a large number of casino sites that appear to be new, independent businesses aren’t quite as new and independent as they appear at first. Sites in families like this often share a lot of similarities including bonuses and the games they have, so you might find yourself scratching your head at where you’ve seen all this before.

Certainly, though, Griffon is fairly different. The branding, complete with a picture of our new favourite mythical beasty is aimed at “luxury” customers and has about 600 slot games, around 30 table games and a live casino with 124 games, largely from Evolution Gaming.

Should you take on this massive, made-up creature though?

Let’s have a look.

Griffon Casino Pros and Cons

Good myths – and marketing – acknowledge the universal truth that not everything is perfect, and so we must look in depth at Griffon Casino, including the dark side of the legend!

But let’s start with the positives.

Pros:

1 – Licensed, legal and legitimate

We never even list casinos that are not safe. There’s a lot of pressure on the UK casino industry at the moment over site safety, and changes are being made in the industry, but the first person who has to look after consumers is still you, the consumer.

And the first thing you should check is that the site is licensed by the UK Gambling Commission. A licence means that the site will meet the basic safety standards and that the games will be fair. Out and out scams are relatively rare these days and should be fairly easy to spot (most are poor quality or obviously outside the law), but please do make sure that you check a licence is in place and up to date.

Griffon Casino obviously is. It is a well-designed site with everything you would expect to see at a fully legit casino site.

2 – Time for a little game theory

There’s a relatively small selection of games here thus far, but the site is new. And when we say “relatively small” we mean that. Some sites now have well over 1,000 (or even 2,000) slots on their books and no doubt Griffon Casino will head in that direction as it gets more established.

A quick glance at the front page shows some really quality titles from the best developers. Like, for example, blueprint gaming, EYECON, and Microgaming.

The games are nicely presented too, with plenty of listing options and a filter to list your favourite providers.

3 – Not breaking the bank!

Good quality payment options are a must-have for casino fans, and you can use a really big selection of them at Griffon Casino.

They range from old-fashioned banking cards and transfers to PayPal and other e-wallets and pre-paid cards.

4 – Living the Live!

This is a great live casino site. Griffon Casino’s live casino sits as standalone, but it stands proudly alone and has quality games from good quality providers, largely Evolution, and the games are well arranged and easy to find your way around.

Cons:

1 – Hello again!

White label sites might be the casino industry’s favourite model but are they good for the customer. Customers are – in the theories of competition and markets (which are a bit flimsy to be honest) – best served by lots of choices. The UK casino market appears to give customers lots of choices. But a lot of this choice is just a chimaera. We’ve mentioned that there are 79 domain names licensed to AG Communications, the company behind Griffon Casino. How different do you think those sites really are? The same is true in other businesses by the way. Did you know that a lot of products that are branded differently are in fact pretty much the same – the vast majority of the hummus sold in all UK shops is made in one factory?

If you like AG’s sites then great, you’ll love this one. If you don’t then obviously, you’re not going to enjoy Griffon Casino. The main issue here is that it’s important to know this before you even look at a site.

2 – Promos?

There’s a welcome offer at Griffon Casino, but not much else and the promotions page looks decidedly bare compared to some sites. Promos are a mixed bag in some respects, but it’s nice to have something to check out.  

3 – Max Wins

The Welcome Bonus here is OK, but the limit on winnings from 50 free spins (and maybe 100) is £100. That’s pretty low. We know bonuses all look like this, but today we’ve decided we’ve had enough of these restrictions.

Games and Software at Griffon Casino

There’s a big selection at this site, which is relatively new and you should expect more games to be added as time goes on. We know that games move around and become more popular or less popular so we list the games we find when we visit the site. Check when you sign up to see if it has the games that you like.

Slots

Let’s start at the most obvious place with a front-page listing of the most popular games at Griffon Casino.

We found:

Big Buffalo, Super Lion, Book of Dead, Starburst, Hyper Strike, Party Pop, Rain Balls, Queen of Wands, Wilder Fruit Super Wheel, Great Rhino Megaways.

In total there are 366 of these featured games.

New games are always popular, and here you’ll find 148 new titles.

These are the titles that we found: Queen of Wands, Rain Balls, Paty Pop, Wild Fruit Super Wheel, Bandits Thunder Link, Shimmering Woods, Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen, Fire Forge, Western Gold, Gods of Secrecy.

Listing slots gets you 581 titles, with a list starting with: Party Pop, Rain Balls, Book of Dead, Fire Joker, Dragons of the North, Gonzo’s Quest, Twin Spin, Queen of Wands, Wolf Riches, and Wild Fruit Super Wheel.

Jackpot games usually brings up progressive games, and this site offered us these titles: Grand Spinn Superpop, Imperial Riches, Lucky Lady, Redeem the Dream, Super Fast Hot Hot, Super Lucky Reels, Super Lion, Vegas Night Life, Temple of Wealth, Beast of Wealth, and Jackpot Fortunes.

Table Games at Griffon Casino

Most casino games are live games now. However, RNG (random number generator) games are still available, and you can find them at Griffon Casino.

There are 26 titles and they include all of the big titles in the casino world.

Roulette

The roulette wheel is the most popular destination in the casino world, and you can play these versions as Griffon Casino:

Roulette Lounge, Lightning Roulette, 10p Roulette, Real Auto Roulette, European Roulette, Real Roulette with… titles, Classic Roulette, Sapphire Roulette Global, Turbo Roulette, 3D European Roulette, European Roulette VIP, and American Roulette.

Check out these high stakes roulette games if you like betting big!

Blackjack

The blackjack table is where the most popular card game is found, and these are the titles at Griffon Casino: Vegas Strip Blackjack, Blackjack Single Hand VIP, Blackjack Multihand VIP, Vegas Downtown Blackjack, Vegas Single Deck Blackjack, European Blackjack, Blackjack Multihand, Classic Blackjack, BJ Royal Pair.

Other Games at Griffon Casino

You can also play baccarat, and poker at Griffon Casino.

Bonuses at Griffon Casino

Bonuses are the lifeblood of the casino industry, and they’re very much a mixed bag from a player’s point of view.

This is what we found at Griffon Casino.

Welcome Bonus at Griffon Casino

The welcome bonus is the biggest promo at almost every site. It is designed to attract attention and to tempt players to sign up. And then it is designed to turn them into long term customers. How does it do that?

Well, when you read the full terms and conditions of most welcome offers you will understand.

Let’s have a look at the Griffon Casino offer.

The headline offer is Get Up To 200 Bonus Spins.

That sounds great, doesn’t it!

The details are: you receive 50 spins on your first deposit, then 50 spins on your second deposit, and then 100 on your third.

And the real details are:

The deposits are each a minimum of £20, so you will have to spend at least £60 to get those 200 spins.

And you’ll need to wager 35 times the amount of money you win on those spins if you’re to get any of that money out of your account.

That’s right, any money you win will require you to spend 35-times that amount of your own money to get it out.

And you must use the free spins within 21 days of receiving them.

The spins are awarded in particular games. The first 50 spins are on Book of Dead; the second 50 spins are on Starburst, and then you get 100 spins on Fire Joker.

The wording of the terms tells us that money won with these free spins require a 35-times wagering requirement before they are released. They also tell us that bonuses that require a deposit (as this one does) require the same wagering requirement, so we’re not quite clear on the exact terms.

If you start to try to withdraw money then you will forfeit your bonus.

And again, we have a contradiction when the terms tell us that free spins must be used within one day.

There is definitely a maximum on the amount you can win from the free spins: you cannot withdraw more than £100 in total from all your spins. That’s quite a low maximum on 200 free spins.

There is a quite complicated set of rules about what bets you are allowed to place, including not placing a bet worth more than 15% of the bonus amount (also £4 in total or 50p per line). There is a different limit on Skrill and Neteller bettors. Even betting on games that don’t contribute to the wagering requirements can – at the site’s discretion – lead to the loss of the bonus.

So there we have a full-ish list of conditions that show you what the welcome bonus actually means to you. That might mean that it is the best decision for you to turn the bonus down, but you should certainly not think about any bonus as a way to win a lot of money without risking any of your own, because that isn’t going to happen.

Other Promotions at Griffon Casino

We couldn’t find details of other promotions at Griffon Casino, but it is likely that there will be other promotions in time. They are usually tied to game releases or seasonal events. There was promotional material for a March Madness promotion that seemed to be based on Egyptian-themed games, but we weren’t offered any more information on it.

Keep checking back to see what is available when you sign up.  

Loyalty Schemes and VIP Schemes

There was no loyalty scheme for UK players that we could find at Griffon Casino, but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be in the future. Their European players can use a scheme to collect reward points in return for bonuses.

VIP schemes generally operate by invitation. Sites pick out the highest spending players – it really is this simple – and offer them incentives that make it worthwhile to stay at their site. That’s because high spenders lose a lot and make a lot of profit for the site, so bear that in mind if you ever celebrate being invited to a VIP scheme.

Griffon Live Casino

The live casino is largely from Evolution Gaming who are the biggest live casino providers in the market at the moment.

They supply a large range of games and there are a total of 124 games listed on our visit.

There is a salon prive, where players can play for higher stakes and with more personalised service. We found roulette, blackjack and baccarat tables running in this private room.

There were 24 live roulette tables running on our visit. These included native language versions in German, Danish, and Norwegian. There were auto games, link-ups with casinos in dual play games, and immersive games. You could also play Lightning Roulette, Evolution’s big prize version of the game, and all the usual rule variants, European, French, and American.

Clicking blackjack gives you 59 tables. These also come with rule variants – Strip, infinite, free bet – and presentational styles, like high speed and immersive games, and there are VIP and private games.

There are 24 baccarat and sic bo tables. These games include super sic bo, dragon tiger, and variants on baccarat including Lightning and squeeze games.

There were six poker tables up and running when we visited, including hold ’em and three-card poker games.

Finally, there are games shows, of which there are 12 including Monopoly, Crazy Time, Dream Catcher, Mega Ball and the Lightning games.

It’s a big selection of high-quality games.

Griffon Mobile Casino and App

Griffon Casino is a no-download mobile casino with no app to add to your home screen. You can play all the games on the site by browsing the site on a mobile browser of your choice.

Banking

You can use these methods to cash up your account:

Visa, MasterCard, Bank Transfer, Trustly, Skrill, Skrill 1-tap, Neteller, MuchBetter, ecoPayz, PayPal, Rapid Transfer, giropay, interac, AstroPay card, Euteller, eps, paysafecard.

All UK deposit methods are instant, but withdrawals can take between 0 to 6 days on bank cards, 2 to 6 days on bank transfers, and either 0 to 2 or 0 to 4 days on most electronic payment methods.

Most casino sites will apply a pending period that might be added to payment processing times. You may be charged by your e-wallet provider or bank.

Customer Support

As with most casino sites, the first point of call for help is a large FAQ page.

This covers most of the usual questions players have about their accounts. This includes sections on privacy, bonuses, deposits, cashing out, documentation (you will have to prove your ID and your address in order to take money out of your Griffon Casino site), technical issues, loyalty (outside the UK), and general information.

You can contact the site using a live chat window that is available seven days a week from 8 am to midnight (CET) or by email via a web form.

Responsible gambling at Griffon Casino

Griffon Casino as you would hope has a lot of information on responsible, safer gaming.

That means a big page of advice and signposting to BeGambleAware and very specific hints and tips for all sorts of situations, including keeping kids safe.

Programmes like net nanny, Gamlock and Betfilter are promoted and the site provides tools that include: advice from support staff, self-exclusions, deposit limits, account history and further information on organisations that can support you to gamble more safely.

The Final Verdict

Griffon Casino is a new site and perhaps it has a few teething issues. We had a couple of problems with information on the site, including pages opening to show blank pages and a few inconsistencies in the information we were being offered on subjects like bonuses and promotions.

To be honest, though, we have seen this sort of issue before, and it is probably not to be taken too seriously.

What we can say is that Griffon Casino is legitimate and that it comes from a trusted provider who are already behind a big slew of popular sites.

They have a really large selection of games from providers like Amatic, blueprint, Eyecon, iSoftBet, Microgaming, NetEnt, Pariplay, Play’N Go, Pragmatic Play, and more.

You can expect this range to grow and grow as well if other sites in this family are to be taken as a model.

The range of games is good – although the choice of jackpot games is quite small as yet – and they are really well arranged. The site is generally easy to use and can be trusted. There’s a great set of payment options that should cover most players’ needs and customer care is well regarded from what we can see.

So this is a good new site. It probably won’t change the world, but it’s worth a look. We have our issues with the welcome bonus, with some of the written content and (if you’ve read our reviews) the entire concept of white label sites, but Griffon Casino is a decent new entry into the market and one that you should check out.