Thunderbolt Casino Review

The folks at Real Time Gaming are providers of the casino games for this operator. RTG has been in business for over twenty years, and continue to push their development team to release improvements to their games as well as adding new titles to their Reel Series slots games. The company works closely with its licensees both in regulated and “gray-market” regions to ensure that all the features of the software are being utilized to their maximum potential.

The RTG platform is available in both download and instant play versions. You will not find all the games available for instant play, however; to get the full RTG experience you should download the software to your machine. The instant play games are also available for mobile browsers so you can take a crack at some of your favorite slots or table games on the road!

I am a sucker for a good website; there are so many terrible ones in the online casino world that it can become very frustrating for me, and I know exactly what I am looking for when I get to a site! For first-time players, bad site navigation can be the difference between becoming a depositing player or just trying a different site.

When you get to Thunderbolt Casino, you will see excellent color schemes along with very clear text and navigation bars. This is the kind of casino that I like to see; nothing overly fancy but a clear eye for design and the impact that can have on play.

I love to believe that one day I am going to be the person holding the oversized check in the picture after winning some crazy jackpot amount; while I know this is a longshot at best, isn’t it worth a try? At Thunderbolt Casino, the checks may not be too oversized, but many progressive slots games offer you a chance to win some big bucks on top of the standard payouts. The biggest of these is definitely Megasaur, which has flirted with a seven-figure jackpot over the last couple of years.

This one is surprising to me on a couple of fronts. First off, Live Dealer games are becoming so popular amongst online casino players that it seems most operators are scrambling to add them to their offering. What makes this even more confusing in the case of Thunderbolt Casino is that Real Time Gaming entered into a partnership with a Live Dealer studio in 2015 with the purpose of being able to offer these games to their licensees seamlessly. Perhaps there is something in the agreement that needs to be addressed, but I am hopeful that the company gets these games added sooner than later.

So, I have raved about this feature at some casinos in the past; some places give you an idea of which games have been paying the most, and which is due for a big payout as a result of being so cold. In the case of Thunderbolt, I was pleased to see a tab named “Hot and Cold” but when I clicked on it, I only found a short intro followed by links to two slots games. There really should be more games listed, as well as a list of recent winners, to make this page feel a little more legitimate.

As I mentioned, you may not find all the games you are looking for in the Instant Play lobby of Thunderbolt Casino, so some of these games I review you may need to download to be able to access. Let’s have a look at all the different types of games you can find when you log on.

The Welcome Bonus is split into 4 pieces, all of which are slots-only bonuses. That isn’t great news for Table Games players, but more and more these days, sites are trying to avoid scammers coming in to take advantage of aggressive first deposit bonuses. Remember that all the promotions are listed in South African Rand, so you will need to have a currency converter handy. Here is how you can use the Welcome Bonus:

• 100% up to R2500 COUPON CODE: FLASHMATCH1
• 125% up to R2500 COUPON CODE: FLASHMATCH2
• 150% up to R2500 COUPON CODE: FLASHMATCH3
• free R2500 (no deposit) COUPON CODE: ULTIMATEFLASH

It is important to get to the 4^th bonus because that one doesn’t require any deposit to qualify!

So, let’s say you are someone who plays Table Games and therefore can’t take advantage of the Welcome Bonus…as long as you didn’t use one of the codes, then you are in luck! For players who make deposits with no bonus code, you can claim back 25% of your weekly losses simply by contacting customer service and requesting them. Hopefully, you will never need to use this offer, but if you do, it is an easy way to boost your bankroll after a tough week at the tables.

I like a casino that puts social media in play; it can be a great first line of customer service, and on top of that it is a great place to run flash promotions. In the case of Thunderbolt, if you like their Facebook page then you will be the first to find out which game offers Free Spins on Fridays!

This offer is a deposit bonus only available to VIP players on Friday nights between 8 pm and 9 pm South African time. You can receive a 250% bonus to R5,000 as well as 100 Free Spins if you make a deposit during that timeframe.

For a list of all the other current promotions available, you can click on this link:

Banking options are geared towards players from South Africa, but that includes many of the most used payment methods in the industry. Bear in mind that to make a withdrawal, you have to send a whole bunch of documents to the casino, so you should probably just go ahead and make that file on your computer, so it’s there when you need it!

• EcoPayz
• MasterCard
• Neteller
• Visa
• Skrill
• Wire Transfer
• SiD
• Bitcoin

• Bank Wire Transfer
• Neteller
• Skrill
• SiD
• Bitcoin

Thunderbolt uses the standard Real Time Gaming calculation for its comp program; for every R10 you wager in any of the real money games, you earn one point, which can then be collected and redeemed at a rate of 100 points to 1 Rand. Certain games offer double points on certain days, so you should keep your eyes peeled for those (usually announced in the lobby area of the casino).

Well, some promotions are only open to VIP players, but I still haven’t been able to find any information on this program anywhere. I can only imagine that the VIP program is private; management likely deems you a VIP based on a set of parameters they like to keep close to their chest.

I will admit this type of VIP management drives me a bit insane. If an operator wants to give players a reason to play more often, it needs to dangle the big, delicious carrot in front of their eyes. Not having a detailed explanation of what every status level brings in the way of rewards is basically like saying “we don’t think you deserve to know why you are important to us.” I hope that the company becomes more transparent with this information in the future.

I happen to live in an area that is allowed to play at this casino without restrictions. However, I also have the opportunity to play at literally hundreds of other online casinos, so Thunderbolt was going to have to blow my socks off to convince me to choose them. I will give the casino credit: they have an excellent offering, from the quality of the games to the ease of the website navigation. The tough part for me is not being able to play in any other currency except Rand; call me crazy, but I don’t want to always be doing the conversion on deposits and bets.

With all of that being said, if you can look past the slots-only Welcome Bonus and the currency issue, then I can recommend this casino to you. There are no red flags that would stop me from saying “Go for it”; if you come across anything I need to know, I encourage you to reach out to us and let us know!