Jackpot City Casino

Imagine having a really bad day. Personally, waking up to find my gaming account frozen, hacked, or its funds missing would definitely give me a head start in painting this picture. 

Hence, security is the top criterion on my list when reviewing casinos. I researched all the areas a gambler could potentially face issues and considered the safeguards and assurances Jackpot City has to prevent this, namely: licensing, avoidance of blacklists, data & web security, and account security.  

In all, Jackpot City got a perfect score of 10 out of 10.

Licensing 

Sub-criterion Score: 4/4

iGaming licenses are a matter of oversight; they ensure the casino follows regulations, so players cannot get defrauded or unfairly lose their winnings without recourse. 

In a best case scenario, like an iGaming Ontario license, players can directly complain about an operator to the government. In the worst case, i.e. without any license, you’re up a creek without a paddle. Therefore, this sub-criterion gets 4 possible points within the total Security Score, more than any other. 

Jackpot City gets full points (4/4) in licensing, being run by an iGaming Ontario licensed operator, Cadtree Limited, whose license I verified by going to the iGaming Ontario website. Notably, this operator has three other iGaming Ontario licensed websites (Royal Vegas, Ruby Fortune, Spin Casino), indicating the company’s commitment to proper licensing in Canada.

Blacklists

Sub-criterion Score: 3/3

At FairJack, we refer to blacklists because no single reviewer—even me—can know and verify all the complaints about every casino, but where there’s smoke there’s fire. If a casino shows up on a reputable blacklist, i.e. a list published by a respected, established site, it indicates a strong possibility of some wrongdoing. 

I found that Jackpot City was on one warning list, although not a blacklist, from Wizard of Odds. Yet I still gave it a full 3/3. Here’s why:

While being on this list would normally lead to a point dedication, I found no evidence cited for these claims and instead noticed some questionable magic on our dear Wizard’s site: a reference to “contracts with affiliate sites”. Tsk tsk… Wizard of Odds is an affiliate site. 

Since “contracts with various casino affiliate sites” is as relevant for gamblers as a deck of 51 cards—and because there’s no additional evidence for “changed player terms”—I gave Jackpot City the benefit of the doubt. I don’t give out accusations of wrongdoing lightly in these reviews; a possible case of a jilted business partner means no point deduction. 

Accounts Security

Sub-criterion Score: 1/1

2FA, or two-factor authentication, is a type of security measure that makes it harder for hackers to access your account by requiring verification on a second device you own. 

Jackpot City has options for 2FA authentication via email or mobile. We tested both 2FA options by inputting my number and email and seeing if I would get verified upon logging into the site after logging out. 

With the mobile option, I found it to be responsive, with a PIN code sent within seconds every time I wanted to log in (see video below). An email verification was also sent within 1 minute when I chose this option. 

The ability to turn off 2FA, absent with many casinos, is also convenient if you know you’ll be logging off and on frequently. 

In our scorecard, we allocate a total of 1 point for this criterion, as it is an important security measure, though just one of many a site may implement. Not having it results in a demerit. Since Jackpot City offers 2FA, it earns the full 1 point in this category.

Is Jackpot City Safe?

In a world full of offshore and crypto casinos, becoming a government-regulated operator is the closest one can get to having a gold stamp of security approval. Additionally, having no presence on any blacklists despite being 28 years old is another fact that reinforces my judgement that Jackpot City is as safe as they come. 

And one more point about age: It’s a well-known tactic in the iGaming industry for an operator to open one casino, generate tons of negative controversy and reviews in a short span of time (both founded and unfounded), then shutter the casino and re-launch with a new name. Considering brand churning is the industry standard for smaller and mid-sized casinos, Jackpot City’s age isn’t a mere triviality, but definitely attests to its safety. 

Withdraw Processing Time

It took just 1 day from requesting the withdrawal to it being processed. The withdrawal was processed via Interac. 

Withdraw Limits

No information was found. So, we assume it’s high enough and rate 4 out of 4. 

Withdraw Methods & Fees

A moderate range of withdrawal methods with no fees for the most preferred methods. However, no crypto is available.  

Assessing the quality of a casino’s game selection isn’t easy. E.g., do 1,000 skins of a slot game constitute more variety than 3 different live games? Is it better to have 50 second-rate game providers or 2 good ones? There are many such conundrums. 

At FairJack, we sought to reach a balance by assessing game variety and the number of providers together, while also allowing additional points for the presence of jackpot games and absence of fake games. Altogether, this methodology allows for consistent assessments, focusing on measurable factors.

When I dove deep into Jackpot City’s game catalog, playing through their games and using our proprietary scoring system, the casino got a score of 6.9 out of 10. This is a decent score, which corresponds to a 3 out of 5 for the Game Variety sub-criterion, but they could use a larger variety of games for Ontario players.

Game Variety

Sub-criterion Score: 4/5 

I used FairJack’s proprietary Game Variety Framework to score the variety of games a casino offers. I.e., I filled out this checklist as I played, counting how many playable “standard games” and “varieties” there were. After testing to get the two scores below in Ontario and Vancouver, I found the average of the two (6.95/10) and matched it with a Game Variety score. 

For Ontario Users

Because Ontario has more regulations than other provinces, an Ontario-based user typically sees less games than one outside of Ontario. To create a score which considers all of Canada, I used Jackpot City from a Toronto-based account, then created a second Vancouver-based account with a VPN and a burner phone number.

When playing from Ontario, I found it lacked several key digital games (Keno, Craps, Scratch Cards, and Plinko) and a couple of live ones (Craps and Poker). This would give it a score of 6.6/10 in our Game Variety Framework. 

For Non-Ontario Users

Switching to my Vancouver-based account, I found it was missing only digital Craps, live Craps and Poker out of the main games. This would give it a score of 7.3/10 in our Game Variety Framework. 

As a side note, there were also almost double the number of jackpot games available in BC—69 vs. 109.

Number of Providers

Sub-criterion Score: 2/3

Game providers are companies which make the games you play when you visit a casino like Jackpot City. The biggest names include Pragmatic Play, Evolution and Games Global, and having a large number of providers in your casino is usually correlated to a large selection of popular titles. 

Jackpot City uses 39 game providers total, according to a combination of crawling technology and research from partners. This is middle of the pack for this figure, and does not constitute an exceptionally high number nor a number which would see players lacking for choice. Therefore, it earns a score of 2 out of 3 for this sub-criterion. 

Jackpot Games

Sub-criterion Score: 1/1

Jackpot games are casino games with prize pools that grow over time, with “progressives” featuring jackpots that increase with each bet until won. 

Unlike getting lucky at a regular spin of the wheel, slot or die, hitting a progressive jackpot could allow you to quit your job, pay off your child support and live in Tijuana for the next 20 years. This makes them generally popular amongst our readers and we award 1 point for casinos which have them. 

Jackpot City gets 1 full point, as there are a bunch. In fact, the casino has 69 available from Ontario and 109 from BC. This matches or exceeds top casinos like LeoVegas by 2 in Ontario, which—as a reference—offers 67 for this province. 

Fake Games

Sub-criterion Score: 1/1

For some shady operators, breaking their players’ over the long-term isn’t enough, so they create fake versions of games to lower the RTP further. For reference, here is an example of a fake game. 

Even though it’s incredibly unlikely that a regulated casino would do this, I still spent 2 hours playing the most popular titles on Jackpot City and found no evidence of fake games. 

As an additional plus, Jackpot City doesn’t list inaccessible games to users—a significantly less serious form of deception, but an annoying one nonetheless. This meant I didn’t have to waste time clicking on game titles, opening the page, then being disappointed to see the game didn’t actually work in my location. 

Mobile Gameplay

I also tried playing on Jackpot City on my iPhone to see if there was a difference in game selection. On top of the fact that the interface was highly intuitive, with it being easy to scroll through and navigate between sections, there was no difference in the game selection between mobile and desktop versions. 

When you gamble online, you inevitably run into problems real and imagined, and a diligent customer support agent (preferably human) is your last resort to separate fact from fiction, frivolity from catastrophe.  

In this spirit, I contacted Jackpot City with this burning question: 

“There are some slot games I play, but I find them through the search bar, but can’t find them in the slots homepage drop-down. E.g. Spinny McWinnigan, Spellbinding Mystery. Do they work for the hourly drop? How do I know if a slot game works for the hourly drop?”

This question, intentionally well-below my typical level of elegantly-crafted prose, is a valid, testing question which tests the support staff’s knowledge, patience and ability to deal with ambiguity. 

While the live chat team eventually answered my question, long wait times and unclear answers left room for improvement, leading to a score of 7 out of 10. 

Online Chat Response Time

Sub-criterion Score: 1/3

We assess the online chat response time out of a maximal score of 3, with top marks given to a response in under 2 minutes—this being both a record time at the Kentucky Derby and how long the Red Cross gives you to evacuate your home in the event of a fire. 

Up to five minutes is a score of 2, while 5-30 minutes earns a point less.     

As you can see from the screengrab video below, I asked my question and requested an agent at 12:47 PM and was finally connected at 1:09 PM. It took me 21 minutes to connect with the live agent from the time I requested human help to the first message I received from the support agent, Heinrich. 

Hence, Jackpot City gets a score of 1 out of 3 for this sub-criterion. 

Helpfulness

Sub-criterion Score: ⅔

To measure the helpfulness of Jackpot City, I asked the aforementioned valid, testing question because it cannot easily be answered with a canned response. To put in another way: It’s something you might type at 2am while one mickey deep. 

But it’s still a relevant question: Since Jackpot City has an hourly drop jackpot, a player might be interested in knowing which games are valid towards this jackpot, and how they could find them. 

While the agent somewhat clarified the question, it was still not entirely clear how I can easily identify or find these “Games Global” games. 

Since this was an implied request in my question—i.e. Where the heck can I find them?—it indicates that the agent has trouble answering beyond the explicit terms of the T&C, which already state that “any games that are Global Games” are eligible. Therefore, while accurate, the answer was only partially helpful, leading to a score of 2 out of 3 for this sub-criterion. 

Channels & Availability

Sub-criterion Score: 3/3

Most casinos have at least one channel for support—i.e. online chat—which is the bare minimum to expect from any business in 2025 that’s not a money laundering front for drug cartels. In this sub-criterion, we require a casino to be available on at least two channels, 24/7, for full points. 

Luckily, Jackpot City has both live support chat and phone support available 24/7. Besides contacting live chat support at multiple hours of the day, I also called the support line at 7:30 EST and managed to speak with a live agent within 2 minutes. 

VIDEO: Will record a call

Human Interaction

Sub-criterion Score: 1/1

Unless AGI has been reached and it can mimic a human conversation over the phone, I most definitely spoke to a live agent in the conversation above. In the online chat, while the conversation began with a bot, I was forwarded to a live agent upon request. 

Sign-Up Experience

Signing up to a casino shouldn’t feel like learning to play Omaha Hi/Lo. Luckily, it took under 3 minutes to make an account for Jackpot City and start playing. I had to fill out the standard casino info—e.g., account and personal info, occupation and residential address—then registered instantaneously. 

We believe responsible gambling is no laughing matter and encourage everyone to use the full set of tools—such as configurable deposit and loss limits, session timers, etc.—that Jackpot City makes available to Ontario players. 

For those outside of Ontario, you can instead request that your spouse hit you with a flip-flop when you try to bet more than 20% of your kids’ tuition money since, when it comes to online tools, you’re shit out of luck. 

To emphasize, I found the full gamut of responsible gambling tools, from deposit limits to self-exclusion settings, while using my Ontario account. Switching to Vancouver with my digital sleuth VPN account, I saw a completely different, bare-bones version with nearly nada.

Calculating the average of the 2 provincial scores, Jackpot City got a 6 out of 10 for Responsible Gambling.

Self Exclusion Tools

Sub-criterion Score: 3/4

While some casinos have easy-to-use self-exclusion (including for multiple durations), other casinos require you to manually email them a request to self-exclude. Unfortunately, Jackpot City is both of these casinos at once. 

As an Ontario user, I was able to easily find multiple self-exclusion settings. These were absent when I tested the website from BC, instead requiring the email route. Therefore, it gets a 4 out of 4 for Ontario and a 1 out of 4 for BC, leading to a total score of 2.5 out of 4.

Deposit & Loss Limits

Sub-criterion Score: 2/4

There are times when you want to put some limits on your gambling without cutting yourself out of play altogether, and that’s where deposit & loss limits come in. I looked for these features and assessed configurability from both Ontario and Vancouver. The combined average score for this sub-criterion was 2 out of 4. 

For Ontario Users

Jackpot City has an extremely comprehensive selection of easy-to-use responsible gambling tools for Ontario users. In sum, these are: Deposit Limits, Session Limits, Loss Limits, Self Test and Gaming History. For this, I gave it a 4 out of 4 for Ontario.  

For Non-Ontario Users

On the other hand, when I tested the site using a BC-based VPN server and BC account, I could see loss limits mentioned, but there was no clear information about how to set them. 

Instead, the user is misdirected to information about how to remove self-exclusion (see video below). Since this is like replacing your aunt’s insulin with maple syrup, I gave it a 0/4 for its BC score. 

Additional Resources

Sub-criterion Score: 1/2

Additional resources refer to the various other tools besides self-exclusion and deposit/loss-limits, including but not limited to links to government bodies, session timers, and helpline links. As less critical measures than the main tools, they’re worth a maximum of 2 points. After looking for these additional resources both as an Ontario and BC player, I gave Jackpot City a combined score for this sub-criterion of 1 out of 2. 

For Ontario Users

While playing on Jackpot City with my Ontario account, I frequently saw additional responsible gaming resources pop up. This includes multiple responsible gambling shields during 2FA logins, plus additional tools like Playcheck. Thus, the casino received the full 2 points.

For Non-Ontario Users

However, these resources are entirely absent when playing from BC, leading to a score of 0 in that province. 

While Rawls defined fairness as equality and Nietzche posited it to be an artificial construct rooted in power relations, we at FairJack have one better: Fairness means bodacious bonus terms plus bank-breaking win limits at your favorite online casino. 

While Jackpot City is fairly transparent about payouts for promos and bonuses, restrictive bonus withdrawal terms raised red flags for me. In sum, while their terms are decent overall, they’re definitely not bodacious and bank-breaking, leading to a total score of 6 out of 10 for Fair Play.

Transparency of Bonus & Promotion Terms

Sub-criterion Score: 3/4

As a review website with Ontario readers, I’m required to inform you that any bonuses mentioned below are purely hypothetical. I don’t even know what bonuses are.  

For Ontario Users

If one did do 2-3 hours of research to find every instance where Jackpot City says they’ll give you a bit of playing money in exchange for doing some sort of thing, here’s what they’d find: 

1. A sign-up promo with free spins and deposit matching on the homepage
2. A referral bonus on the homepage
3. A sign-up bonus advertised on an external site

Looking through the T&C, I was easily able to locate all the details surrounding the above. 

E.g., for #1 above, I found wagering requirements clearly written in clauses 7 and 8 in a page specifically dealing with this promo (see below). Importantly, as you can see yourself below, the terms were written in easy-to-comprehend English, with added examples to help player clarity. In other words, I didn’t feel Jackpot City was trying to obfuscate their terms by hiding them in fine print in language that even James Joyce couldn’t understand.

The number of deposits required, percentage schedules for deposit matches, expiration terms, forfeiture clauses, and number of applicable games were also listed on this page, and likewise in English written for humans, not lawyers. 

If only their wagering requirements were slightly better (less than 30x), Jackpot City would earn full points. Being higher than 30x, they’re only moderate, thereby earning a score of 3 out of 4 for this sub-criterion.  

For Non-Ontario Users

When playing from my BC account, I was able to find all the same promos as above, with the same T&C. 

However, as a non-Ontario player, I was immediately hit with a new promo which I didn’t see before: 

1. A leaderboard tournament with a jackpot—”Mystic Masters”

However, this promo’s T&C was also clear, stating the rankings were determined by the highest win multiplier from a single spin, and the spins must be on designated games. In other words, non-Ontario players have access to more promos and bonuses, but I did not see any evidence that these were less fair or transparent. 

Monthly Withdrawal/Win Limits

Sub-criterion Score: 1/3

Win limits are when your prayers finally get answered, you win big, but the casino breaks your toe with a hammer and says, “Sike, no you didn’t,” and points to a vague term or forfeiture clause. Unfortunately, I came across exactly this in Jackpot city’s T&C (see below). 

According to clause 5.7.3 if you have been given a sign-up bonus, even after fulfilling the wagering requirements, it’s possible that your winning may be capped at 6 times the amount of your first deposit. 

In other words, this clause makes it possible for Jackpot City to nuke big winnings if you ever played a bonus, which is patently unfair and immediately makes me give it a low score of a 1 out of 3 for this sub-criterion. (The full zero is avoided because this term only applies to players who use bonuses.) 

I also checked for the more common type of limit where a casino has monthly withdrawal limits to protect themselves against a liquidity crunch. I scanned the entire T&C and external websites for some info regarding this, but no dice. When I directly asked  live support a live agent informed me there were no win limits.. 

Odds & Payout Clarity

Sub-criterion Score: 2/2

Casinos communicate their games’ odds and payouts in the form of RTP (return to player), which tell us if we’re likely to lose our money very quickly or just quickly. 

Luckily, it was super easy to find Jackpot City’s payout percentages for games either in this document (found at the bottom of the website when logged in), or in the help section of the games. Having these numbers so handy at all times while playing made me give Jackpot City a total 2 out of 2 for this sub-criterion. 

Casinos are at a natural disadvantage when it comes to maintaining a good brand reputation, since, statistically, players are likely to lose money over time. Even when we want to be objective, a big loss can make any of us write an angry review or complaint, whether justified or not. 

This problem should be compounded in Jackpot City’s case, as it is 28 years old, but I instead found that it’s maintained a solid reputation compared to other, newer casinos. But while its age showcases stability and trustworthiness, the brand’s lack of a modern online presence weakens its connection to today’s players.

In total, I scored Jackpot City 8 out of 10.

Conduct & Reputation

Sub-criterion Score: 3/4

Online casinos and reputable conduct— there’s an automatic L if you’re ever playing the word association game at your next family Christmas. Due to the nature of the business, user-generated reviews naturally turn towards the negative, making it difficult to create an objective system to evaluate casinos like Jackpot City. 

At FairJack, we developed the Brand Reputation Aggregate Score which collects and weights data from the Google Play, App Store, Casino Review Aggregators, and Trustpilot. It then calculates a score out of 10. Jackpot City got a 7.5 after I ran this calculation, which in turn, this score corresponds to a sub-criterion rating of 3 out of 4. 

Age of Casino

Sub-criterion Score: 4/4

The territory of Nunavut and Bill Clinton’s trial are both things that happened after the supposed launch of Jackpot City—so I had to check for myself, was Jackpot City an actually functioning online casino in 1998?

Lo and behold, looking on Wayback Machine, the leading tool for accessing past versions of websites, I verified Jackpot City’s claim of being established in 1998. And while Jackpot City’s “Mayor Sterling” may have gone the way of Bill Clinton, the website shows that this brand was indeed an early innovator in the iGaming space and in the liberal use of purple. The fact it’s still online attests to stability and longevity, and I scored it a full 4 out of 4 for this sub-criterion. 

Online Activity

Sub-criterion Score: 1/2 

Part of the fun of gambling is participating in the thrill of the bet in a communal space and comparing wins and misfortunes, whether that’s at a poker table, grandstand or online chat room. Unfortunately, the only communal space that Jackpot City’s social accounts resemble is a morgue. 

I looked long and hard for signs of life from Jackpot City’s socials, but found only crickets. Accounts had few followers, and posts, no engagement. Despite its long run, Jackpot City lacks any organic community online and only average search growth. 

Because this makes the brand look boring—and online gambling should be anything but boring—I gave it a score of 1 out of 2 for this sub-criterion. (Note that a complete lack of social accounts or search volume leads to a zero, but Jackpot City had both of these things.)

Signing up to an online casino with your personal info can often feel like choosing red or black on the roulette wheel—and you’re playing American. Are you going to get additional bonuses and occasional game recommendations? Or spam mail and dick pills?

I tested Jackpot City’s retention efforts by creating 2 inboxes—for transactional and for marketing emails—to fully understand how they used my account data. While Jackpot City passed this test with flying colours, I became locked out of my account when I opted-out, a problem that could be avoided with more customizable opt-out settings. 

Overall, Jackpot City got a 6 out of 7 possible points in post-play experience, which comes out to 9 out 10. 

Retention Efforts

Sub-criterion Score: 4/4

Since casinos send users a lot of necessary transactional and login verification emails, I delineated my two accounts’ email inboxes for different purposes: One only for transactional emails (my Ontario account), and one only for marketing emails (by BC account). 

With this system, I was easily able to verify if Jackpot City sent marketing emails to the account which opted-out, and to count and track the content of the purely marketing emails they sent. 

In my first week after signing up, I received just 4 marketing emails to my marketing inbox, and no marketing email to my transactional inbox (see below). Additionally, the messaging was tailored to offers currently relevant to me—as a new player who hasn’t used promos and their bonuses—and did not feel spammy or intrusive.

Both of these aspects pushed me to give Jackpot City a 4 out of 4 for retention efforts. 

Opt-Out Settings

Sub-criterion Score: 1/2

While the opt-out process was incredibly quick, involving a 1-step process that took under 10 seconds from clicking “unsubscribe”, neither opt-outs from transactional emails or marketing emails allowed me to choose the type of communications I’d like to continue receiving in the future. This is a massive pain in the event you forget your password, as it will require you to call customer support to regain access to your account. 

It also precludes my ability to customize settings for their communications. What if I want to start hearing about the offers I’m eligible for? Furthermore, there is no way in account settings to turn marketing emails back on either, leading to a score of 1 out of 2. 

Additionally, while playing, I suddenly stopped receiving 2FA notifications upon log-in, which made me unable to access the casino. I called live support, and they explained their 2FA was down, which lasted roughly 24 hours. This may be a one-off issue, or indicate more persistent tech problems.