Zula Casino Review

Where is Zula Casino Legal?

We have been programmed to think that online casinos are illegal, but if an online casino structures themselves properly, their casino games will not be unlawful in most states. That's the case with Zula Casino.

Zula Casino is a USA targeted online sweepstakes casino that is organized in such a way to be technically a "sweepstakes" and not "gambling" under the laws of most states in the union. As of the time of writing our guide, Zula Casino accepts players in forty-six of the fifty states, plus the District of Columbia. According to their site's terms, the excluded states are Idaho, Michigan, New York and Washington.

If you happen to live in one of those four excluded states, you won't be welcome as a player at Zula Casino. However, there may be other web sites that are organized in a legal way for those states, or perhaps there are some sites that will look the other way. However, if you live in Idaho, Michigan, New York or Washington, do not attempt to register at Zula Casino.

Also, do not attempt to use a VPN to circumvent the geographical restrictions at Zula Casino. Doing so is explicitly against their Terms of Use and your account will be banned. Additionally, as a result of violating the Terms of Use, any winnings on your account will be voided. It's just not worth it; not to mention, you will be unable to complete the required verification process to get paid if you live in one of the excluded states.

Account Verification for Withdrawals

As mentioned previously, before you make your first withdrawal from your Zula Casino account, you will need to complete the account verification process. The requirements are simple and straightforward.

It is easiest to complete the account verification process on a mobile device, so I suggest that you log into your Zula Casino account on your mobile phone before starting it. From start to finish, it should take you just 2-3 minutes.

To complete the account verification process, you will need the following: government-issued photo ID (driver's license, state ID, or passport), proof of address (water, electricity, cable or home internet bill), proof of ownership of payment method (bank statement), plus you will need to snap a selfie so they can compare the biometrics with your ID document.

Zula Casino is very thorough with this process on their end, so expect a wait time of 3-7 days to get approval of your docs. From that point forward, you should have no issues making withdrawals.

To avoid having wait time once you've won, I suggest that you just complete the process when you open your account. I am confident that you will like Zula Casino and play there over the long haul, so this 2-3 minute investment of time at the outset will be worth it.

My Favorite Slots to Play at Zula Casino

If you are a fan of the slots like I am, you are going to love Zula Casino. There are approximately 1,500 games available to play at their site, including the "who's who" of online slots designers.

At Zula Casino, you will find games from all of these providers: Pragmatic Play, Booming Games, Ruby Play, Edge Labs, 4ThePlayer, Tada Gaming, Four Leaf Gaming, Kalamba Games, Hacksaw Gaming, BGAMING, GAMZIX, G Games, Slotmill, ELA Games, Mascot Gaming, EVOPLAY, Fantasmas Games, Skywind, Reel Riot, Relax Gaming, Habanero, Revolver Gaming, Print Studios, SPINORO, Spadegaming, Four Leaf Gaming, Turbo Games, Platipus, Onlyplay, Mancala Gaming, Galaxsys, Netgaming, Realistic, Red Rake Gaming, Novomatic, Formula Spin, KA Gaming, MAXWIN, Silverback, and Peter & Sons.

Disproportionately, I am drawn to games designed by Pragmatic Play at the moment. Here are reviews of three of my favorite slots made by them:

Buffalo King Megaway Slot Machine

The Buffalo King Megaways slot machine, designed by top online slot designer Pragmatic Play, is a six reel slot machine that pays for "ways" and not "paylines." This means that wins only need to be on adjacent reels from left-to-right, plus your wins are multiplied by the number of combinations you have of each symbol. There's also a "seventh" reel that goes across the top of the slot machine; it has four symbols and is horizontal. These seventh reel symbols participate in the game as if they were located on reels 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Megaways slots like this one have a varying number of symbols per reel on each spin. Instead of a standard number of symbols on reels 1-6 of the game, each reel can have from two to seven symbols, not including the extra symbols that participate in the game across the top on reel seven. After winning combinations are paid, those winning symbols explode and the reels tumble and refill themselves to capacity with new symbols to replace the disappearing ones. This game is a super high volatility slot machine; it runs very "feast or famine," so there's a good shot you will win big or go bust if you play it.

The base game of Buffalo King Megaways also has a wild symbol on reels 2-5, plus there are scatter symbols on all reels. The wild symbol does not substitute for the scatter symbol.

Get four or more scatter symbols to trigger the free games feature. Four scatters will get you 5x your bet, plus 12 free spins. Five scatters will get you 20x your bet, plus 17 free spins. Six scatters will get you 100x your bet, plus 22 free spins. The bonus can be retriggered with as few as three scatter symbols; a retrigger with just three symbols will award you five additional free spins.

During the free spins feature, wild symbols also have multipliers of 2x, 3x or 5x. Every time one of these wilds is involved in a winning combination, its multiplier is accumulated for the rest of the bonus. Any win that includes one of these wilds is multiplied by the accumulated wild multiplier. That means that your multipliers are sticky and they are added to the previously landed multipliers from winning combinations. There is no limit to the number of retriggers you can accumulate, so this game can get pretty crazy with those accumulating multipliers.

You can also risk 25% more on your base game spins and increase your chance of triggering the bonus feature. You can also buy the bonus for 100x your base game spin. Bought bonuses can have four, five or six scatter trigger symbols. Buffalo King Megaways has a theoretical return to player percentage of 94.5%.

The Dog House Royal Hunt Slot Machine

The Dog House Royal Hunt slot machine, created by top online slot designer Pragmatic Play, is a five reel game that has 243 "ways" to win instead of paylines. The game features wild symbols on reels 2, 3, and 4 that have random 2x or 3x multipliers. If you get multiple wilds multipliers in a combination, those multipliers are added to each other before calculating your win.

Dog House Royal Hunt also has bonus symbols. They are on reels 1, 3 and 5. Get all three bonus symbols to win 5x your bet and trigger a free spins bonus feature.

The free spins bonus feature begins with a round to determine your number of free spins; your award will be somewhere between 9 and 27 free games, although from my play it seems like the most common values are around 12-13 free spins. During the free spins, wild multiplier symbols are sticky and remain in place for the duration of your free spins once they have landed.

You also have the option to buy the bonus feature for 100x your bet, or you can pay 500x your bet to play the "Royal Free Spins" feature. The Royal Free Spins feature works just like the regular bonus, except the multipliers on the sticky wild symbols are 10x or 20x.

This game has a return to player theoretical payback percentage of 94.5%. On a side note, pay attention to the music while you play this game. Despite the castle background and the "royal" theme, one of the songs that plays on the Dog House Royal Hunt slot machine is "My Country Tis of Thee." My housemate and I got quite a laugh out of that while I was taking the screenshots for this review.

Brick House Bonanza Slot Machine

If you have every played Huff N' More Puff slots, then you already know Brick House Bonanza. The game is a complete copycat of all the features of Huff N' More Puff, all the way down to the Wolfie character that blows down all the houses at the end of the bonus.

Brick House Bonanza is a much better game, as Pragmatic Play's online slot game has a much higher return to player percentage (as high as 96% at some sweeps casinos), even if you're playing just $0.20 per spin. Land-based casino versions of Huff N' More Puff pay much lower than that.

The base game of Brick House Bonanza (and Huff N' More Puff) has five reels and pays 243 ways; there are no paylines. The wolf symbol is wild, plus there are various stacked symbols in the game too, including some high-value piggies.

There is a hold and spin feature that is triggered by landing six or more piggy banks on the reels during a base game spin. Those piggy banks convert to straw houses, and your bonus begins with six free spins.

During the free spins, landing additional piggy banks on the reels will improve your awards. When a piggy bank lands on an unoccupied space, it becomes a straw house. When a piggy bank lands on a straw house space, it converts into a wood house. When a piggy bank lands on a wood house space, it becomes a brick house (mansion.)

When a piggy bank lands on a brick house space, it will convert one of the wood houses on the screen into a brick house; if no wood house is available to convert, the piggy bank will move to a straw house space and convert it into a brick house. Get three or more piggy bank symbols during any bonus feature spin and you will retrigger, awarding one additional spin to your bonus.

There is also a wheel spin bonus feature that is triggered by getting three or more scattered windmills during a base game spin. This will trigger a wheel feature spin; the wheel includes jackpot amounts, mega bank (mega hat) symbols, windmill (buzzsaw) symbols, and brick house (mansion) symbols. These award the same respective bonuses as in the Huff N' More Puff slot machine.

If you get the Mega Bank feature, the reels will spin until a big pig lands, covering 4-15 spaces on the reels. You will begin the hold and spin with those covered spaces as straw houses and be awarded six free spins. The bonus then continues like the normal hold and spin feature.

If you get the Windmill feature, all the windmill scatter symbols on the triggering spin will move left-to-right until they are off the screen; each time they pass through a space they will upgrade it to either a straw, wood or brick house. Once the windmills have done their thing, the game will continue like a normal hold and spin bonus, starting with six free spins.

If you get the Brick House feature, you've hit the holy grail. Any windmill scatter symbols from your triggering spin will become brick houses (mansions), and then you will proceed with the hold and spin six games feature normally, with one change: any piggy bank that lands during the free spins feature will bypass the straw and wood houses and become another brick house.

Don't want to wait to trigger the bonus? You can buy the regular hold and spin bonus for 100x your bet, or you can purchase the wheel bonus for 200x your bet.

Table Games at Zula Casino

If you want to play table games like blackjack, roulette, baccarat or sic-bo, Zula Casino is not the ideal sweepstakes casino for you. At the time of writing, no table games are offered on their site.

Responsible Gaming at Zula Casino

You can find lots of information and resources about responsible gaming at Zula Casino if you log into your account, head to your account menu, and click or tap on the "Player Safety" link.

To set purchase limits, contact customer support by either submitting a ticket or e-mailing support@zulacasino.com.

If you need a short-term "Account Time-Out", you can request it by submitting a ticket and letting them know how long you would like your break to last. Once requested, you can't revoke the request. Once the time has elapsed, your account will be available again.

If you request a "Self-Exclusion", it will operate the same way, but you must choose a minimum of six months when doing so. Your request can't be cancelled or changed in any way once you request it. Your account will not be accessible until any self-exclusion periods have passed.

You can also request a complete account closure by writing to support@zulacasino.com.