Duel and VPNs
Can you use a VPN on Duel?
I always have.
In my first two sessions on Duel, I had NordVPN running the whole time, and made eight withdrawals without Duel ever asking for my ID. Here’s how it went, which VPN stayed on, and what Duel itself says about it.
How my sessions wentTwo sessions, eight withdrawals, one VPN
Every time I’ve opened Duel, NordVPN was already on. That’s the two sessions described here and their eight withdrawals.
My first day, 28 August, brought three deposits, a lot of Mines and two cash-outs. The first was recorded on Ethereum within 1 minute 11 seconds of the request.
The second session started on the evening of 13 September and ran past 3am, with six more withdrawals along the way. Neither session brought an ID request, and the VPN never once got in the way.
See my withdrawal times
A VPN has always been part of how I play
Duel isn’t the first crypto casino I’ve used through a VPN. Before it, I spent more than two years on Stake and wagered over $1.5 million there, most of it the same balance going round Mines. I gave Rainbet a go too. The VPN was just part of the setup, the same as the wallet.
The three-VPN connection test covers what opened with NordVPN, Surfshark and ExpressVPN. My shorter Rainbet account test explains why a working connection did not make me want to stay there.
The expensive lesson in all that wasn’t the VPN. It was the money. I lost my Coinbase account after sending straight from the exchange to casinos, so now I buy crypto on an exchange, move it to a wallet that’s mine and deposit from there. Duel pays back into that same wallet. Here’s the route I use.
What Duel says about it
Here’s the part I’d want to know first. Duel doesn’t accept players from the UK. Open it from here without a VPN and a notice tells you so, and suggests turning off any VPN if you think that’s a mistake. I play with Nord on anyway. That’s my call, with my own money.
The question that actually matters isn’t whether you can get in. It’s whether you’re asked for ID when you try to take money out. Duel says 99.9% of its users never go through KYC, and I was not asked during either of the two sessions described here.
The same reply lists age checks, account activity and regulatory obligations as reasons a check can still happen, and it would come when you ask for your money. If you’re somewhere Duel doesn’t accept, that’s the moment it counts.
My KYC record“We KYC only when legally obligated and necessary.”
The best VPN for Duel is the one you stop noticing
I tried three on Duel from the same machine and account: NordVPN, Surfshark and ExpressVPN. All three connected, Duel worked on every one, and none gave me a reason to take it off.
Nord is the one still installed. It connects automatically, so it’s running before I open anything, and after the first session I stopped thinking about it. On a site I use with real money, that’s exactly what I want.
Surfshark would be my pick for a house full of devices, and Express felt polished but pricier for the same job. Neither did anything wrong. I already had Nord.
So, can you use a VPN on Duel?
I did during both sessions described here, and it worked throughout. Go in knowing what Duel says, keep your money moving through your own wallet, and don’t read my eight smooth withdrawals as a promise about yours.