Crystal Garden Hub is a free online social casino built around one exclusive game, Crystal Bloom Quest. This Cookie Policy explains how we and our carefully chosen partners use cookies and similar technologies when you visit crystalgardenhub.com, and the simple choices you have over them. It sits alongside, and should be read together with, our Privacy Policy and our Terms & Conditions.
Crystal Garden Hub is a free social casino experience intended purely for entertainment and for adults aged 18 and over. The virtual coins you collect while playing have no monetary value and cannot be redeemed, exchanged or withdrawn. Cookies help us keep that free experience running smoothly, remember how you like to play and, only with your agreement, understand and improve the hub over time.
1. What Are Cookies?
A cookie is a small text file that a website asks your browser to store on your device - a computer, phone or tablet - when you visit. The next time you return, your browser sends that file back, which lets the site recognise your session, remember what you did and keep certain things working as expected. Cookies cannot run programs, and on their own they do not carry viruses or read the rest of your device.
When we talk about "cookies" in this policy, we use the term broadly to include a family of similar technologies that do comparable jobs. These include:
- Local storage and session storage - small pieces of information the browser keeps for a site, which we use, for example, to remember the cookie-consent choice you make and to keep game preferences on your device.
- Pixels and web beacons - tiny, invisible files embedded in a page or email that record simple, aggregated signals such as whether content loaded.
- Software development kits and tags - snippets of code that help a service, such as analytics, collect the information it needs to work.
Cookies are often described by who sets them. A first-party cookie is placed directly by Crystal Garden Hub while you are on our site. A third-party cookie is placed by another organisation whose service appears on our pages - for example an analytics or advertising provider. We cover this distinction in more detail in section 4.
2. Why We Use Cookies
We keep our use of cookies deliberately modest and tie every one to a clear purpose. In short, cookies and similar technologies help us to:
- Keep you signed in - so you can move between pages, return to Crystal Bloom Quest and pick up your garden without logging in again on every click.
- Remember your preferences - such as your chosen language, whether game sound is on or off, reduced-motion settings and other display choices, so the hub feels the way you left it.
- Save the cookie-consent choice itself - when you tell us whether you want essential-only or all cookies, we have to remember that decision, which is itself stored on your device so we do not keep asking.
- Keep the game working - essential cookies help Crystal Bloom Quest load correctly, protect the security of your session and keep your saved progress in sync.
- Understand how the hub is used - with your consent, aggregated analytics show us which features players enjoy and where the experience could be smoother.
- Improve the experience - the insights from that aggregated data guide the new seasons, blooms and quality-of-life changes we build.
- Measure marketing - only where you have agreed, advertising and measurement cookies help us understand whether the campaigns that fund a free service are working and help limit how often you see the same message.
3. Categories of Cookies We Use
We group the cookies and similar technologies on Crystal Garden Hub into four categories. Only the strictly necessary category is always on; the others are set only when you agree through our consent notice. The table below summarises each category, with representative example names. Exact names and durations can change as we maintain the hub, but the purpose of each category stays the same.
| Category | Purpose | Examples | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strictly Necessary | Keep the hub secure and working - sign-in and session, load balancing, protection against abuse, and remembering your cookie-consent choice. These are essential and cannot be switched off. | cgh-cookie-consent (stored in local storage), _cgh_session (session token) |
Session to 12 months |
| Functional & Preferences | Remember choices you make so the hub feels personal - language, game sound, reduced-motion, and other remembered display settings. | _cgh_prefs, _cgh_lang |
Up to 12 months |
| Performance & Analytics | Help us understand, in aggregate, how the hub and Crystal Bloom Quest are used so we can improve the game. Set only with your consent. | _cgh_ga, _cgh_stats |
Up to 24 months |
| Advertising & Measurement | Set by advertising partners, such as those used to help fund a free service, to measure campaign performance and limit how often you see the same advert. Set only with your consent. | _cgh_ad, _cgh_fcap |
Up to 13 months |
Because Crystal Garden Hub is free to play and offers no real-money wagering, we do not use cookies to process payments or to track wagers - there are none. Our cookies exist to run the service, respect your preferences and, with permission, help us understand and support the free experience.
4. First-Party and Third-Party Cookies
As noted above, cookies fall into two groups depending on who places them.
First-party cookies are set by Crystal Garden Hub itself. These do the core work of the site: keeping you signed in, holding your session together, remembering your preferences and storing your cookie-consent choice. Most of the strictly necessary and functional cookies described in section 3 are first-party.
Third-party cookies are set by other organisations whose services we include on the hub. When enabled with your consent, these may include:
- Analytics providers, which help us see, in aggregate, how the hub is used so we can make Crystal Bloom Quest better.
- Advertising and measurement providers, which help us understand whether the marketing that supports a free service is effective and help control how often adverts are shown.
- Social sign-in providers, so that if you choose to continue with a social account, that provider can complete the sign-in securely.
Third parties set and read their own cookies under their own privacy and cookie notices, and we do not control those cookies. Where we work with such providers, we aim to choose partners that treat your information responsibly, and we only allow their cookies to run once you have given consent. To learn what data these services collect and how they use it, please review the relevant provider's own policies.
5. How Long Cookies Last
Cookies last for different lengths of time depending on their job. There are two broad types:
- Session cookies are temporary. They exist only while you are actively using the hub and are cleared automatically when you close your browser. We use them for things like holding your sign-in together during a visit.
- Persistent cookies stay on your device for a set period, or until you delete them, so the hub can remember you and your preferences across visits. Your saved cookie-consent choice and your display preferences are typically persistent.
Typical durations are shown in the table in section 3. As a general guide, essential session cookies last for the length of a visit, preference cookies last up to about twelve months, and analytics and advertising cookies last up to roughly two years and thirteen months respectively. You can shorten any of these at any time by clearing cookies in your browser, as described in the next section.
6. Managing Your Preferences
You are in control of the optional cookies on Crystal Garden Hub, and there are two main ways to manage them.
Our on-site consent notice. The first time you visit, a cookie notice appears at the bottom of the screen. You can choose Essential only, which loads just the strictly necessary cookies needed to run the hub, or Accept all, which additionally allows functional, analytics and advertising cookies. We remember your decision so we do not have to ask again on every page. You can change your choice later at any time - clearing the saved consent (for example by clearing site data in your browser) will bring the notice back on your next visit, letting you choose again.
Your browser controls. Every major browser lets you see the cookies stored for a site, block cookies (all of them, or just third-party ones) and delete cookies you have already accepted. These controls usually live in your browser's privacy or security settings, and the browser's own help pages explain the exact steps. You can also use private or incognito browsing to limit how long cookies persist.
Please note that strictly necessary cookies keep the hub working. If you block or delete essential cookies, parts of Crystal Garden Hub may not function as intended - you may be signed out, unable to sign back in, or find that your saved garden progress and preferences do not load correctly.
For a fuller picture of how we handle personal information more generally - including the choices and rights you have - please see our Privacy Policy. If anything here is unclear, you are always welcome to reach out via our contact page.
7. Do Not Track & Global Privacy Control
Some browsers can send a "Do Not Track" (DNT) signal that tells websites you prefer not to be tracked. Because there is still no single, agreed industry standard for how sites should interpret DNT, Crystal Garden Hub does not respond differently to DNT signals at this time. We instead give you clear, direct control through the on-site consent notice described in section 6.
Where your browser or a browser extension sends a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal, we aim to treat it as a request to opt out of non-essential cookies used for analytics and advertising, in line with our commitment to honouring your privacy choices. Whichever signal you use, you can always adjust your preferences yourself using the consent notice and your browser's cookie controls.
8. Changes to This Cookie Policy
We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time to reflect changes in the technologies we use, new features on the hub, or updates to legal and regulatory requirements. When we make changes, we will revise the "Last updated" date shown near the top of this page, and where the changes are significant we will take reasonable steps to make them more noticeable - for example by refreshing the on-site consent notice.
The effective date of this version is 1 August 2026. We encourage you to review this page occasionally so you stay informed about how we use cookies. Continuing to use Crystal Garden Hub after an update means you accept the revised policy, subject to the choices you make through the consent notice.
9. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Cookie Policy or about how Crystal Garden Hub uses cookies and similar technologies, we would be glad to help. You can reach our privacy team at privacy@crystalgardenhub.com, or send us a message through our contact page.
For more on how we handle your information and the rights available to you, please read our Privacy Policy. The rules that govern your use of the hub are set out in our Terms & Conditions.