Online Casino Blacklist – Scams, Fraud and Rip-offs!

Reporting Online Casino Fraud to a Licensing Authority

When your case is serious or remains unresolved by the casino, you may have the backing of a licensing authority. If so, we highly recommend using the complaints services you have available.

Many of the top licensing authorities offer free mediation services that will help you resolve casino disputes, and policies are in place to ensure they review every casino dispute. If you have proof of communications and a legitimate claim, the licensing authority will approve your claim to move forward into a completely free mediation process!

Also note that in the table below, there are five guides taking your through the processes of making an online casino complaint. Within these guides is our Casinoplusbonus EN complaints service enabling you to submit a complaint about a casino with our ADR team.

• UKGC: When you complain about an online casino in the UK, consumer rights laws require that casinos show proof that they logged the complaint and communicated solutions with the complainant. Should the player refuse any settlement, the casino is obliged to refer the player to an Alternative Disputes Resolution partner.

• MGA: The Malta Gaming Authority covers players from Canada, New Zealand, India, South Africa, and the Republic of Ireland. This is great news for players that are from countries outside of the realms of EU law.

Luckily the casino business licensed under the MGA are under EU law and as the EU wants non-citizens to use eComm businesses paying EU taxes, everyone that connects to an MGA casino has the right to casino dispute mediation. To log a complaint, use the MGA online gaming support form!

• Curacao: Although the authority mentioned player support on its website, you will not get the same service as the MGA and UKGC. Usually, the authority will only take action if a large number of people are complaining about the same casino.

To complain about a casino under this license, the best you can do is send a complaint via the email form and see what happens.

ADR & Complaints Services

• IBAS: The Independent Betting Adjudication Service is a UKGC approved Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) service. When mediation is required or needs more attention, the UKGC will usually send you in the direction of IBAS. Panel members are industry experts and apply their specialist knowledge to all mediation between the casino and player.

This is effectively a free online casino legal service. Find out more about IBAS here!

• EU Consumer Complaints: One of the least used routes to making a complaint against a casino is via the EU Online Dispute Resolution service. Yet it is another option and can be useful in cases whereby a casino licensed under the Curacao Antillephone N.V eGaming license has a registered company in Cyprus or Gibraltar which is quite common.

Enough complaints and the EU will come down on the company like a ton of bricks, and complaints will bring plenty of unwanted financial investigative attention from the EU! You can see the online disputes options here.

• eCOGRA: When there were no online casino licenses or ones that were just pointless like the infamous age-old Costa Rica license which simply ignored player complaints, eCOGRA was the iGaming authority. It offers free mediation for casino disputes against any brands that hold its seal of approval.

Any casinos that consistently take up eCOGRA’s time and effort due to excessive complaints is booted off the committee which means any long-standing members of this outfit are trustworthy online casino establishments. Check eCOGRA’s ADR and dispute mediation form here for more information.

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Note that all of these complaints’ options are there only as a last resort. If your communications with the casino reveal you did not provide the casino with sufficient evidence to back up your claim, or you jumped the gun and did not give the casino a chance to resolve your complaint, then it could against you. Always make sure you have exhausted the casino support route before you log any official complaints.

Famous Online Casino Frauds Uncovered!

Just to add a little entertainment to this very serious online casino blacklist page, the Casinoplusbonus EN news team did some digging. We found several interesting stories covering some of the biggest online casino scams in history.

• MIT Blackjack card Counting

Of course, we have to begin with the most notorious casino scam ever. It was blackjack card counting which eventually an MIT team headed by Bill Kaplan took million from casinos across the US and Europe. The scam was so prolific that there is a film called ‘21’ starring Kevin Spacey. This was a team of highly intelligent MIT students who took card counting to the next level. The surprising thing about it was that it lasted for almost 20 years. The strategies employed went beyond normal card counting tactics as advanced scientific statistical models were used to gain an even greater advantage, which is why basic strategy is so popular today. The interesting point to all this is that card counting is not illegal! It is just banned by the casinos, and today almost impossible to implement because casino now shuffle cards mid way through the shows, use multiple decks, and automatic card shufflers!

• Live Casino Dealer Exposed

In 2017, Michael Morgenstern was playing blackjack in BetOnline’s live dealer online casino and recorded his session. Using a deceiving trick, the live dealer somehow knew the value of the top 2 cards in the deck. As recording went on, the hand in question shows that the player is dealt an 11 total. He proceeds to hit, and the dealer then gives him the second card from the deck, a 6. The dealer then took the original top card, a 10, added it to the house hand’s 10 total, giving him a 20 to the player’s 17. In the YouTube video, the dealer is clearly filmed handing out the second card from the shoe. However, it has not been established whether it was actually done on purpose, and if so, who is to blame. Still, there is a little scepticism and after several other recordings, the dealer was only caught once!

• The Slot Insider Casino Fraud

Software engineer Ron Harris worked for the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s gambling regulator while also writing anti-fraud software code for land-based slots. The system was so ingenious that coins thrown into the machine in a certain order hit the jackpot. Through accomplices, he was able to turn attention away from himself and at the same time defraud slot machines for millions. The scam was uncovered when one of his partners was caught cheating at a Keno game in Atlantic City and he delivered Harris on a plate to cut himself a deal that would see the judge give him a more lenient sentence!

• Online slots hacked

In 2001 the servers of the Canadian slot developer Cryptologic were manipulated by a cyber-attack and the programming codes of online slot machines and some dice games fell victim to hackers. Effectively, they could read the RNG algorithms! The total damage amounted to around $ 2 million because an estimated 140 customers were able to win over a period of several hours. The company later announced that the hack could only be performed by an insider. The case has not been resolved to this day; the currently active players were able to keep their winnings because there was no proof of who participated while the hole in the code was quickly plugged. In the end, an insurance company took the hit for most of the losses.

• Slot machine cheat Tommy Glenn Carmichael

This culprit spent most of his life in prison as he was known for cheating in casinos after being caught red-handed in 1980. He used a metal rod that he inserted into the coin slot to release big payouts.

After doing his time, while he was back on the outside, he found that it had become more difficult to use his trick in the new, technology-driven slot machines. He, therefore, went to small gambling halls, where older slots were still in service until eventually he was caught again in 1987 and went straight back to jail.

As soon as he was released, he bought a new slot machine as a test object and he developed an invention called “Monkey Paw” used to increase his payouts!

• The Biased Roulette Wheel

Joseph Jagger is a famous name amongst roulette fanatics. As an engineer, he was a stifle for numbers and mechanics. He realised that some casinos rarely changed their roulette wheels, which, unbeknown to the casinos, developed a lean. I.e., a little like an old pool table whereby when you shoot straight the table’s tilt sends the ball in a curve.

Plenty of pool hustlers would catch out tourists with the trick, as did Joseph Jagger with the roulette wheels. He knew the lean on the wheel meant the ball would stop more frequently in certain sections of the wheel. With this knowledge he won over $65,000, which in today’s money is around $3 million, by finding these biased wheels and having his wicked way with them!

• Online Poker Rip-Offs

Back in 2007 when PokerStars, Absolute Poker, and UltimateBet were all leaders in the online poker market. In the same year, Absolute Poker members made fraud allegations based on the results of the Account Potripper, who claiming this user’s stats were impossible. The only explanation was that the player could see all other players’ hole cards.

Due to the explosiveness of the media attention behind the claims, an investigation was initiated by the Canadian licensing authority Kahnawake Gaming Commission, which discovered that User 363 – Potripper from Costa Rica had access to the hole cards in tournaments. The online poker superuser scandal then came into full swing!

• Superuser Online Casino Scams

In January 2008, UltimateBet confirmed the existence of suspicious accounts showing abnormal profit statistics. A good two dozen accounts were identified that primarily gambled for large sums of money via an account called NioNio and probably used the other accounts for spying. The scammers relied on a superuser account called Auditmonster2, who watched the tables and could see all players’ hole cards.

With this inside knowledge, these players could bluff, call bluffs, fold, etc. In some cases, they even deliberately lost to divert attention. A regulator investigation found that the scam had lasted since 2004 and cost players millions of dollars!

• Software Error Exploited

Friends John Kane and Andre Nestor discovered a programming error in a video poker game called King Line. Accordingly, they played these video poker games in the USA wherever and whenever possible. Their discover was simple, which was one in which the found out you could play the same hand again with another bet.

The strategy was to place the minimum bet on each hand and wait for the jackpot to hit. They then set the maximum amount, which was usually limited to $10 worth a payout of $ 10,000 or more, which they were able to trigger again. Despite being caught, they were soon free with lawyers arguing that the software allowed them to do this so it is fair game!

• The Casino Con Artist

Stranded as a homeless man in Las Vegas, Richard Marcus taught himself a trick that would later bring him millions. His most profitable way of cheating was through a method known as “post posting” or “late betting”.

He wagered a paltry amount and timed his deception for the exact moment his bets won. At this point, he would quickly and secretly swap his low-value bet for higher-value chips in a matter of seconds using some kind of distraction, which was usually someone else in on the scam.

He made a decent $ 5 million doing this. Eventually, when the casinos got to know him catching him via their new sophisticated eye in the sky, the casinos never prosecuted him. Instead, Marcus now works as a consultant for casino protection and exposes other players manipulating casino games – who says cheating doesn’t pay!

Online Casino Checklist Helping You Spot Untrustworthy Casinos!

• Does the online casino have a valid license? You can easily find out by clicking on the licensor’s logo on the online casino’s homepage (Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), Remote Gambling Gibraltar, Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission, UK Gambling Commission, and Curaçao e–Gaming (Antillephone)! If there is no valid license behind the link or no casino license is specified on the homepage, we advise you not to sign up for the casino!

• How Do I know the bonus offers are genuine? Some casino bonuses are as good as fraud or cheating players into a bonus that is impossible to meet the wagering requirement. For instance, a bonus that matched your deposit with 400% worth of bonus chips but pins a 100x wagering requirement is evidence of online casino fraud. Consequently, you should look out for bonuses that are honest with their wagering requirements!

• Are there fake slot machines in the online casino? As long as you play at a licensed casino, then there will not be any fake slots. However, some cryptocurrency casinos and other casinos with no license have copied games from top developers. The games look the same as the original, and it is not easy to find out because we do not have any casino advertisements with “Play the Fake Book of Ra slot machine” with us. But you do have us to help you spot these frauds!

• Pay attention to max bet rules: In particular, when playing with your own money (no bonus!) There should be no unnecessary restrictions on the stakes you can place!

• Read the terms and conditions: Avoid casinos in which sentences like “The casino has the right to refuse withdrawals without giving reasons” or “The casino reserves the right to change (bonus) conditions at any time without giving reasons” in the terms and conditions!

• Test the support team: Always check that there is, in fact, a support team available. There is always a good question to come up with to try them out. If there is no response or just an automated chatbot despite the casino advertising 24/7 support via live chat, then the casino is already showing signs of dishonesty!

• Check out the blacklist: Always check this page before you sign up for an online casino. You never know; we may already have received complaints about a particular casino being slow to pay out cash-out requests or withholding players’ winnings without good reason! Also, we suggest only signing up for online casinos. We suggest on our many lists our experts have already vetted these establishments and many of them also play regularly at these casinos!

Of course, there are times when the casino is correct to withhold your winnings. This is usually because players are playing via a VPN, there is more than one account registered under your name or the address you live at, and the most common reason is that players break the bonus terms and conditions.

It is ultimately up to you whether you take advantage of the respective bonus. Especially when playing with money, and if you do, it should therefore be your duty to find out exactly what bonus restrictions there are before you play.