Most Common Online Casino Scams and How to Avoid Them
We are always here to assist you in the event that you find yourself in a problem where an online casino is delaying the processing of your payment. After all, nobody is perfect. However, some casinos can do this on purpose and lead you on for too long, causing you to question if you’re playing at a reputable facility.
By paying attention to a few basic red flags, we can help you understand more about online casino scams and how to avoid falling victim to them. Hopefully, after reading today’s article, you will never again make beginner mistakes or fall victim to money-hungry individuals.
Therefore, let’s begin with basic gambling terminology and answer the question. What do online casino scams entail?
How Do Online Casino Scams Work?
Online casino scams are meticulously conceived, and performed operations intended to defraud one party of money. We say “one of the parties” since gambling scams can occur on both sides and represent either:
- Crooked casinos that steal from their patrons or
- Crooks who steal from casinos
Today’s blog article is dedicated to both: in the first half, we’ll discuss the indicators of dishonest casinos, and in the second, we’ll walk you through the list of online casino scams, i.e., the various methods in which online casinos may rip you off. Finally, we will discuss some of the more egregious instances of gambling fraud that we have encountered.
Are you prepared to enter the shady realm of rogue online casinos? Let’s go!
Indicators of a Rogue Casino
Here are several warning indications that an online casino is dishonest and conducting a scam before we go through a list of online casino scams.
Obviously, some of these are only indicators and do not necessarily indicate that a casino is in the business of defrauding customers (though the absence of a legitimate license is a clear clue!). Keep an eye out for these indicators to prevent online casino scams and avoid having your money, or worse, stolen.
Insufficient Payment
Slow or delayed payment is one of the most prevalent online casino frauds. A shady casino may wait weeks or even months to pay back its players in violation of its own terms and conditions. Occasionally, a casino will postpone payment due to a shortage of cash flow, while at other times, it will urge players to accept another bonus and play more while refusing to cash out. Both of these situations constitute rogue conduct and should not be treated lightly.
Frequent Changes to the Terms and Conditions
You have the right to be notified of the tiniest modification to these overarching papers in a timely way. The Terms and Conditions govern your every action at an online casino. However, rogue casinos will occasionally alter their rules on an ad hoc basis or as necessary. A casino may alter the terms and conditions in the midst of a dispute in an effort to support its claims.
Unauthorized Casino
Possessing a license granted by a legitimate gambling authority is a must for a casino to operate within the limits of the law and assure players that they are wagering on a secure platform. You should avoid the casino in question until a proper license from a gambling regulatory agency is prominently displayed on its website since this might be the first in a series of online casino system scams. And if a casino is operating without a license, you can guarantee that it has additional tricks up its sleeve to deceive its players.
False Advertising
The next drawback in our rundown of online casinos is one that involves deceptive advertising methods. False advertising encompasses a wide variety of scams, but they all boil down to a violation of the Terms and Conditions. Online casino bonus scams are the most prevalent kind of deceptive advertising and may involve a sudden increase in wagering requirements or a reduction in the maximum cashout amount after the bonus has been wagered.
Spamming Adverts
It is no secret that we are all involved in marketing. On the other hand, flooding players, websites, or forums with an excessive amount of ads is not seen as a decent marketing approach and might be considered one of the online casino system scams. If you receive dozens of advertisements or pop-up notifications every day from a casino’s website, you may want to consider using another one.
Typical Online Casino Scams
Now that we’ve pointed out the most prevalent indicators of a rogue casino, we’ll provide a list of the most common online casino scams reported by players.
The fact that a casino is taking its sweet time to deposit your payment might indicate that it lacks cash flow and is not always indicative of a rogue casino. Nonetheless, if you observe any of the following behaviors, you run the danger of falling prey to a casino that operates outside of the law.
Casino scams can be perpetrated by a single website or by huge online casino franchise scams, but you should avoid them anyway.
Deposit Thievery
Deposit theft is precisely what it sounds like: after urging you to make a deposit, the casino prevents you from withdrawing your money. For the majority of shady casinos, the theft of deposits is their primary source of income; thus, they resort to rogue tactics to con you out of your money. On the list of online casino scams, deposit theft is unquestionably number one.
Upon registration, such a casino may deactivate or suspend your account and require you to clear several obstacles before you can reactivate it. Some casinos have their customer service representatives take you for a ride or seem ignorant when you seek assistance.
These casinos anticipate that the majority of players will surpass their $20 deposits and move on. However, when larger amounts are in play, the majority of gamblers will feel obligated to act against a casino, resulting in the casino’s closure the vast majority of the time.
Identity Fraud
Theft of billions of dollars annually has made identity theft a huge global concern, affecting various businesses, including iGaming. In this industry, rogue casinos are either fraudsters themselves or act as a conduit for the collection and sale of sensitive information.
Online casinos commit identity theft by account freezing, i.e., suspending your account until you submit an ID or proof of address and directly obtaining credit card information to clone your credit card(s) and steal your money.
Obviously, genuine online casinos are obligated by anti-money laundering legislation and Know Your Customer (KYC) processes and must require you to upload identification. However, blackmailing you into uploading your identity by freezing your account is unquestionably permissible, so make sure you only play at genuine casinos and, if feasible, those situated in countries with rigorous data misuse regulations.
Rigged Games
This is another in a series of the most prevalent online casino scams, and it’s rather straightforward: online casinos will rig the games and give you a taste of victory before stealing your money. In the era of iGaming, these scams are quite simple to carry off since all a casino needs is some rigged software to liven things up.
These are the two most practical ways for online casinos to perpetuate the rigged games scam:
Hosting Games from Fraudulent Casino Software Firms
The operators that collaborate with software companies to control their games are well-known to seasoned gamblers; however, novices may not recognize these identities, making them easy victims. Since a general rule, it is reassuring to find well-known industry names on the list of service providers, as large companies do not partner with shady businesses.
Utilizing Illegal Copies of Video Games
This is another example from the rigged game playbook; some operators may stoop to running pirated versions of casino games in order to steal players’ money. Again, new players will have a more difficult time distinguishing between the original game and its pirated duplicate, and they run the chance of losing a ton of money while playing a game with software modified to favor the casino.
Check the casino’s license and return to player percentage (RTP) to ensure your safety (Return-to-Player). Licensed casinos often use independent auditors to verify their stated RTPs, so that you may play with confidence.
Malware
However, there are casino scams that go well beyond deposit theft and are far more complex and hazardous. Malware is a sort of malicious software that can permanently damage your computer.
Malware can range from a minor annoyance, such as slowing down your device, to a significant problem, with the capacity to damage all of your data. Once you’ve downloaded malware-infected software, it’s typically too late to take action: an online casino will typically ban your device and demand payment, typically in untraceable cryptocurrency, to allow you to keep your files secret.
The simplest strategy to avoid malware-based online casino scams is to avoid downloading any program for which you are not 100 percent certain of its safety.
Biggest Casino Fraudsters
Some of the casino con artists we discovered stole the proverbial cake. Using creative technological methods, these brilliant brains stole hundreds of millions of dollars from casinos, with some even getting away with it!
Without further ado, here are the three largest casino-based gambling scams ever perpetrated!
The Notorious Rosselli Brothers
We begin the list with the Rosselli Brothers, who stole approximately $40 million from casinos across the United States over the course of five years.
The Rosselli Brothers were a group of fraudsters who became filthy rich by using stolen identities to create credit accounts at casinos. This scheme is widely regarded as one of the most complex gambling scams ever perpetrated.
All that was required was the employment of a tech-savvy individual capable of breaking into a national credit database and a great deal of planning. They opened credit accounts at casinos under fictitious names, deposited $50,000 into each, pretended to be high-stakes players, and paid off their casino markers on a regular basis to escape detection. (If you are unfamiliar with the word casino marker, please see our gambling terminology dictionary!)
By the year 2000, their credit lines had surpassed $1 million, allowing them to steal the same amount from casinos! In the same year, the Rosselli Brothers left the casino fraud industry with millions of dollars in their pockets.
Notable furthermore is that the identity of the Rosselli Brothers were never divulged, and they entered gambling history absolutely incognito!
Cannes Contact Lenses
Europe will receive our list of the most renowned gambling scams. In 2011, a group of four gamblers committing high-tech casino fraud struck many casinos in Cannes. The group comprised an Italian and three Frenchmen amassed more than $80,000 via the innovative use of technology and collaborative work.
While playing stud poker, they would deftly mark the cards with invisible ink symbols while wearing contact lenses intended to expose the ink.
On their first expedition, they stole tens of thousands of dollars in a single night without arousing suspicion. However, when they returned for a second time, a string of unusual victories encouraged casino management to investigate the case further.
The crew was apprehended shortly thereafter, but they first made it difficult for police to interpret the scam’s main plan.
Radio Roulette Ball
The radio roulette ball is a casino scam from the 1970s, and it remains one of the most stunning gambling scams ever perpetrated.
A rogue roulette dealer in a French casino acquired a passion for amateur radio and devised a scheme to profit off the casino he worked for. Our protagonist, in collusion with his brother and sister-in-law, utilized a weightless radio receiver and a small transmitter to direct the roulette ball’s descent.
The rogue croupier would switch the ball containing the receiver while his sister-in-law operated the transmitter from a table. Together, the brother of the dealer made wagers, and the ball mysteriously landed on one of six potential numbers with astounding precision.
The gang was so effective that they earned about $1 million in one week! Fortunately, the sister-in-law got the attention of the casino owner. Although she exhibited no interest in him, this was enough to grab the notice of the casino’s management, who speculated that the woman’s increasing roulette losses coincided with her visits to the casino.
The casino management put two and two together, but it was still difficult to determine the nature of the scam. Finally, they ordered a search of the casino floor for radio equipment and assisted law enforcement in apprehending the fraudsters.
How to Prevent Being Scammed?
As you can see, rogue online casinos may engage in a variety of online casino system scams, including deposit and identity theft, malware injection, and game manipulation. Check for the telltale symptoms of a dodgy casino before joining an online gambling site. Whether it has deceptive ads or often alters its terms and conditions, there are a number of warning indications that might indicate real money online casino scam.
Before making an account at a casino, you should adhere to the following checklist in order to prevent online casino scams:
- Check for legitimate licenses – Prior to visiting an online casino’s website, you should always confirm that the casino possesses a legal license. If not, then on to the next one that follows the rules other than its own.
- Do not download strange software – Unless you are 100 percent sure that the software is secure, avoid installing casino applications; they may have been created by a rogue casino or be infested with malware.
- Investigate – It is essential to do your study and research casinos. Try to stay with casinos that have reviews on relevant websites and investigate what other players have to say.
We hope this article has thrown some light on casino scams, and we can’t wait to hear your comments on the subject in our forum! Until next time, play responsibly and always err on the side of caution!
