A Dive into Blacklisted Casinos
Charles Ponzi was an incredible salesman whose greatest invention was a twist on an age-old scam known as 'rob Peter to pay Paul'. The concept is simple; you take money in from one investor in order to pay dividends to a previous investor. This sort of pyramid requires a constant influx of fresh investors whose funds are used to pay dividends or payouts to earlier ones. Ponzi was definitely not the first person to pull it off on an enormous scale; that 'honor' goes to Adele Spitzeder, who built an entire banking empire around it, but he was the first to be exposed by newspapers with global reach.
Modern scammers have taken their craft digital and seek to rob unknowing users at every corner. These scams range from phishing sites to rogue online casinos. The latter often deploy underhanded tactics and manipulation in order to steal your funds or financial information. You can spot some of these sites rather easily. However, there are some that fool even veteran punters and those of a cynical persuasion. We are here to prevent this from happening and help you stay safe.
Your greatest tool in the struggle against rogue casinos is research. There are, however, dozens of factors that feed into a casino’s quality and reliability. These can be difficult to gauge or even to follow, which is why our panel of gaming experts has done it for you. The casinos that we recommend are first-class establishments, while the casinos that we blacklist are the polar opposite.
Join us in this handy guide and learn what a blacklisted casino is, how you can spot it, where you can find reliable alternatives and everything in between!
Have you been mistreated by an online casino? We kindly ask you to report any and all casinos that appear to have unscrupulous practices. OCR does its best to observe the online gaming world, but our reach is not infinite. Your reports help us keep the gaming community safe and away from predatory hands.
Casinos are like people; they come in a myriad of shapes and sizes, each of which has its own benefits and flaws. However, too many flaws can indicate intentional sloppiness or predatory intentions. These early warning signs, along with those buried deep in the depths of an online casino, are exactly what our experts look for. Their vectored reviewing approach with a best-in-class checklist spots bad apples from a mile away. The topics that we examine range from licensing and regulation to game libraries and security.
These examinations produce reviews that you can read on this very site. Moreover, you can also search for a casino and see if it made it onto our list of recommended or blacklisted casinos. Check out our trusted casinos to see which ones scored the highest on our tests.
We deeply value the opinions of regular punters, which is why our final verdicts take complaints and community feedback into account. These often touch on a casino’s history, operations, offerings, and general attitude. Any one of these can be a red flag that torpedoes the reliability of an online venue.
We usually consider the following:
A casino that falls short in any of these categories will not be recommended by OCR. It might even make it onto our list of blacklisted casinos if the shortcomings spell out ill-intent. You should only ever consider recommended online casinos, regardless of the promotion that you are offered.
Are you worried about your chosen casino? Check out the blacklist below and see if your venue is a safe bet. The listings also have the reason for the positioning next to them. These include unreliable customer support, shady withdrawals, unfair games, and so on.
The intention is simple; we want to keep you safe. We blacklist shady casinos that exhibit rogue behavior. The latter can come in a myriad of formats with varying severity. The main reasons include the following:
You should always be able to conduct banking with your preferred methods and with the fastest turnaround times possible, which is why banking is essential. However, it is not just a bad selection of payment options, missed payments, or prolonged withdrawals that sound the alarm. A casino's unwillingness to process basic withdrawals or credit winnings is also an issue that we look out for.
While online gaming is based on luck and often ends in losses, the games need to be fair. Online casinos ought to support their games with random number generators and adhere to fairness industry standards. Rigged or unwinnable games will get a casino featured on the blacklist.
Your personal and financial information should always be under lock and key, which is why modern security solutions are essential. A casino that does not meet these requirements lands itself on the blacklist.
A license is a sign of quality, which is why a lack of licensing raises eyebrows. If a casino did not try to receive a license or was not granted one, it probably fell short during auditing. Outdated, shady, or nonexistent licenses put operators on the blacklist.
Customer support is there to help you resolve a plethora of issues, which is why a lack of customer support options or low-quality customer support shows that a casino does not care about its patrons. The latter will quickly earn it a place on the blacklist.
Solid promotions and generous bonuses are the norms in iGaming. A casino with shady terms and conditions or predatory offerings will get itself featured on the blacklist.
Every online service is destined to crash or be unavailable at some point, but this should be a rare occurrence. If a casino has constant technical issues that prevent you from playing or signing in properly, it will quickly make its way onto our blacklist.
Our experts review and rank hundreds of online casinos and gambling sites, taking each site through our extensive review process covering over 12 key factors.
We regularly verify our reviews and gambling sites database to have up to date and valid information. Ongoing updates include bonus offers, changes in terms, licensing and more.
We add a critical validation layer to our online casino and gambling sites' reviews and ranking by continuously processing players' complaints and feedback.
How Our Experts Rate Online Casinos and Gambling Sites: Reviewing casinos is what we do best, and we always make sure that we cover the vital information and essential factors. When considering which online casino to choose, we’ll provide you with the most up to date information on a casino’s security measures, payouts, player feedback about the casino, and much more. Take a look at the graph below for more info.
Our expert reviews will lend a helping hand to finding the best and most rewarding online casinos. By noting a casino’s game library, banking options, customer support, and all of the most important factors to consider when choosing a casino, our expert reviewers put the power in your hands.
Find out more about how we rate
There is a myriad of reasons for blacklisting. They can include but are not limited to bad customer support, excessively long withdrawals, unfair games, rigged games, predatory offerings, and a lack of licenses.
They are often both unreliable and dangerous. This danger can come in the form of subpar security or services that intentionally prey on your funds. Punters often lose their entire deposits and occasionally even put their financial information at risk, so it is best to avoid these establishments.
Yes, it is. However, this is a very difficult process that is usually accompanied by larger shifts in the casino's management and branding. Note that the severity of offenses varies, and there are some that casinos cannot come back from.
You usually cannot. With no institution or agency to clamp down on them due to a lack of a license, there is very little chance that you will get your money back. Avoid this nightmare scenario by choosing the best online casinos based on OCR recommendations.
These range from bad customer support, unfair games, and weird payouts to a lack of licensing. If you spot signs of a rogue casino, get in touch, and we will look into it further.
We recommend that you contact the casino directly and try to sort it out with them. Should this prove useless, contact the company that owns or operates them. Whatever you do, be sure to get in touch with us so that we can look into the situation and potentially blacklist the venue. Help us keep your fellow punters safe.
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