5 Cybersecurity Red Flags That Could Land an Online Casino on a Blacklist
Untrustworthy online casinos, which are also known as blacklisted casinos, rogue casinos, scam casinos, or fake casinos, are either completely unlicensed or they are licensed and regulated by bottom-tier gaming commissions.
These days, you can find blacklists on globally renowned iGaming review sites containing the names of sites that can’t be trusted. Revealed here are five cybersecurity red flags that could land an online casino on a blacklist.
Can all online casinos be trusted?
Fortunately for online casino players, most iGaming platforms can be trusted. However, there are a few bad eggs out there that must be avoided at all costs.
The worst kind of online casino out there is one that is either completely unlicensed and unregulated by any official government-controlled licensing authority/gaming commission, or one that has obtained a license by what many industry leaders/experts often call ‘rubber stamp’ licensing authorities.
These bottom-tier gaming commissions/regulators/licensing authorities essentially carry out little or no real background checks over their licenses and have very few controls in place to monitor their day-to-day operations.
They also hand out licenses to pretty much anyone who has enough money to purchase one to run an online casino.
You also have mid-tier licensing authorities which impose tougher controls over the licensees than bottom tier regulators, but they don’t quite have the high regulatory standards that top-tier licensing authorities have, such as the UK Gambling Commission.
Which gaming commissions/licensing authorities and regulators have the highest standards and impose the strictest controls over their licensees?
Other top-tier regulators that are known for their high standards and mature legal frameworks that are designed to protect both players and operators can be found in places like:
- Michigan – Michigan Gaming Control Board
- Ontario – Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario
- Gibraltar – Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner
- The Isle of Man – Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission
- New Jersey – New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement
- Pennsylvania – Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board
- Denmark – Danish Gambling Authority
- Sweden – Swedish Gambling Authority
- British Columbia – British Columbia Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch
- Alberta – Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission
Others include the Quebec Commission for Alcohol, Racing and Games, the Malta Gaming Authority, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, and the Alderney Gambling Control Commission, to name just a few.
As mentioned, the worst sites that will ALWAYS be blacklisted on today’s most well-known iGaming review sites will either be COMPLETELY UNLICENSED or they will be licensed by an authority that doesn’t have any real measures in place to protect players.
They also won’t provide any legal backing that a player should be entitled to, should anything bad happen on one of the online casinos they have issued a license to.
Examples of ‘bottom tier’ (aka rubber stamp) licensing authorities that players should always be extremely cautious of are typically based in Panama, Costa Rica, Belize/Comoros, and one or two other jurisdictions.
Five cybersecurity red flags that could lead to an online casino being put on a blacklist
An online casino could be blacklisted for various reasons. However, the five most common reasons for this happening over the past few decades are the following:
- An online casino will either be completely unlicensed and unregulated or will be licensed by a bottom tier gaming commission. Always be careful because the worst rogue casinos have even been known to lie about where they are licensed and use the logos of official gaming commissions to make it appear as though they are licensed there. You can always double-check where a casino is licensed by going to the official website of the gaming commission, where it claims to have obtained its license. Alternatively, they may be licensed by a mid to top tier authority, but their license may have expired, so avoid playing on these sites, too
- Blacklisted/rogue casinos may be using faulty software from companies that nobody has ever heard of, meaning their games may have been tampered with in favour of the house to ensure that players never win. In other words, the RTP% payout rates in ‘rigged’ games will always be unfair and never worth playing
- Online casinos can also end up being blacklisted casinos for false advertising and never coming good on their bonuses and promotions, or they will have ridiculously high wagering requirements attached to their bonuses
- Their general policies, terms and conditions and cybersecurity measures will be terrible/ineffective
- They will only accept one (or only a few) online payment methods that nobody has ever heard of, or they will take forever to process withdrawals, apply hidden fees to deposits or withdrawals, or there will always be some kind of problem at the virtual cashier/banking section
Rogue casinos also end up being blacklisted because of frequent player complaints, terrible player feedback from people who have already joined, and overwhelmingly negative reviews from the experts on today’s most trusted online casino review sites.
The worst sites won’t have any effective cybersecurity measures in place to protect players, such as 128-bit or higher SSL encryption, One-Time Passcodes to protect transactions, or any effective firewalls to prevent a range of cyber-attacks, and their data protection measures will be non-existent.
Also, avoid playing on sites that start with http://. Make sure it has the ‘s’ (https://) and remember that the ‘s’ stands for safety/security.
Final thoughts
To sum up, although most online casinos out there today can be trusted, there are a few dodgy sites that you must try to steer well clear of.
Fortunately, blacklisted casinos are relatively easy to spot, but if you are new to online casinos and don’t know what you should be looking for, you can easily check the expert reviews to see if a site is safe or not before joining anywhere, or go to the gaming commission’s website where they claim to be licensed to find out for yourself if they are telling the truth.
In other words, always conduct your own basic background checks and due diligence before signing up anywhere, just to be on the safe side.
