Blacklisted Online Casinos – Online Casinos To Avoid

By John Isaac,
Editor at online-gambling.com

John Isaac Editor at online-gambling.com

John Isaac is an editor with many years of experience in the gambling industry. He writes expert articles on card games like blackjack and poker. In addition, he is also well aware of the US gambling laws and the Indian and Dutch gambling markets. You can rely on verified information and insightful details.

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Last updated: December 7, 2023

Blacklisted online casinos are casinos that experts have condemned due to questionable business practices. These casinos either have a track record of not paying out winnings fairly or other dubious activity. In this article, we will go over some of the signs of untrustworthy casinos and how you can safely avoid them.

When you start betting or playing casino games online, you want to make sure that your money is safe. It is incredibly disappointing to sign up for a site, deposit real dollars and then discover that you can not retrieve your money, or that winnings have mysteriously disappeared. When you come across difficulty contacting someone behind the site for customer service, that is also a serious red flag. That is why we have compiled information to help you avoid blacklisted casino sites. If you want to make sure you play safely, explore our guide to legal online casinos.

• Risks of Playing at Blacklisted Online Casinos
• How to Identify Online Casinos to Avoid
• The Importance of Licensing

Blacklisted Casino Sites – All You Need to Know

Generally speaking, blacklisted casino sites are sites that have failed to meet standards imposed by gaming experts. There are several lists where you can find these sites. However, you do not necessarily need to stick to a list in order to identify a suspicious site yourself – but we will explain more about this later!

Why Do Casino Sites Get Blacklisted?

There are a variety of reasons for blacklisted online casinos. Here are the main reasons why online casino platforms and sportsbooks tend to get blacklisted by the industry or other users:

• You can’t get your money. Blacklisted online casinos often make it difficult or completely inaccessible to withdraw your money by instating complicated rules and caveats or only allowing obscure banks, e-wallets or cryptocurrencies. This is sometimes connected to bonus terms.
• You can’t enjoy advertised bonuses. Though a site advertises a great sign-up bonus, you might not be able to actually use it due to convoluted terms and conditions. This is related to payouts because you might only be able to withdraw your money after meeting minimum betting requirements as stated in these T&Cs. If these betting requirements are unreasonable or constitute false advertising, this may be an online casino to avoid.
• You can’t win. While there are no guarantees of winning any game on any casino site, if games never pay out any wins, that is certainly suspicious. You might also notice winnings that then disappear or are not added to your overall bankroll. All of these are signs of unfair technology and a site you do not want to bet on.
• You can’t get help when you need it. One of the biggest advantages of betting in a land-based casino is the service. It is easy to identify people working for you and you can rely on advice from the dealer, as well as comps and good treatment from staff when you are a regular customer. Good online sites will have access to customer service help. If a site doesn’t, it is a sign of an untrustworthy betting site.
• You can’t find an operating license. This is quite basic but something that many users forget to check. Good casino sites will be licensed to operate. Internationally, this is true on a nationwide level, but in the US this is important state-by-state since different states have different laws regarding the legality online sportsbetting or casino games.

Identifying Blacklisted Online Casinos

Though it might seem overwhelming, the good news is that there are several ways to identify online casinos to avoid. To start, several gaming authorities and news sites have their own lists of blacklisted online casinos. You can always scan these lists for the name of the site you are considering betting on. Be sure to do this before you give your financial information to the site or deposit any money to it. It is not easy to retrieve your money from a scam site!

If you do not find the casino’s name on one of these lists, you can also search the name yourself to find reviews, for example on TrustPilot, Google or via other consumer safety platforms. The worst online casinos will typically have reviews stating as much, thanks to other customers who have shared their experiences. We also encourage you to review sites that you find have untrustworthy practices.

One of the most important things you can do before you start betting on an online casino website or betting platform is to check your state’s betting laws. If your state does not legally allow online betting, there’s a good chance the website at hand is not adequately licensed. This is important because you are not only putting yourself at legal risk by betting with an unlicensed site, but you are putting your money at risk, too. Unlicensed sites may not abide by rules or be trustworthy.

Furthermore, if you have trouble getting money back from an unlicensed casino site, you may not have legal recourse. This is especially true for offshore sites. While these purport to offer games to you conveniently, it is difficult for legal teams to persecute them as they are acting outside of the infrastructure of the US law, in the case of illegal or unlicensed sites. This makes it especially hard to get your money back from an online casino if you fear you have been scammed.

This leads us to the last point, which is to always do your research. If you have vetted a site, signed up and made your initial deposit, notice if you see any of the red flags we’ve gone over in the previous section. If you do, you should report the site immediately, stop betting and attempt to withdraw your money before you lose any more of it.

Importance of Licensing

A point we have not delved into deeply yet is site security. This is another reason it is vital to play only on licensed gambling websites. Even if you live in a state where online gaming is considered a “gray area,” you may not be safe betting on an unlicensed site. Licensed sites have proven to the government that they operate securely. That means that your information – including your financial data – is safe from hackers.

Sites that operate in a shady manner may not have adequate security protocols in place to protect your data. Though you might not be getting scammed from the betting site itself, you put yourself at risk if you trust your information to an unlicensed website.