5 Cybersecurity Red Flags That Could Land an Online Casino on a Blacklist
Untrustworthy online casinos, also called blacklisted, rogue, scam, or fake casinos, are either not licensed at all or they have licenses from low-quality gaming authorities.
Today, you can find lists of these untrustworthy sites on well-known iGaming review websites.
Here are five cybersecurity warning signs that might cause an online casino to be listed on such a blacklist.
Can all online casinos be trusted?
Fortunately, online casino players can feel reassured because most iGaming platforms are trustworthy. But there are some dishonest casinos that you should avoid completely.
The worst type of online casino is one that isn’t licensed or regulated by any official government body or gaming authority.
Some casinos get licenses from so-called ‘rubber stamp’ authorities, which are not really strict in their checks.
These lower-level regulators often don’t do proper background checks and don’t have strong controls to oversee how the casinos operate.
They also give licenses to almost anyone who can pay for one, regardless of their credibility.
There are also middle-level licensing authorities that are stricter than the lower ones, but they don’t have the same high standards as top-tier regulators.
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 often get blacklisted because players constantly complain, people who have tried them leave bad reviews, and experts on reliable online casino review websites give them very negative ratings.
The worst casinos don’t have strong security features to keep players safe, like 128-bit or stronger SSL encryption, One-Time Passcodes for secure transactions, or proper firewalls to stop hackers.
Their data protection is basically nothing.
Also, don’t play on sites that start with http://.
Always check that it has the ‘s’ (https://), because the ‘s’ means the site is secure and safe.
Final thoughts
So, to wrap it up, even though most online casinos are reliable, there are some unsafe ones you should avoid.
The good news is that these unsafe sites are not hard to find.
But if you’re new to online gambling and don’t know what to look for, you can check expert reviews to see if a site is safe before you sign up. You can also visit the gaming commission’s website to confirm if a casino is truly licensed.
In short, it’s always a good idea to do a quick check and make sure you’re choosing a trustworthy site before you sign up anywhere.