What Factors Land Online Casinos on Blacklists?

Nobody wants to play at dodgy online casinos that offer unfair games, make late payments, or even steal your money. This is where casino blacklists come in, because they’re meant to protect online gamblers from falling for these scammer sites.

You can tell that an online casino isn’t worth playing at if it’s on a blacklist. But you may also be curious as to how these gaming sites end up on such lists. I’m going to discuss the main factors that get internet casinos blacklisted. I’ll also cover if these sites are tainted for good, or if they can do anything to regain players’ trust.

Main Reasons Why Casinos Are Blacklisted

Online casinos end up on blacklists for a number of reasons. Industry watchdogs like WizardofOdds, ThePogg, and CasinoMeister look for casinos that have one are more of these problems. These watchdogs will then blacklist any gaming site that they deem to be in major violation of the following categories.

Late Payments

The online gaming industry doesn’t have clear-cut guidelines on when casinos should process withdrawals. But every gaming site should at least take care of payouts within the following timeframes:

• eWallets: 0-2 days
• Credit or debit cards: 1-5 days
• Bank transfers: 2-7 days
• Checks: 7-14 days

Casinos that fail to complete cashout requests in these timeframes may have larger issues or be trying to scam their customers. In the worst-case scenario, a casino is insolvent and trying to control the flow of withdrawals. Taking forever to process cashouts keeps the casino liquid and staying operational until things can possibly improve.

Some gaming sites are slow to process withdrawals because they want players to gamble the funds. If a customer becomes impatient with waiting, they may cancel the request and simply gamble their funds away. Neither scenario is good, which is why it’s so important for casinos to process cashouts in a timely manner.

Failing to Pay at All

Perhaps the biggest fear among internet gamblers is sinking their deposit into a casino that refuses to pay them back. A gaming site that doesn’t process withdrawals is likely struggling financially and simply can’t pay players. Of course, this is no excuse since it’s not the gamblers’ responsibility to cover a failing casino’s financial problems.

In rare cases, casinos are outright scams and are only open to steal players’ money. This usually happens with tiny operations that are willing to exit scam overnight when they get enough funds. Luckily, the vast majority of gaming sites at least have good intentions in the beginning and aren’t trying to steal money.

Spamming Players

Every online casino requires that you provide your email address during the registration process. This is a perfectly standard practice that allows sites to send you offers and promotional information.

But no internet casino should use your email address to spam you with countless and possibly unwanted offers. Unfortunately, I’ve signed up at a few sites that began sending me offers on a daily basis. It’s great to be kept in the loop about promotions, but not when it’s cluttering up my email inbox. You can easily opt out of most casino newsletters. But some sites make it difficult to do so in hopes that you’ll give up.

Misleading Advertisements

A misleading casino advertisement can make players feel that their chances of winning are better than they are. Misleading advertisements don’t automatically mean that a site is nefarious. After all, some of the most-respected UK online casinos operating have been fined large amounts for inappropriate ads.

The UK Gambling Commission hit LeoVegas with a £627,000 fine for misleading advertising. LeoVegas may have been incredibly irresponsible with their marketing campaign, but they’re still a well-respected internet casino.

Unfair Gaming

Besides not being paid, an online gambler’s other biggest fear is playing rigged games. Online casinos are supposed to offer fair and completely random games. Every game should offer its stated return to player (RTP) and make payouts according to the listed pay table.

Any casino, with unfair gaming is sure to land on every major blacklist. Unfortunately, some of these sites and providers still remain in operation after the fact. A number of online casinos still use SkillOnNet software. SkillOnNet has been caught running both rigged slots (game feature) and video poker games. Therefore, any internet casino using this software can’t be completely trusted to offer fair gaming.

Unfair Bonus Policies

You should always read the terms and conditions at any online casino before making a deposit. Doing so helps you learn their exact policies on earning bonuses. The problem, though, comes in when casinos offer unclear terms or change their T&Cs to support an argument that they’re having with a customer. Staybet Casino has been the subject of frequent complaints for changing bonus T&Cs in their favor.

One more issue worth mentioning here is that bonus terms and conditions should always be clear. Otherwise, casinos can use ambiguous language to support their arguments against players.

Failing to Pay Big Jackpots

One of the most-popular reasons for playing online casino games is the dream of winning a huge jackpot. And if you ever get this lucky, your jackpot should be paid according to the casino’s policy.

The UK-based software provider claimed that Justin didn’t qualify for the jackpot, because he won during a free spins round. However, Glam Life’s rules made no mention of this when he won a prize worth 1 million coins.

Betsoft quickly changed Glam Life’s rules to mention that the jackpot can’t be won during bonus rounds. They also refused to pay Justin the entire jackpot, instead settling with him for an undisclosed amount. Surprisingly, both Bitcoin.ag and Betsoft are still experiencing success in the online gaming industry –even after they failed to ensure that Justin was paid his entire jackpot.

Slow Customer Service Response Time

When you have a question or issue at an online casino, you don’t want to wait forever before having the matter resolved. This is why timely customer service is so important.

Most gaming sites that offer live chat are quick to respond. Those with only email and/or phone support can keep customers waiting for a while. Some casinos even struggle to get back to players when they do offer live chat. In any case, slow responses increase the amount of time that you wait to get a question/issue resolved.

Unprofessional Behavior

The last thing that you want to deal with when contacting customer support is unprofessional behavior. You’d think that online casinos would do their best to avoid this, given that the reputation rides on interactions with customers.

A large part of bad customer support comes from the top. The manager or owner may behave poorly, which filters down into the way their customer service acts. The late Warren Cloud, who owned the Virtual Casino Group, is a perfect example. He was very rude in interactions with customers and also had no problem scamming his players.

It should be no surprise that Cloud’s casinos were notorious for using unclear bonus terms to deceive gamblers. Cloud died of a heart attack on his yacht in 2008, and the Virtual Casino Group sites were later sold to Ace Revenue.

How Do You Find Blacklisted Online Casinos?

You can find blacklisted gaming sites through a variety of means. The simplest way is to google terms like “blacklisted online casinos” or “online casino blacklist.” Doing so will bring up a variety of sites that have dirt on the worst casinos.

ThePogg has a strict set of requirements that every gaming site should meet to avoid being blacklisted. A gaming site can end up on their blacklist for just one instance of violating the categories covered above.

Watchdogs wait for a legitimate customer complaint(s) to roll in about a casino, then try to help the player. If the casino is unwilling to work with them, than the site is a likely blacklist candidate. You should take any reason for why casinos land on these lists seriously. But nonpayment, unfair games, and poor customer service are the most-serious violations.

Are Blacklisted Casinos Forever Tainted?

Ending up on a blacklist is definitely not good for a casino’s reputation. But this doesn’t mean that they have to forever be looked down upon. These sites can try to rectify the situation by working out their issues with players and/or industry watchdogs.

Unfortunately, most blacklisted gaming sites don’t make a strong enough effort to get themselves off these lists. And some even accept their reputation as long as they can continue drawing players and making money.

Of course, it’s definitely better for business when these sites do whatever they can to get back on the industry’s right side. And when casinos are willing to go far enough, they can get off one or more blacklists.

Should You Play at a Blacklisted Online Casino?

Everybody makes mistakes, including internet casinos. It’s what they do afterward that can define their reputation. If an online casino works hard to improve their image and removes themselves from blacklists, then you should consider playing at their site.

This is especially the case if the casino violated one of the lesser blacklist categories, including spamming players and misleading ads. Some of the ills committed by casinos can taint them forever. Any gaming site that has been slow with payments for a longtime, refuses to pay jackpots, and/or continues to run unfair games should be avoided at all cost. The gaming industry is full of too many good sites for you to spend any time worrying about a potential scammer.