Rogue online casinos, blacklist and warnings

• Bet Royal Casino
• Bingo Knights
• Cirrus Casino
• Club Player Casino
• Cool Cat Casino
• Dreams Casino
• Lady Lucks Casino
• Lucky Aces Casino
• Palace of Chance
• Party City Casino
• Prism Casino
• Ruby Slots
• Slots of Vegas
• The Virtual Casino
• VIP Lounge Casino
• Wild Vegas Casino

This group of casinos has a long and consistent history of non payment of winnings, deliberately slow withdrawal processing, repeated bogus requests for proof of ID to stall on payments, and poor customer service.

The owner of this group was convicted and jailed for conspiracy and mail fraud in the United States in 1997.

They are based in Costa Rica - which means there is absolutely no player protection or recourse for you as a player if there is a problem. See reviews for further information and comments from players who have been burnt by these guys.

Do not deposit your money at these casinos!

• Captain Jack Casino
• Cat's Eye Casino
• Gold Stream Casino
• Lucky Palm Casino
• Opremio Casino
• Pharaohs Gold Casino
• Planet 7 Casino
• Ringmaster Casino
• Royal Ace Casino
• Silver Oak Casino
• Slot Madness

This is a group of rebranded Crystal Palace Group casinos, which are believed to have been acquired by the above-mentioned Virtual Casino Group after the death of former owner Warren Cloud.

Also based in Costa Rica - so no player protection or recourse if there is a problem. See Silver Oak Casino review for further information.

Slot Madness was acquired by this group in June 2010.

• 99 Slot Machines
• Mighty Slots
• Plenty Jackpots
• Real Vegas Online
• Slot Nuts
• Slots Inferno

Upon launching Mighty Slots in late 2008, this RTG group mercilessly reamed player inboxes with a repeated spam campaign. Where they obtained the players' email addresses we can only speculate. Their standard of business ethics continued into the operation of the casino, where they frequently ignored valid withdrawal requests, outright refusing to pay players.

This scam group is still in operation today. Players beware!

• Gold VIP Club Casino
• Golden Gate Casino

Found to be recruiting "black-hat" webmasters to advertise their casino soon after launching in 2008. Subsequently players' inboxes were flooded with spam, malware, and more spam, most likely after these crooks purchased stolen databases of personal information from another casino.

There have been many complaints of players not being paid, having credit cards billed twice, and disgusting threats made to players who complain. Spammers, scammers, thieves, criminals .. call them what you like - just don't ever play there.

Related forum threads:

• Gold VIP Club Casino Fraud
• Gold Vip Club Not Paying Me!!!!!!
• Gold Vip Club Casino - crooked

• Bella Vegas Casino
• Big Dollar Casino
• Casino Grand Bay
• Lake Palace Casino
• Jupiter Club Casino
• Road House Reels Casino
• Fortune Junction Casino
• Jackpot Wheel Casino
• Villa Fortuna Casino

This group of formerly decent casinos encountered financial difficulties and reneged on payments to affiliates and marketing contractors.

In a worrying sign, they also recently switched software providers from premier (and most expensive) supplier Microgaming to unheard of (and presumably cheap) BetOnSoft. The evidence points to imminent financial disaster.

• Giant Vegas Casino
• Royal Dice Casino
• Sierra Star Casino
• Nuts Poker

Claimed to be approved by the "Internet Gaming Commission" - a fake organisation set up to confuse people who may have heard of the Interactive Gaming Council. Regularly finds excuses to avoid paying players, citing terms and conditions that do not exist.

We have also added World Wide Vegas Casino to this entry after the customer support inadvertently referred to themselves "Casino Vega" in a chat session with us, suggesting the two are related.

• VIP Golden Club

Incredibly cheap PHP based casino software that allows the operator to cheat by setting a deterministic chance of winning for players with separate settings for real and fun play mode. Also allows the operator to "bank" a certain percentage of every bet so that it cannot be won back by players. The blackjack game at VIP Golden Club has exhibited extreme bugginess resulting in an impossibility of winning.

See related forum thread: Cheating casino software: Casino Web Scripts

• iWager Casino
• Linesmaker Casino
• Players Only Casino
• Sport Fanatik Casino
• Sportsbook Casino
• Superbook Casino
• + more (see right)

Domain Holdings (formerly Jazette Enterprises) runs a huge number of offshore sports betting sites mainly targeted at U.S. customers. Most of these sportsbooks also have a casino tacked on. There are numerous complaints from players regarding slow payment, non payment, and unresponsiveness of the customer support at these sportsbooks. We recommend players steer clear.

• African Palace Casino
• Indio Casino

• BlackJack Club
• Commodore Casino
• Pink Lady Casino
• Video Poker Classic Casino
• + more (see right)

Software installed malware onto users' PCs and modified hosts file to block other casino domains.

Aside from the launch of this casino being heralded with a barrage of spam, several players have complained about not being paid winnings made at Grand Duke Casino. The usual excuse used by the casino is unspecified "bonus abuse". However their terms and conditions are so ridiculous and contradictory that they have earned themselves a blacklisting for what we think is a deliberate attempt to trap players:

Further examples of irregular playing patterns also include, but are not limited to: ...

(iii) Wagering based on one specific slot machine, in order to significantly increase a bankroll, in relevance to the initial betting amount, and then switching to another game or request a withdrawal.

In order to be eligible for withdrawal, you must have winnings from multiple games, in which winnings from any single game cannot exceed 50% of the total amount of the withdrawal request.

So you're not allowed to switch games after a big win, but you can't win more than 50% of your withdrawal on a single game! What kind of drugs do you need to be on to even think this sort of thing up?

Automatically gives players a $300 line of credit then deliberately obfuscates this by including it as part of the player's bankroll, making it possible to go into debt while playing there! From their terms:

"If your Balance is more than $300 you are playing with cash or bonus money. If your Balance is less than $300 you are using your credit line.

First, this mismanaged casino employed someone to register here and spam our forums by pretending to be a player praising the greatness of this previously unknown casino. A quick search revealed that this person had posted the exact same message on countless other websites.

Then it became apparent that the game symbols for one of the games at this casino - "Rich Horrific" - were ripped off from the Rival game Scary Rich.

So we have an incredibly stupid casino name - check. Spammers - check. Content thieves - check. Who would want to trust this casino with their money?

• Big Daddys Casino
• Doms Casino
• Empire Casino
• RioParty Casino
• US Star Casino
• + a whole host more (see right)

Software supplier FutureBet ran a scam where its licensees, players, and affiliates were never paid a cent. Avoid any casino or poker room hosting software from FutureBet or iGaming Networks.

• Diamond VIP Casino
• GrandLuxe Casino
• Mona Casino
• Rome Casino
• Topaze Casino

This group of Top Game casinos have never been far from controversy. Rome Casino was caught cheating players by not including a wild symbol necessary to win a jackpot on some of their games. Fair play though - they did step up and made restitution to affected players eventually.

But a close perusal of their terms and conditions should send you running for the hills. Currently if you deposit less than $250 then you are limited to winning a maximum of 10x your deposit, irrespective of whether you claim a bonus or win a progressive jackpot. The withdrawals are capped at very low monthly rate and to cap it all off they have "15-18 day authorisation period" for all withdrawals. Why would anyone want to play under these rules?

• Cleopatra's Palace Casino
• Royal Sands Casino

These RTG powered casinos have a reputation for non payment of winnings, emailing players bonus offers which they then refuse to honour, and a bunch of ridiculous terms and conditions designed to limit their exposure to large wins (see reviews for further details). For example:

6. ... Any player who utilizes a deposit Bonus with a deposit will be subject to a maximum withdrawal amount of no more than $5,000.

14. Any winnings generated on other non-tournament games that were directly funded from a tournament win will be restricted to a maximum of $1,000 cash out.

20. All blackjack games have maximum single cash out value of $2,500.

Limits, limits, limits, seizure clauses, penalties etc. That sort of thing screams that they do not have much money to back up the casino. Stay away!

• Break Away Casino
• Connect2Casino
• SciFi Casino

Players frequently complain about either not being paid at all, or suffering lengthy withdrawal delays from all the properties owned by this Norwegian group.

• Rushmore Casino
• Cherry Red Casino
• Pure Vegas Casino
• Slots Oasis
• Slotsville

A formerly good group of RTG casinos that have gradually been run into the ground over the past 2 years. Payments started being delayed leaving players waiting months to receive their withdrawals in tiny instalments. As of November 2012 the casinos appear to have been either shut down without warning or rendered inoperable. Even if they do reopen we advise players against depositing at these casinos as recent history has demonstrated that the operators are neither professional nor trustworthy.

• Mapau Casino
• Casino Fortune
• Goldgate Casino
• Miami Beach Casino
• Mapau Bingo
• Poker Show

Blacklisted due to frequent player complaints regarding extremely slow payment and even non-payment of legitimate winnings.

First up there was Rome Casino and the case of the disappearing wild symbols. We gave the benefit of the doubt as Top Game stepped up and made restitution to affected players.

But then we had a player approach us after being stalled on payment of around $2500 in winnings for several weeks by Rich Casino (see forum thread: Rich Casino - anyone paid?). Our initial attempts to contact the casino, its customer support and its management on behalf of the player were ignored, until we were able to track down an email address of an actual employee there via industry contacts. The casino did thankfully pay the player in the end, but not without a lot of hassle and a grudging admittance that there were "more valuable players in the withdrawal queue". The complaints keep coming in from other players.

Other relevant forum threads: Royal Kings Casino - Top Game - wont pay withdrawal

Most of these casinos are run out of Costa Rica, which provides you as a player with absolutely no protection should anything go wrong. They all have very small weekly withdrawal limits too. In addition, we seem to always end up speaking to the same one or two people when contacting various different Top Game casinos. Our suspicion is that a large number of these casinos are run by the same people.

There is one exception to this blank blacklisting, and that is the group of casinos own by Thoughtlinks Ltd of Cyprus (Box24 Casino, Black Diamond Casino, and Spartan Slots). This group has demonstrated the ability to operate a casino responsibly for a couple of years. We recommend players do not play at any other Top Game casino, as we have little confidence in the ethics, payment processing, or financial stability of the casino owners.

• Gold Betting Casino
• Lady Dream Casino
• Players Vegas Casino

Games are deliberately set to be looser while in "free play" mode in order to trick potential customers into depositing after winning. Their T&Cs admit this:

Do the Free games payout the same as real games?

Our Free Games are programmed for FUN and give higher payouts.

• 21 Nova Casino (aka 32 Vegas)
• Amber Coast Casino
• Betgate Casino
• Blackpool Club Casino
• Cote d'Azur Palace
• Diamond Club Casino
• EuroGrand Casino
• Joyland Casino
• Playgate Casino
• Prestige Casino
• Sky Kings Casino (Closed)
• William Hill Casino

In addition to numerous player complaints about slow or denied payments, Joyland Casino stole almost $2 million from a progressive jackpot winner, and after acquiring the rogue operation the subsequent owner William Hill still refuses to pay.

Marketing arm Affiliates United (formerly cPays) has been caught sponsoring spamming campaigns, and stealing affiliate commissions.

In all truth your chances of being ripped off by William Hill are quite low, however we know for a fact that the same staff who have run the other dodgy casinos in this group for years are still employed after the William Hill takeover so we recommend players steer clear of this group entirely.

Spam, spam, spam, and more wonderful spam is all we have seen from the owners of this Playtech casino. Employing a bunch of persistent spammers to bombard various internet forums including ours with poorly written promotional messages is not a smart way to run a casino business. Their trust level is somewhere near zero. Avoid.

• 21 Dukes Casino
• 7 Reels Casino
• 7 Spins Casino
• Casino Moons
• Loco Jungle Casino
• Rich Casino
• Slots Village Casino
• Thebes Casino
• Winward Casino

This group of casinos has the most insane set of terms and conditions that players must agree to that we have ever seen. Some gems include requiring all deposits to be subject to bonus wagering requirements even if a bonus was not claimed, disallowing withdrawals to customers who have not made at least three deposits first, and limiting withdrawals to $500 per month for the first 6 months after a player signs up. These rules are no doubt designed to make it as difficult and painful as possible for winners to make a withdrawal.

In addition these are all crappy Costa Rican based TopGame casinos, meaning that there is absolutely no protection for players who run afoul of the Byzantine terms and conditions.