Online Gambling Gone Rogue - How to Avoid Blacklisted Casinos

The online casinos we play in are crucial to our gambling experience as a whole. If you are left with a bitter taste and considerably less money in your pocket, it may not be just about your lack of skills or bad luck, but rather about the casino you chose to play in. 

In other words, while looking for the best online casino for you, how can you differentiate the good from the bad, or the blacklisted? And what does that mean

Keep reading our article in order to find out some tips and tricks on how to keep an eye out for problematic and fraudulent online casinos and how to handle the aftermath of playing at one.

What Makes a Casino Rogue?

An important aspect to remember is that seeing an online casino’s total score won’t immediately reveal its overall player history or safety standards. In order to get started, we have summarized a few traits of bad online casinos and what makes a casino get in MERN.CA’s blacklisted category:

1. Unlicensed Software or Games. If a software provider does not support the player’s privacy and the games’ fairness, users will have a problematic gambling experience. As long as an online casino accepts these types of ethically questionable developers, their rankings will go down and our website will instantly label it as a rogue casino. The biggest problem with these types of casinos relates to unfair gambling, and when this happens, users won’t get their full payouts or, worse, won’t receive any money at all.

What you can do: Research online software providers and choose online casinos that operate on top names in the industry. Finally, always read the player reviews of an online casino to ensure you are making the right choice.

2. Inaccurate Bonus Descriptions. You may see some casinos that offer a lot of free bonuses with no deposit and all sorts of other attractive promotions. However, keep in mind that some things might be left out of the bonus description in order to benefit the rogue operator. The most common one you will encounter is that some casinos don’t show what the wagering requirement is on their promotions.

What you can do: The best thing to do in order to avoid online casino scams is to read the terms and conditions carefully when it comes to bonuses. A blacklisted casino will always lie about what it offers to its customers, no matter how good it sounds. Read, compare, and search on the internet for other opinions before investing your hard earned money in a questionable website.

3. Unfavorable Online Reviews. Some online casinos just have a bad rating online, and this clearly indicates that you should stay away. Always read the terms and conditions, but also the reviews. This feedback is left by real players, and usually the comments are filled with useful information. Nonetheless, casinos with a good score can be blacklisted because they are problematic in some respects, so always employ your critical thinking.

What you can do: If there is only one bad review, you shouldn’t necessarily deem the casino as rogue. The low rating can come from players that are unreasonably upset with the operator for various reasons, so think smart and explore everything about an online casino you are going to access. Players that had problems with blacklisted casinos report on more than just a mere glitch or a bug. Keep in mind to contact the casino’s customer service if you come across a problem of this type.

Some casinos have (potentially fake) good reviews while still blacklisted. This is due to the fact that players get no bonuses, no cash out, no support, and usually because the casino itself is a scam.

4. Fraudulent Payment Methods. It is suspected that rogue online casinos will sometimes use unknown payment methods which in reality are third parties that can steal your data and money. Avoid any casinos that give you a bad gut feeling about their choice of banking operators!

What you can do: If you are not sure about a casino’s payment method, but the casino itself has good rankings, you can opt for a small deposit with an e-wallet type payment method. Popularity is not always a must for a trusted and working payment method, so make sure to do your research objectively. You can Google it or just search MERN.CA for player reviews.

I’ve Had a Bad Casino Experience - What Should I Do?

Concluding everything said above, it is obvious that reading the reviews is, indeed, the most important way to avoid bad casinos. But what would you do if you are already a victim of a rogue casino?
 

1. Contact Customer Support. It is worth trying to try to reach the casino’s staff and  tell them about your problem. You may be able to solve the problem with a standard procedure.
    
2. Leave Honest Reviews. If you can’t solve the problem no matter what, it is the best to help others. After all, reviews could have helped you too at some point. However, keep in mind that some online casinos may have a good tier and score, while being blacklisted. This, however, does not happen that often.
    
3. Don’t Give Up! Even if you were a victim of an online casino fraud, keep in mind that this is a rare occurrence in the industry. This is especially true if you use websites like MERN.CA, where the review policy is strong and accurate. Therefore, you can continue your passion for gambling by informing yourself more next time.

Final Thoughts

If you want a comprehensive list of rogue casinos, we recommend our CasinoFreak Blacklisted Casinos Directory to you. There, you can see the blacklisted websites in their full glory, as well as read about their problems in real player reviews.

Read many reviews before trying an online casino, make sure everything about the payouts and payment methods is safe, and don’t let unreal offers fool you.  Everything will be okay, and even if you had bad experiences in the past, you are not alone. We are waiting for you in our reviews sections to leave your feedback. We hope our Guide on Rogue Casinos will help you make the right decisions. Good luck, player!