There are many different casino scams out there, and several hundred thousand players in the USA have been cheated out of their winnings by dishonest online casinos that are not licensed. If you're a newcomer to the scene or want to know that you're on a secure website, test out one of the https://best-online-casinos-usa.com/ for reputable and licensed websites.
Below are some of the most common types of online casino scams and how to recognize them.
There are certain signs that you can recognize if an online casino is legitimate or not. Make sure to watch out for the below signs:
If you notice any of these symptoms, evacuate the site and report the site to the responsible regulatory agency such as your state gaming commission or the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The classic form of casino scam is game manipulation—when a casino or one of its employees manipulates rules or technology in order to benefit themselves.
This can be done through changing rules of games to increase the house edge and reduce your chances of winning. For instance, some online blackjack can remove the high cards and aces from the virtual deck and leave it almost impossible for players to win. Since most of the online casinos do not display the shuffle and their actual deck, this can occur and is somehow online cheating.
Yet another deceptive tactic is gambling with rigged random number generators (RNGs). While a casino might claim that third-party companies test its software, it might be temporarily switched during audits in order to appear kosher.
If you're consistently experiencing losing streaks or see your money vanishing quicker than you could ever imagine—despite a regular payout percentage of 90–95%—watch out.
A few derelict U.S.-confronting casinos also delay or withhold payments to defraud players out of their winnings. This is typically by quietly stipulating something in their payment conditions or just not paying out. Another approach is demanding excessive documentation that they don't even insist upon, just to exhaust you.
Some operators will also deliberately stall the withdrawal process for a couple of weeks, with hopes that the player will eventually get tired and leave the money behind.
Shady casinos entice players with too-good-to-be-true promotions—and that's just what they are. Some will never pay out these promotions at all. Others have very limiting terms that are virtually unachievable, so most players will never collect the cash.
Some scam casinos will even leak or sell your financial and personal data, including your credit card numbers, to criminal hackers.
If you have a hacked casino account that is emptied out—and the owner won't reimburse you for shady activity or withdrawals—there's a high probability the site is either helpfully complicit in the scam or criminally negligent.
As an American gambler, there are a few things that you can do beforehand to protect yourself: