Online Casino Blacklist

Last update: Aug. 14, 2008

Blacklist

My blacklist is a place for the most unethical of Internet casinos. Reasons for inclusion on the blacklist include:

Game results are not consistent with a random game. I expect all casinos to offer a fair game as evidenced by the fact that the cards or dice observed fall in line with statistical norms.
Non-payment of winnings for no good reason.
Stealing web site content.

For more moderate offenses, please see my Gray List.

Here is the Blacklist, starting with the most recently added.

Ultimate Bet: Ultimate Bet (UB) was placed on the blacklist on June 9, 2008. Both UB and Absolute Poker (AP) (see below) are owned by the same parent company, Tokwiro Enterprises. The cheating and alledged cover-up at AP was also occuring at UB. A UB player by the handle "NioNio" stole millions from other players, by way of super-user access, which allowed him/her to see his opponents hole cards. His win rate was many orders of magnitude better than the best poker players on earth. Yet, this went on undetected, and perhaps aided by insiders, at UB for months. It took the player community to expose what was going on. If UB/AP wish to refute any of this, I would be happy to print their corrections or comments.

More information on Ultimate Bet cheating scandal:

Poker site cheating plot a high-stakes whodunit

Superusers and Silence: How UltimateBet let players get cheated for millions

Absolute Poker: Absolute Poker was placed on the Black List on November 30, 2007, because of the hole-card scandal, and the denial that followed. Anybody can be make mistakes or be hit by holes in security. However Absolute Poker had glaring evidence that a particular player was playing with evidence of competitors hole cards, and still denied it. For more information, please see my Absolute Poker invesigation.
Virtual Casino Group: Added Nov. 13, 2007. This group of casinos is blacklisted for slow-paying and not paying players at all. I defer to the Casinomeister for the details. One of the many affected players is a good friend of mine, who has been owed money by three of these casinos for years. Virtual casinos are: Cirrus Casino, Prism Casino, Cool Cat Casino, Palace of Chance, Club Player, Vip Lounge, Bet Royal Casino, and SlotsofVegas.com

SBG Global, Bet Royal: Added October 25, 2007 for non-payment of winnings. These two sports books claim a group of players were all following the same radio handicapper in Connecticut, and such "syndicate" play is against the rules. In my opinion, this is a ridiculous reason for non-payment. Some handicappers have huge followings, who all bet the same way when the picks are released. Take your losses like a man and pay, for crying out loud! For more information, see Gambling911.com.
Enterbet: Added January 19, 2007. Enterbet is placed on the blacklist for stealing content from my site. Much of their games rules were copied word for word this site.
All Elka System/Oyster Gaming casinos: After getting some anecdotal evidence that Netgaming.com was cheating in free play mode I gave them a try. In their single zero roulette game I placed 200 bets on red. My results were 133 wins and 67 losses. The probability of 133 or more wins in 200 spins is 1 in 3,788,515. So obviously they were letting me win. I blame the software for this and thus add all Elka/Oyster Gaming casinos to my blacklist. Besides this reason they have had a terrible reputation in the industry for years. Furthermore one of their clients, NetGaming, sold me out to pornography spammers. I used to maintain a list of Elka/Oyster casinos here but checking a random sampling of about ten 100% had vanished. So I believe this group to be fortunatly defunct. However the Casino Meister keeps a list of casinos that have used their software.
All Start Your Own Casino casinos: This software by their own admission can guarantee the operator a specified minimum win. As stated on their web site, "Our proprietary random number generator is calculating your profit before the winning/loosing number is sent back to the game. you can set a minimum profit that is always kept for you! this also ensures that you will not wake up with $20000 debts!" Thus the games can not be completely fair and random. Casinos that use this software include the following.
All MGM Gaming Systems casinos. The Wizard of Odds recommends you to not play joker poker at all casinos that use MGM Gaming Systems software. Based on my play at Transnet Casino (click here for full story) I very strongly believe that this software is not playing a fair game of joker poker. Besides Transnet other casinos that use this software include Axel, Casimodo Palace, Casino XO, Lazarus, Master Blackjack, Moon Palace, Paradise Players, Players Palace, Tiger Dragon, and Vino. (Update: All these casinos seem fortunatly to have vanished)
All Vegas Strip casinos: I played at Cleopatra's Casino when they had a $100 bonus for $100 deposit promotion. I ran my balance up to $300 and cashed out. The $200 in bonus/winnings arrived 20 days later by Fed Ex, with an apology for taking so long. As usual with Real Time Gaming casinos everything went very smoothly and the bonus was paid quickly and without fuss. However I got a complaint from a player in July 2001 saying he responded to a Cleopatra promotion through this site. The player in question claims they refused payment of winnings and ignored all his inquiries. I put in an inquiry myself about the situation, which they never responded to. Failure to respond to my inquiry is just cause for me to remove my endorsement. This casino is part of the "Vegas Strip" family of casinos, a group I have been hearing a lot of complaints about. The GameMaster reports they have refused to pay winnings to players just for living in Denmark (a country known for Internet casino fraud). Other Vegas Strip casinos include America's Online Casino, Cleopatra's Casino, Club Regal Casino, eWorld Casino, and Club Mardi Gras Casino. Last date played: May 9, 2001. (Real Time Gaming software)
Casino Bar: When I played at Casino Bar on May 27, 2002, and December 13, 2002, the evidence will show that I didn't get a fair game of blackjack. Three other webmasters also tested them and the results were also not in line with a fair game. For the entire story please visit Casino Bar investigation. Date last played: December 13, 2002 (C.O.A World Entertainment software)

Gray List

My gray list is a place for smaller lapses in ethics than my Blacklist. Reasons for inclusion on the Grey List include:

The casino does not pay winners, for reason of serious bonus abuse. I feel all casinos should honor their own rules, and if a bonus abuser takes advantage, back off the player, but you still have to pay. However this is a lesser sin than outright stiffing a totally legitimate player because you just dont want to pay. I believe a true recreation gambler is probably safe to play at casino on the Grey List, but if a bonus player is not.
Lax security. It is one thing to make a programming or security mistake, but another to deny it in the face of convincing evidence.

Here is the Gray List, starting with the most recently added.

All G-Fed (Gambling Federation) casinos, except the K2 Casino: Added in March, 2006. The first reason is non-payment of winnings. In May 2005 A player by the initials CB opened accounts at 10 Gambling Federation casinos in the same day, all with the same bonus, and played them all in rapid succession. He had large wins at two of them, for a large overall net win. The Gambling Federation refunded all ten deposits for the reason he was clearly a bonus abuser. It is a long story but in the end they site the following rule as reason enough not to pay, although other reasons were originally disputed, "The Casino management reserves the right to withhold any funds if it suspects any foul play or manipulation with the Casino. It is recognized and agreed to by the Player that, in the case of any discrepancy whatsoever, management's decision on all matters will be final." The screenshots below show the two wins that were never paid.

Click on either image for larger version.
The reason I blame G-Fed, as opposed to just the two casinos shown above, is that the decision to not pay the winnings came from G-Fed and not individual casino management.

Secondly, as reported by Casinomeister in February 2005 downloads from G-Fed casinos included malware (short for malicious software) to block access to some competing sites. They claimed it was because the casinos in questions misappropriated their client database and spammed G-Fed customers. After they were caught G-Fed apologized, stating their actions were based on "emotive judgement" and "not justified."

Following is a list of Gambling Federation casinos I am aware of. There are likely more.

www.selectivecasino.com
www.videopokergrand.com
www.videopokerclassic.com
www.k2casino.com (note: K2 casino is exempt from the Gray List)
www.grandslots.com
www.majorslots.com
www.spinninslots.com
www.sizzlingslots.com
www.casinofreedom.com
www.maximuscasino.com
www.commodorepoker.com
www.casinoitalia.net
www.casino.at
www.pinkladycasino.com
www.slotsexpress.com
www.jeuxdecesar.com
www.luckygatecasino.com
www.winnersonlinecasino.com
www.blackjackclub.com
www.pureslots.com
www.onlinecasinofever.com
www.goldencairocasino.com
www.monaconights.com
www.videopokersaloon.com
www.casino-hawaiiantropic.com
www.casinopokerlasvegas.com
www.maximuspoker.com
www.mr-casino.com
www.royalcitycasino.com

The reasons the K2 casino is exempt are (1) they opened after the CB non-payment incident, and (2) although they use G-Fed for support they indicate that casino management can override a G-Fed decision if a player has trouble getting paid. The following is stated on the support page, "K2 Casino is committed to paying all winners promptly. In the unlikely event of a dispute you may contact the casino manager directly at OCN Worldwide LTD."

One Click & Play: I took a lot of criticism when I ran an ad for this casino in my newsletter. They are often accused of slow paying winners, or not paying them at all. In an effort to see what all the fuss was about I played there myself. I was immediately suspicious when their web site claims to pay a bonus of $101 + 30% on top of every deposit, even on deposits as little as $50. This amounts to a 232% bonus. So I deposited $50 and immediately got my $116 bonus. I lost quickly at first but then my luck leveled off. Overall I played 334 hands and lost 17.5 units. The probability of losing this badly or worse is 21%, so nothing unusual. However I did learn only after making a deposit that the bonuses are sticky (the player can bet the bonus but never cash it out). When you try to cash out they subtract your total bonuses and what is left is what you can cash out. This rule was not stated on their web site anywhere that I could find. The games are very basic and simple. Just cards flashing on the screen and no sound effects. You have to specify your bet by entering a number in a text box. Other players report being slow paid from this casino and only after a great deal of nagging. If you still wish to play here are their blackjack rules, which are not stated anywhere on their web site:
- Unknown number of decks
- Dealer stands on soft 17
- Player may double on any two cards
- Player may double after a split
- Player may only split once
- Drawing and doubling to split aces is allowed
- Dealer peeks for blackjack with an ace showing after player buys or refuses insurance
- Dealer does not peek with a 10 showing. I do not know if the player can lose his total amount bet after doubling or splitting if the dealer has an ace in the hole.
Assuming six decks and the dealer does take the full bet on a blackjack with an ace in the hole the house edge would be 0.37%.

I have received numerous e-mails from Michael from One Click & Play about how unfair my listing of them is. He claims that their terms and conditions are the same as those of Casino on Net. According to his own T&C he may seize a player's winnings and leave him only with his original deposits. Can you imagine the public outcry if a Las Vegas casino seized a player's winnings because he aggressively played a promotion? As far as I can tell Casino on Net only reserves the right to refuse redemption of bonuses. In their defense there are other legitimate casinos that do reserve the right to seize winnings. However reserving the right and actually doing it are two different things. I believe most casinos that reserve this right just do so to scare off bonus players and never actually invoke it.

Although I have received many horror stories about One Click & Play I will post just one. In the interests of telling both sides of the story here is the One Click & Play response. Dates of play: March 31-April 2, 2002 (My Casino Builder software)
Golden Palace/Casino Depot: During the glory days of Internet casino bonus hunting the Golden Palace offered a 20% bonus on purchases up to $10,000, every month. I personally collected $2000 in bonuses every month, and sometimes from their sister casino Casino Depot as well. In April 2000 they evidently started to realize what was going on and sent players letters stating that if they didn't play more during off promotions they would not be offered future promotions. This was fair and I gave them more free play. Others made deposits immediately after receiving this letter and played. Shortly after this they took an even stronger stance and locked out all players suspected of bonus abuse. By early June they had finished their investigations. Some players, including me, got their money back, and some did not. Golden Palace says those funds were donated to charity. I am of the opinion that every online casino should abide by its own rules. Seizing funds from players whose only fault is taking advantage of the bonuses that were offered is not acceptable. Not until the Golden Palace refunds the accounts of all players from this debacle will I remove them from the blacklist. For the long version of this story visit my Golden Palace statement. (Playtech software)

Here are some more warning lists by other webmasters.

The Wizard's other sites: Wizard of Macau, Sweat the Money, Math Problems