A few years ago, members of a popular crypto gambling site received an email at 1:00 AM congratulating them on their success at the casino and promising them a bonus if they clicked a link to register with the casino’s private high-roller club. The email looked very much like other messages the casino sent out, but this one was a little different. As you probably guessed the moment we mentioned clicking a link, this was not a legitimate email but was instead a phishing scam. While most users quickly realized the email was a scam, not everyone did. Within days, the creator of the phishing email had posted online that the scam had netted $10 million in stolen crypto assets.
This is just one example of the ways that scammers try to extract money from crypto gamblers, and it is far from the most insidious. One of the most dangerous crypto gambling scams is the creation of fake casinos that are designed entirely to take your crypto while paying out little or nothing. In many cases, these sites are difficult to distinguish from their legitimate counterparts.
In this article, we will discuss fifteen warning signs you should look for to help spot fraudulent crypto casinos. By familiarizing yourself with these signs, you can ensure that you are more likely to be working with legitimate crypto casinos and that your gambling has a fair chance of yielding a payout.
Biggest Signs a Crypto Casino Isn't Legitimate
Staying safe online starts with choosing a legitimate gambling platform. Here are 15 clear warning signs to help you spot fraudulent sites and protect your funds.
#1. No license or regulation
While licensing and regulation are not necessarily required for a crypto casino depending on where the casino operates from, many legitimate casinos prominently display their gaming license from a recognized regulator or else an accreditation from a recognized gaming body. By displaying these credentials, the casino is inviting you to confirm their authenticity. If a site does not include this information, it should cause you to look twice about whether this is a legitimate gaming website.
#2. No secure connection (SSL encryption)
A legitimate crypto casino invests heavily in the security of its site and the protection of patrons’ privacy. It should utilize SSL encryption for a secure connection to protect your crypto transactions. If a gaming site does not use encryption or have a secure connection, that should be a major red flag that the site may be planning to misuse your financial data or abscond with your crypto assets.
#3. No contact information or fraudulent contact information
A legitimate gaming site will have clear contact information to allow you to reach out to the casino with questions or concerns. You should look to see if the site has a physical address, an email address, and a phone number—and whether the site responds to messages. If the site’s contact information is vague or confusing, or if the address isn’t real or the phone number doesn’t work, you should be concerned. Missing contact information is also another warning sign that the site has something to hide.
#4. Little or no customer support
We live in an age when companies of every size are cutting back on customer support and making it more difficult to get in touch with a real human. Even large corporations are experimenting with using A.I. to replace customer service representatives. But that doesn’t mean that you should expect a crypto casino to have no customer support, not return messages, or never answer the phone. You should be able to contact customer support around the clock and receive a response in a timely manner. If you aren’t receiving effective customer support, this could be a sign that the casino is a scam.
#5. No independent reviews
Casinos live and die by their reputations, and most will encourage independent reviewers and customers to write about their experiences using the casino. If you can’t find any reviews of a casino or any customer feedback, that might be a sign that this is a fly-by-night operation looking to make a quick buck scamming its customers. Of course, this isn’t always the case. A legitimate but new casino may not have any reviews until operations get underway and it has a body of customers. That said, if you can’t find any reviews, it’s worth taking a second look at the site to see if it’s legitimate.
#6. Unverifiable payment methods
A legitimate casino wants you to feel safe and secure making your deposits and conducting transactions through the casino. If the casino does not offer recognizable name-brand payment options and instead relies entirely on obscure cryptocurrencies with no verifiable transaction records, it’s worth considering whether the site may be a scam. Even if you prefer to use a lesser known currency, a quality casino should have options for well-known, secure cryptocurrencies.
#7. Excessive bonuses or unrealistic offers
Bonuses are the lifeblood of any crypto casino and attract new players and help to retain existing ones. But bonuses typically fall within a reasonable range. If you see a casino offering an unusually large bonus or the promotions seem unrealistic in size, it is worth checking the terms and conditions to see if these are legitimate offers and giving the site some extra scrutiny to ensure that it is on the up-and-up.
#8. Unrealistic payout promises
A legitimate casino does not promise large payouts because they can’t know the outcome of games before they are played. Using random number generators or provably fair gaming helps to ensure that the outcome of a game is both random and verifiable. If a casino promises unrealistic payouts, guarantees payouts, or suggests that playing comes at no risk to you, you are likely looking at a scam and should be wary about making a deposit.
#9. Withdrawals that never materialize
Legitimate casinos always pay out what players are owed. Before you deposit any money with a crypto casino, check user reviews and see if users report lengthy delays on payouts or complain about never receiving their payouts or being unable to withdraw crypto from their accounts. If there are many reports of this nature, it’s a good sign that you are looking at a scam casino that you should avoid. Once you have assets in a casino, it’s a lot harder to get them back from a casino that refuses to pay out than it is to do research ahead of time and avoid an untrustworthy site in the first place.
#10. Problems with payment processing
Another financial sign that something is wrong can be problems with crypto payment processing. If the site seems to take an inordinate amount of time to deposit or withdraw crypto, or if it regularly refuses to perform transactions, you may be looking at a scam site. Check customer reviews before you deposit to see if other people have reported payment processing problems.
#11. Confusing or missing terms and conditions
A legitimate casino has clear terms and conditions that spell out the operations of the casino and how game play, deposits, and withdrawals work, as well as any fees that are charged. These terms and conditions are a legal promise, so they need to be clear and enforceable. If a site does not have clear terms and conditions, or if they seem to be plagiarized or even contradict themselves, you may be looking at signs that the casino is a scam.
#12. Unlicensed software providers
Reputable casinos use games from known and trusted software providers such as NetEnt, Microgaming, or Evolution Gaming. Scam casinos are more likely to be running scam games from no-name or fake companies you’ve never heard of. While it isn’t always the case that a software provider with an unfamiliar name is a scam, if you’ve never heard of the companies that provided the games, it’s worth doing some research to make sure that they’re legitimate.
#13. The website looks shady or excessively complicated
If the website for the casino looks like it was designed to confuse you or it is riddled with bugs, broken links, and grammar errors, this might be a sign that you are looking at a scam site. A legitimate casino has a clean, professional look and uses clear and straightforward writing with no grammar errors.
#14. No provably fair gaming system
Many legitimate crypto casinos have adopted "provably fair" as the gold standard for demonstrating that their gaming is on the up-and-up. While this is not necessarily required for a casino to be legitimate, if a casino does not offer ways for users to verify that their games are fair, this could be a sign that the games are rigged.
#15. Unprofessional or absent social media presence
Finally, legitimate casinos have a robust social media presence and post professional content. If a casino has no socials or fills their feed with low-quality content, spam, and scams, it’s time to consider whether the casino is as untrustworthy as its social media feed.
Conclusion
In short, the signs of a crypto casino scam are much like you’d use to evaluate any other website’s legitimacy: evaluate the site for professionalism, responsiveness, and reputation.