Avoiding Rogue Online Casinos

At BookMob.ca we talk a lot about the importance of using the right places to bet and play online. Indeed, one of the primary reasons we exist is to help our readers find the very best gambling destinations on the internet. We recommend several gambling sites, taking great care to ensure that each and every one of our recommendations is reputable, trustworthy, and provides an excellent online gambling experience.

Although there are some gambling sites that stand out as being particularly good, the fact is that most sites meet acceptable standards in the key areas. The vast majority of them can be trusted, at the very least, and are perfectly safe to use. With that being said, however, there are some sites that you should steer clear of at all cost.

This is especially true when it comes to online casinos. It's not actually that difficult to start an internet based casino, particularly if you have no intention to invest in it properly and make it truly successful. This means that there are quite a few casinos on the web that are not well funded and, unfortunately, some of these casinos end up providing a poor service. Even worse, some of them resort to straight up cheating their players.

It's very important to avoid these rogue casinos, for obvious reasons. You are almost certain to have a bad experience in some way, and could possibly be cheated out of any money you deposit. In this article we look at exactly what makes an online casino rogue, and provide some advice on how to go about avoiding such operations.

What is a Rogue Online Casino?

The term rogue online casino could be used to describe any casino which does not operate in an entirely ethical and honest way. There are several traits a casino could have that would be considered rogue, with the following being the most common.

If you ever suspect that a casino is engaging in unethical behavior of any kind, you should stop playing there immediately. Your suspicions may not always be correct, but it is always best to play it safe and not take the risk. There are plenty of places you can play that are definitely not rogue, so there is simply no point in taking a chance on a casino that you are not quite sure about.

Please note that although we strongly advise that you should be very cautious if you have the slightest suspicion a casino you are using might not be safe, there are some circumstances in which a legitimate casino may demonstrate some of the above traits unintentionally, or for reasons outside of their control.

In some circumstances, the best course of action might be to raise a complaint with the casino and see how they react. If your complaint is a fair one, you would expect a reputable operation to take it seriously and look in to the matter. They should then make things right to the best of their ability. If your complaint is ignored, however, then that is very probably a sign of a rogue operation.

We should also point out that losing money in a casino does not mean it is rogue. This might seem obvious, but it's not actually uncommon for losing players to make allegations about unfair games or rigged software. You have to remember that you are always more likely to lose than win when playing casino games, and just because you've gone on a bad run it doesn't mean that something is amiss.

How Do You Avoid Rogue Casinos?

It's not always easy to spot a rogue casino unfortunately. Unethical behavior does tend to get found out by players, sometimes very quickly, but this doesn't necessarily mean they will get shut down. If they are operating in a country where they can get away with it, and they keep attracting new players somehow, they will probably continue for as long as they can.

There are a few ways you can identify whether a particular casino is rogue though. The most obvious way is to check if they hold a license from a reputable licensing authority. If they are not properly licensed, that should serve as a big warning sign. There is absolutely no reason why a trustworthy operation would not attain a valid gaming license.

You can also check to see if they are audited by a legitimate organization. Reputable casinos will almost always publish this information somewhere on their website, usually at the bottom of the home page. If there is no mention of being audited, this another warning sign that should not be ignored.

There is some additional research you can do too. You can do an internet search and see if there are any negative reports to be found, or look through some of the big casino forums and see if anyone has posted about bad experiences. You can also check if a particular casino is on any "blacklist" – there are several of these published on the web. We actually have our own blacklist, for all types of gambling sites, which you can find here. This is regularly updated, and we try to keep it as comprehensive as possible.

As with any other blacklist though, ours can only be based on our combination of our own experiences and the reports of others. We cannot categorically state that it includes every single rogue operation out there, no matter how hard we try to make that true. The sad reality is that some are always going to slip through and go unnoticed.

Although we can't give you a definitive and complete list of places you shouldn't play, we can tell you where you should be playing. Following our recommendations is by far the easiest way to avoid rogue casinos, as you can be 100% sure that we only recommend those places that are fair, honest, and ethical.