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This is where you’ll find the casinos on our site that received the “blacklisted” anti-distinction. We maintain this list so our players can see, at a glance, all of the brands we consider unsafe or unfair.
What Is a Blacklisted Casino?
A blacklisted casino on CasinoFreak means a casino that was flagged as being untrustworthy for various reasons. Suspicions of accepting players from illegal jurisdictions, unnecessary delays in payouts, and poor private data management are some of them.
The blacklisted flag is temporary, granted that the casino in question takes steps towards remediating the issue that brought it on our list, to begin with.
What you should remember is we recommend avoiding blacklisted casinos as they can pose plenty of issues, especially to newer players. You don’t have to, but we do see a lot of online casinos every day.
Are Blacklisted Casinos Blacklisted Everywhere?
Casino affiliate sites like CasinoFreak have their own lists of Blacklisted casinos. These brands don’t belong to an industry-wise witch hunt. Each site has its criteria for blacklisting a brand, so it’s quite normal to see different (sometimes even conflicting entries) on our and other people’s blacklists.
The online casinos on our blacklist end up here after a thorough manual verification from our team. There are plenty of issues why a brand might receive a spot on this page, but some of the most common ones are the following.
Online casinos that refuse to pay or needlessly delay paying players their funds are usually added to the blacklist. Our community signals issues with their withdrawals, and then our team puts on their investigator hats and gives the brand a second, more in-depth analysis.
If the complaints regarding payment were warranted, we add the casino to our blacklist so other players know they might face these issues during their gameplay.
Some other common issues with payments that might lead to a casino being blacklisted:
Important to note
Some delays with withdrawals are normal and won’t automatically grant the casino a spot on this list. Issues regarding wagering requirements or delayed jackpot payments are common, and players are typically warned of these possibilities in a casino’s Terms and Conditions.
If you’re looking to withdraw a large sum from a casino, you may expect a verification period and an agreement to receive the funds in instalments, especially for larger sums such as multi-million-pound jackpots.
An operating licence from the local regulatory authority is a must for any casinos operating in regulated markets.
When you’re playing from the UK, where online gambling is legal and subject to various stringent regulations for player safety, you’ll only want to play in an online casino licensed by the United Kingdom Gambling Authority (UKGC).
The UKGC Shield
UK players should remember that licences are not reflective of an online casino’s tax and governance residence. A business in Spain could open an online casino and apply solely for a UKGC licence.
To receive one, it would have to ensure that the casino satisfies UKGC’s guidelines and technical standards for the remote gambling sector. However, the licence only protects UK players. In case of a dispute, a UK player will be backed up by the UKGC and the UK government, but a Spanish player will not.
A UKGC licensed online casino will almost always treat its UK players fairly, but depending on its local legislation, there might be no one to stop players from other jurisdictions from playing there.
The bottom line is that UK players are generally safe playing in a UKGC-licensed casino, even though the casino might have a bad global rating or appear on certain blacklists. Whether you want to play in a casino that doesn’t value your fellow players just as much is up to you, but your safety should be a given.
What about players in countries where online gambling is illegal or happens on a patch of moral gray area?
Players in such jurisdictions, in my experience, might use VPNs and other little tricks to hide where they’re browsing for and access various online casinos. These players put themselves at risk since potential issues with that casino can only be solved by the competent licensing authority in most cases.
Quick Note
Online casinos that operate with no licence, effectively targeting players from jurisdictions where online gambling is illegal, are not to be trusted, and they will almost always get a spot on the blacklist.
Sometimes, licensed casinos might accept players from jurisdictions where online gambling is illegal, whether by intention or lack of accountability. In those cases, we tend to add the casino to our list, even though it has a licence and conducts itself well toward its “legal” players.
We do this because we find it quite common for players to think a licence means that the casino is completely safe when, in reality, a licence doesn’t make a casino safe for everyone. It makes it safe for the people that the licence is meant to protect.
| Offshore Casinos | Gambling establishments that operate in countries or territories outside the jurisdiction of a player’s home country. They usually cater to international player pools and capitalise on more lenient regulations and tax benefits in their host location. |
|---|---|
| Rogue Casinos | Operators that have been proven to engage in dishonest and unfair practices. They might run rigged or fixed games, feature deceptive and predatory terms, often refuse to payout winnings, and are generally a bad time. They operate without licences or regulations with the aim of exploiting players. |
Warning
Remember that iGaming licences from Curacao, Panama, or Costa Rica do not make online casinos legal in the UK or in other regulated jurisdictions. None of these bodies will protect you if the casino goes rogue, offers fixed games, or refuses to pay out your balance.
With the rapid rise of technology, issues with the games’ software are less and less common in online casinos. Before the boom of the online gambling industry, many casinos would rig the games to offer a much smaller Return to Player Rate (RTP) to the advantage of the operator.
Nowadays, this is a lot harder to do. There are independent testing agencies that can ensure the fairness of a casino game collection. These companies check every aspect of the games and monitor their wagers and outputs to ensure that, over a period of time, the games pay according to their mentioned RTP.
In fact, we have a list of eCOGRA casinos, where you’ll find plenty of online operators that receive the eCOGRA Seal of Trust, meaning that their games have proved acceptably random outcomes to be considered completely fair by the agency.
Don’t let this break your focus, though. There are still some rogue casinos out there that will offer hacked versions of popular, trusted casino games. Usually, not for long because game providers nowadays also monitor the performance of their games and will be quick to cancel any partnerships if they discover their games have been tampered with.
Issues regarding bonuses and promotions are much too common in the gambling industry. Sometimes, the complaints are warranted; sometimes, they aren’t.
In many cases, complaints regarding bonuses could be settled if players read the Terms and Conditions of the bonus, cleared their wagering requirements, or paid attention to validity periods.
However, in some cases, online casinos make it hard for players to understand the extent of their offer, either through deceiving promotional terms or by just hiding these conditions and ensuring the player doesn’t know exactly what they’re getting into.
Misleading bonus terms and conditions will always win the casino a spot on our blacklist. We rely on players’ reports and our own regular checks to spot any brand that engages in such practices.
Having predatory or confusing terms and conditions with the purpose of deceiving players is another reason why a casino might end up here.
Sometimes, casinos make updates to their T&Cs pages without notifying players, blindsiding them to important changes that might affect their gameplay. Such changes will almost certainly win the casino a spot on our blacklist.
We believe that players should be immediately notified of any changes in the Terms and Conditions of the site, as these pages generally include important information regarding payments, bonus policies, minimum and maximum withdrawals, and forbidden behaviour on the site.
A change going unnoticed might end up in several players being banned on account of new rules they weren’t aware of. Obviously, this entails a lot of confusion for a player, who might try to get their account reinstated only to be met with the breach of a rule they’ve never even known existed.
The data you share with an online casino is highly sensitive and should be kept confidential. All UK online casinos should agree to protect player data and only share it with competent authorities when prompted by the UK government.
Following Brexit and with effect from January 1st, 2021, the UK stopped being part of the EU, thus replacing the regulatory framework of EU-GDPR with an updated version of the Data Protection Act (2018).
Casinos that don’t take all the necessary precautions to ensure the privacy of their players’ data will almost always end up on the blacklist.
These platforms are frequent victims of cyberattacks, meaning that your data can end up in the wrong hands due to poor management of a casino’s database.
This exposes you to all kinds of fraudulent activities, including identity theft. More often than not, the breaches are not as serious. Some online casinos will even sell your data to various advertising agencies for a profit.
The data they collect would be later used for your consumer profile to fine-tune the kinds of ads you receive. It’s important to check a casino’s Privacy Policy and get accustomed to how they handle and store your personal data and whether the casino has robust measures in place to avoid malicious attacks.
What Do You Risk by Playing at a Blacklisted Casino?
Just because we blacklisted these casinos, it does not mean you can’t use them. We strongly recommend against it, but some people like to see things with their own eyes before forming an opinion.
If you were to play at one of the blacklisted casinos on our site, here are some of the associated risks:
Spotting potential rogue casinos isn’t too hard once you develop an eye for them. Generally, you should be extra careful with casinos where:
In the online gambling industry, we should all be vigilantes. If you spot a casino that might be unsafe for various reasons, you should take the steps to go to the bottom of the issues and protect yourself and other players from potentially foul play.
1. Contact the casino.
Sometimes, a quick chat with the customer service team will help you clear an issue. Misunderstandings can happen, and safe, regulated, and reputable UK online casinos are no strangers to this. Document your issue and explain it to the customer service team.
Freak’s Tip
Dealing with pirates is not a walk in the park. Only contact customer service for a casino that looks legit to solve a personal issue. If your payment was delayed or you had issues with processing a deposit, customer service might help.
Document your interaction by saving e-mails, screenshots, or chat transcripts, but don’t threaten them with legal action. Otherwise, they might be getting their ducks in order temporarily and get on the other side of a dispute unscathed.
Ensure you eliminate the possibility of a misunderstanding, but don’t lay all your cards on the table.
2. Contact the United Kingdom Gambling Commission.
If the casino is licensed by the UKGC, you can contact them directly and file a complaint. The UKGC takes player complaints very seriously, so it won’t be long before you’ll receive a solution to your problem.
3. Contact casino watchdog sites.
There are plenty of casino watchdogs that welcome players to share their experiences so they can warn others of potential dangers. If a resolution was not possible for your problem, you might want to share the story with your fellow gamblers on such sites and other Internet forums and communities.
We encourage our players to leave genuine ratings and reviews for the casinos on our site, so I think this might be a great place to start your complaints marathon.
4. Seek legal counsel.
If you’ve been defrauded or treated unfairly by an online casino and are not willing to let it slide on account of more sizeable losses, you can seek legal advice from a professional. They might be able to guide you through some of the legal actions you can take to solve the issue.
Players should know that CasinoFreak does not accept any form of payment from blacklisted casinos to unlist them or otherwise paint them in a more favourable light.
This being said casinos can certainly escape the CasinoFreak jail if they take the necessary measures to right their wrongs and treat their players fairly.
Unfortunately, this is a rare occurrence. If a casino has landed on our Blacklist, they’ve displayed unethical behaviour toward their players. These behaviours can take several forms, so it will be easier for some casinos than others to eventually prove fair play.
Wrapping up, here are a few handy tips that should help you enjoy a safer experience with online gambling.
The Honorary Tip
Get comfortable with researching gambling problems. Prevention is always better than treatment, so you should make it a priority to learn about Responsible Gambling practices and how to recognise the early signs of a gambling disorder.
