Elka Software Systems: Any casino that uses this software is not using a fair game of blackjack. I had one of their casinos on the top of my list for a short time period. Mad Bonus offered 150% bonus up to 450 with only 12x play through. The house edge on the rules they use is only 0.10%. I expected my players to clean up. Well, guess what happened? Almost ALL of my players lost. My site was new then, and the numbers just didn't look right. A few of my players sent me their game logs, and the numbers were outrageous. When I contacted management to review the game logs, they told me they were not available (although the website says they ARE available for review if requested.) In short, I don't trust the software one bit. The blackjack game is fixed, and avoid ALL Elka casinos at all costs. You can recognize an Elka software casino based on it's banking system: all Elka casinos use "EcashServices, or Ecashpay." Avoid these casinos at all costs:
Internet Casino Network: These casinos are very shady. Although I never had any complaints from any of my players, I just don't trust them. The first casino I ever won more than a $1000 was at Casino Joes. In order to get paid, it took almost 6 weeks of hair raising phone calls and emails. However, I did eventually get paid. So why am I blacklisting them? Well, I then became an affiliate of theirs. I watched as people played, and it looked like they owed me a couple of hundred bucks. One day, I tried logging on to my account, and voila, it was no longer there. I attempted to contact the "secret" phone number I had acquired earlier, but the phone was disconnected. After at least a dozen emails later, I started to see the picture. If the casino management is willing to do this to an affiliate, I can only imagine they could to it to a player, too. Avoid at all costs:
RichWebmaster Casinos: These casinos have dangerous management. They once sent me an exclusive offer for blackjack to send to all my players of buy $100, get $200 free. Then, every player who tried to claim the bonus, they said something like this: "That bonus was for invited players only. You were not on the list and should not have received the bonus." Eventually, the management caved in and gave the offer, but that's only for the people that wrote to me about the problem. I don't know if anyone never got the bonus that didn't write to me, the management may have scared them off. Also, they are extremely slow payers. One player wrote to me: "they told me 7-10 business days. It has been 15 business days so far, still no payment. Now they say they have a backlog of neteller payments." What the heck is a "backlog" of payments anyway? The manager at Grand Banks did respond to this complaint acknowledging the complaint, but they didn't mention changing their policies. I still believe they severely delay payments if you win, and may not even pay at all. Avoid at all costs!
Wager 21: After complaints from a few players, I did some research. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like these guys are safe to play anymore. The manager has not returned my emails, and the phone number he provided isn't working. I had been asked to look into a player complaint, which I am unable to resolve due to the lack of communication. I would typically place a casino on probation for something like this, but the other watchdog sites have identified other problems. Casinomeister notes several trademark infringements and odd relationships between the casinos, software maker, and payment processor. In short, while I used to think this was one of the better online casinos to play, I no longer feel safe playing at them. Avoid at all costs!
Crystal Group: Here's another case where a casino does not want to honor the terms of it's bonus offers. It seems anyone who plays here, receives a bonus, and wins money is labeled a "bonus abuser." The bonus already has a clause that makes it much more difficult to get any type of advantage by requiring a player to make withdrawals only for amounts great than the initial deposit PLUS the bonus money. Even worse, management has refused payment of winnings to multiple players labeling them bonus abusers. They do at least return the initial deposit money. One more problem, they claim they are using affiliated sites to determine if a player is a bonus abuser, ie, other casinos. However, some players have told me this is the first casino they ever played, and they were still labeled a bonus abuser. Finally, after informing the management about these problems and requesting payment for the clicks delivered (I never got paid, either), the owner of the casino responded with this: "I do not appreciate the tone so F---- YOU send your f---ing bonus
beating traffic elsewhere we wanted to discontinue you as an affiliate ages
ago your players are useless and your site is f---ed!" (I put in the dashes for the filter). Does this sound like a safe place to play to you? I don't think so.... avoid at all costs!
Online gambling can be risky, especially if the online casino is cheating. Thanks to the OBG Forum, and my own personal experiences, we have been able to identify multiple problem casinos.
I have divided the casinos into 2 groups: Blacklisted (Avoid at all costs) and Probation (Avoid).
My standard for placing a casino on this page is based upon whether or not I myself feel comfortable playing at the casino. I am most concerned with getting paid and winning, and I am willing to put up with some other minor problems. My feeling is if I play, win, and eventually get paid within a reasonable amount of time, then the casino won't make my blacklist or probation list.
Casino Bar: Slow Payment on my winnings. Over 8 weeks to collect my winnings.
Bonus Masters: This group owns multiple real time gaming joints. These casinos have some of the best bonuses, but beware! They are a dangerous management team and label players "advantage" players if you win! If you make any sort of cash out at one of their casinos, they label you an "advantage" player immediately at the others. Why do they have such easy rules to beat if they don't want players who like bonuses? If you don't want to attract bonus hunters, change your rules! Although, I can say that I haven't heard anything about players not being paid, yet. Yet, I was burned once after making a deposit, I was told my bonus money was on its way. After losing my initial deposit, I found out they weren't going to give me the bonus money because I was an advantage player. So, if you feel like you still want to play these casinos, make sure you wait until the bonue money is in your account before playing. Please note, these casinos have changed their names (I wonder if all the bad reputations are hurting business?) I have placed the new and old names for each casino.
Winward Casinos: I have placed this casino on the probation list after receiving a complaint from a player who had either lost or pushed 32 hands in a row. I thought this was unusual, so I asked the player to request a playing log. He forwarded the playing log to me, and I verified the poor streak with the casino. I discussed the case with my contact at the casino. He informed me that this was a normal playing log, and they had several other players who had similar streaks. He said they also had several player with winning streaks this long, too. He saw no reason why this should be a problem. Yet, these streaks are extemely improbable, mathematically. I estimate the chances of winning 32 hands in row at 1 in 4 TRILLION! Granted, the log I verified would be a little more mathematically possible. Also, my stats from the casino shows players are doing rather well here. Then again, the software seems extremely streaky, and caution is advised!
