What is the Free-Spins Casino Blacklist?
While we certainly love to promote the casinos that we think are amazing, provide great value and are, most importantly, verifiably fair and legitimate, ultimately our site is not just a marketing tool. Our priority aren’t the casinos – it’s you, our readers, who come to us for trusted, verifiable online casino reviews. Throughout the years you’ve always trusted us to do right by you and offer honest reviews about free spins – and we’ve done our best to earn that trust through rigorous research of any and all casinos that you guys requested to see on the site.
But in the process of that research we’ve discovered that not all casinos are worth presenting to players. Many of them look completely legitimate at first glance, and some of them might offer you amazing no deposit bonuses and unrivaled welcome offers, at the end of the day we inevitably discover that they all have one thing in common – they won’t pay out a penny of your well-earned winnings. We considered the possibility that bringing attention to those casinos is free marketing that they don’t deserve, but at the end of the day, decided that it’s most fair to you, our players, to let you know exactly what they are.
As such, we created our blacklisted casinos list, to clearly and concisely show all the casinos we discovered that we don’t feel comfortable promoting. You can see them below, and while you can’t claim their offers, you’re encouraged to remember their names and logos.
Why Should You Avoid Blacklisted Casinos?
There’s a whole lot of misconceptions surrounding online casinos, especially when it comes to the shadier parts of this industry. Many people think that all casinos are scams, since the house always wins – so why worry about it at all? Others believe that the main characteristic of a scam casino is that you never win. Neither of these claims could be further from the truth.
First of all, to address the elephant in the room, it’s a well-known fact that in a casino the odds are always stacked against you, albeit slightly – after all, if they weren’t, the casino wouldn’t make any profit at all. On top of that, for you to win, someone else must lose – and for someone else to win, you must lose. That’s just how casino games are by nature. But at the end of the day, there’s a colossal difference between having a 49% chance to win and having a 0% chance to win. But that brings us to our next point – do scam casinos have a 0% chance of winning?
Believe it or not, scam casinos are actually more likely to let you win than regular ones! Sounds crazy and totally illogical, right? That’s what they’re counting on as well. Think about it – if you deposit a little bit of cash, but then lose it all quickly, you’re highly unlikely to ever deposit anything else. But what if you deposit and you win? Well, then you’re much more likely to deposit more – especially if you’re trying to reach some high withdrawal limit. “I deposited £10 and won £20, so maybe if I deposit £100 I’ll win £200!” It’s also why so many scam casinos have welcome offers that seem a bit too good to be true.
Fact of the matter is that no matter how much you win, you’ll never see a penny of those winnings. There will be withdrawal delays, or errors, or some other excuse, but your winnings will never be transferred – and unlike in a casino that never lets you win, you’ll only find out after you’ve already deposited (and thus thrown away) a decent amount.
How to Tell that an Online Casino is a Scam
After reading so far, you’re probably thinking “Wait a second, this whole thing sounds very scary! How can I trust any casino now? How can I be sure I’m not being lied to?” Fantastic questions, and we applaud you for asking them! It is our firm belief that everyone should learn how to look out for scams not just in online casinos, but anywhere else. And the absolute best way to ensure that you’re protected from scams is to be educated.
What are some common scams? How do they make you lose money? And most importantly, how can you tell whether something is a scam or fiction? If you get a job offer that sounds a little too good to be true, then there’s a decent chance that it is – but you can’t know for sure. With online casinos, however, there’s actually many ways to tell that a particular casino is not legitimate. And while none are surefire, and there’s plenty of exceptions to the rule, we’ve still decided to outline some red flags that you should look out for. One of these doesn’t mean too much. If you see several, though? Run.
None or Dubious License
Let’s do a little experiment – go to the footer of your favourite casino and check whether it has been licensed by the UK Gambling Commission. If you see their logo you should be able to click on it and see the casino’s certificate of authenticity. In fact, if you want to take it a step further you can go to the Gambling Commission’s homepage and look up the casino there to ensure the license is, in fact, legitimate. All of this is great – the UK Gambling Commission ensures that a casino is legal and fair. It, alongside other organisations like eCOGRA, carefully monitor UK casinos and verify that their games pay out as promised.
But there’s more than one way to be “legal” in the world of online casinos. The Gambling Commission’s license is one of the most “prestige” and legitimate ones, but many casinos will choose a different option. Some are just as good as the UK – Gibraltar’s gambling licenses are considered to be highly respectable and among the best. On the other hand, Curacao will issue a license in just 2-4 weeks (as opposed to the Gambling Commission which will investigate the casino for up to 16 weeks), but on the flipside offers no player protection whatsoever. So always make sure to know who has licensed the casino you’re about to deposit at. For all you know it might be nobody – and a lack of license is a worst case scenario, as that means the casino is illegal and you’d best get out of there fast.
Payment Methods & Behavior
Not all payment methods are created equal, and a glance at the available deposit methods can tell you a whole lot about the legitimacy of an online casino – maybe even more than they’d care to let on. You may be wondering how that works – after all, money is money, and at the end of the day if you get scammed out of it then that’s that, right? Well, that’s not entirely true! Some websites will provide you with payment protection to ensure that your money stays safe even if you get scammed. PayPal’s protection has been extraordinary, and that’s a big part of the reason why people continue to use that service despite its outrageous fees. Neteller and Skrill also offer a considerable amount of fraud protection, and while not as good as the all-encompassing policy of PayPal, being able to deposit with them is still a good sign.
On the other hand, banks can be extremely picky regarding gambling-related refunds. Why? Well, because too many people would want a refund on money that they gambled and lost fairly instead of actual fraud! While credit cards have considerably better customer protection than debit cards, those are also not permitted to be used in online casinos – meaning that if you get scammed from a deposit you make with your debit card you’re at the mercy of your bank (instead of a big organization like Visa or Mastercard) and chances are you won’t get much help – so always be aware of casinos that only allow a debit card as a payment method. And if you see a casino that exclusively offers bitcoin/crypto deposits, just run. These transactions are untraceable and offer no customer protection whatsoever, meaning that if the casino wants to scam you there’s not much there to stop them. Taking the risk just isn’t worth it!
Low Quality Website
Look guys, it’s been a few decades since the advent of the Internet – and it’s never been easier or more convenient to create a good-looking website. We should know, we’re quite proud of our little venture here! Since we’ve dabbled in this ourselves, we know that there are tools which can help you create an inexpensive, well-functioning website, and if you don’t want to deal with that then there’s professionals who will do it for a sum that, for a casino, should be so low it’s almost laughable.
So what conclusions can you draw from an online casino website which looks and functions terribly? What are you supposed to think of an online casino full of flashing lights and pop-ups and slows down every time you click on anything? Well, the most generous conclusion you can draw is that the casino is just too poor to afford to have a proper website built, which is already a big red flag in and of itself. The more realistic conclusion, however, is that the person operating the site also operates a dozen others in order to maximize revenue from gullible gamblers. Which is even more reason to stay away.
But if the site looks great, you’re not out of the woods yet! Look up its terms and conditions and see if they’re present at all, and if they are whether there’s anything funny in them. Make sure that the withdrawal menu looks in order and offers plenty of payment methods you can withdraw your sum to. Ensure that the Contact Us page is present and in order – having a live chat feature and active customer support is a big green flag. And most importantly, check if the footer shows the company operating the site and then Google them. Who knows what you’ll find!
Too Good to be True Bonuses
Here’s the thing about bonuses that nobody will tell you – you’re only supposed to use them to try out the games. It’s why they have such ridiculous wagering requirements which require you to play them through 30 or 40 times before you can withdraw them. It’s also why when you place a bet the casino will automatically use up your bonus amounts first and then your real money – so that you can get a feel for what games are worth playing risk-free. After all, there are many games (like live casino) which you can’t play in demo mode, but can test with your bonus. This is also why most casinos have bonuses that are fairly reasonable – perhaps a 100% or 200% match bonus, or a few dozen free spins, something you can play through quickly enough so that you can start actually placing real money wagers.
So when a casino tries to lure you in with huge promises of a mega bonus which includes a 500% match and 200 free spins for just a meager deposit of £100, obviously something here isn’t working as it’s supposed to. You’d never be able to play through a bonus that big. Well, perhaps there’s another catch related to the wagering requirements? Whaaat? It says nothing at all about any kind of requirements? Well, that sounds like a miracle! But it’s probably a scam that won’t pay you a penny.
Customer Reviews & Feedback
Sometimes, the simplest way to vet an online casino is also the most effective one – just Google it. After all, when someone gets scammed, the first thing they’ll do is post a negative review of the casino, right? There are plenty of sites which aggregate these reviews. Not to mention that, just as we specialize in good online casinos that we feel comfortable recommending, there are other sites which specialize in exactly the opposite – warning people of scam casinos. Those reviews will quickly pop up with a simple Google search.
Now, it’s important to keep in mind that every single online casino will have its fair share of negative reviews, since plenty of disgruntled players who lost their money fair and square will feel entitled to complain about it. But when it comes to scam casinos, the negative reviews will greatly outnumber the positive ones. If you feel in doubt, just use your gut. Remember – your safety and comfort are the priority here! A casino may be 100% legitimate, but if you don’t feel comfortable playing there for one reason or another, your best bet is to simply not do it and find an alternative.
What to Do In Case You Get Scammed?
What happens if this article reaches you too late and you were already scammed? Well, the bad news is that you might not be able to recover the money that you deposited. As we mentioned above, it’s actually pretty hard to recover lost casino deposits, intentionally so – as the idea is to deter salty losers from reclaiming money they’re not rightfully entitled to. But that doesn’t mean scam victims shouldn’t try to anyway – worst case scenario, you end up right where you started.
If you deposited using an e-wallet service, then the chances of recovering the funds are much greater than with any other method – most e-wallets have an “open dispute” button built within them, sometimes as a separate button and sometimes as an option when you view the transaction in question. Be prepared to provide details if asked, but generally these types of services will rule in favor of the “buyer” and refund the money.
If you deposited using your bank account, well, you’ll be fighting an uphill battle. Go to your bank and report a fraudulent transaction, and be sure to bring plenty of evidence that you have money in your account and the casino is refusing to let you withdraw. Make it very clear that you don’t care about the winnings and just want your original deposit back. Sadly, most banks’ fraud departments are more concerned with stolen identity and banking details than clients falling to scams, so there’s a small chance you’ll receive your refund. But the chance isn’t zero, and worst case scenario maybe your bank can let you know where you can submit a signal.
If you deposited using cryptocurrency, like bitcoin, sadly your money is lost in the bits and bytes of cyberspace, and only a famous netrunner like Johnny Silverhand can retrieve it now. At the moment it’s best to forget about it and consider it a fee paid for lessons learned, but maybe something can be done about it in the year 2077.
How to Report Fraud?
Whether you were able to get your money back or not, it’s important to remember that there are many other ways to help your fellow gamblers – and, if you’re petty enough, to get some revenge against the casino that screwed you over.
First and most importantly – if the fraud casino is licensed by Gibraltar, Gambling Commission and/or eCOGRA, it’s important to immediately report them to those organizations. While they won’t be able to give you your money back, and chances are you might not even hear anything about your case afterwards, we assure you that measures will be taken to punish the fraudulent casino and protect other gamblers from falling to the same scam.
On top of that, organizations like ActionFraud have their own helplines and report forms which you can use to issue a formal complaint against a casino. These types of organizations are staffed by professionals in gambling fraud, meaning that they know how to best process your complaints and alert the proper authorities, who will then issue sanctions against the casino. Worst case scenario for them is that the casino might be blocked from operating in the UK and receive hefty fines.
Online message boards and casino review sites are a fantastic way to make your voice heard and let other players know that a certain casino is a scam. Google is a great way to find relevant forums where you can air your frustrations. It’s best to use Google than stick to certain websites because due to the way Google ranks its pages the chances of someone stumbling upon your review when researching the casino are much higher if you submit that review at one of the top results.
Finally, if you first found out about the fraudulent casino from Free-Spins, make sure to use the Contact Us form in the footer to reach out to us and let us know what happened. If you’re able to provide us with proof of a certain casino’s misdeeds then we’d be more than happy to remove it from our listing and issue a warning that the casino is not legitimate. Many of the casinos you see in the blacklisted list at the top of the page were added there after credible reports from players. So don’t hesitate to let us know!
What Are Some Trusted Online Casinos?
That was a whole lot of negativity out there, huh? How can you possibly trust any online casino when fraud is apparently so widespread? Well, believe it or not, things aren’t nearly as scary as you might think! A lot of the more fraudulent online casinos wallow in obscurity and get their clients from scam e-mails and recommendations from shady sites. But word of mouth is the best marketing tool – and so many of the most popular online casinos, ones which have endured throughout the years, are completely trustworthy. Here are a few of the best online casinos – verified and 100% fraud-free!
Netbet
Netbet has truly built itself a reputation as being one of the best online casinos in the UK, and upon closer examination, it’s not at all hard to see why. They offer a variety of withdrawal and deposit options, from PayPal to bitcoin, and have an award-worthy customer support team which is there to assist you if you have any questions or concerns. On top of that their bonus is generous without seeming like overkill, giving players who like free spins a lot of bang for their buck. Combine this with a stellar game selection and a well-functional site on both mobile and desktop and you’ve got yourself a winner!
888 Casino
One of the most popular online casinos, and with good cause – it hits all the marks! Its iconic black and green design is easy on the eyes and instantly recognizable, it has plenty of exclusive games which you can’t find anywhere else, and you can get a bonus every day of the week instead of just when you sign up. And if you don’t want to actually spend any money, but still wish to experience everything the casino has to offer, then no worries – just open a demo account. It works exactly the same as a regular one, but lets you play around with “demo” money. In a way, it’s like an unlimited bonus!
LeoVegas
When it comes to LeoVegas, you may have arrived for the free spins without deposit, but you’ll stay for everything else! LeoVegas has one of the most impressive selections of slots out of any UK online casino, and all of them are playable on both mobile and desktop. Its bonuses are clear and transparent, and often associated with slots and free spins – making the site a great fit for slot fans. The fact that the only thing wrong with LeoVegas that we found after our rigorous research is that fans of traditional card games like poker might be disappointed by the lack of bonuses for them should be very telling of the casino’s overall quality!
- Top-notch software providers
- Live chat
- Mobile-friendly design
