UK players are spoiled for choice when it comes to online casinos. We can select from thousands of fantastic gambling sites, each providing a fun and secure way to enjoy our favourite games. However, not every casino has a spotless record. Some try to cut corners to make a quick penny. Fortunately, such dishonest websites are quickly discovered and punished.
Join us as we go over everything you need to know about blacklisted UK casinos. We define what a blacklisted casino is, why you should avoid them, and whether these gambling sites can redeem themselves.
A blacklisted casino is a website that operates without a license and is not trustworthy. This can be due to many reasons, such as unfair terms and conditions, withholding payouts, or unauthorized software.
You can think of these casinos as scam sites that entice you to deposit money. That isn’t always obvious – that a site is basically trying to scam you. Many blacklisted gambling sites run unofficial versions of popular games to get you to spend your deposited funds.
Problems arise the moment you try to withdraw your winnings. You’ll run into every excuse on the planet to prolong the process. Eventually, you’ll find your account closed and support staff no longer replying to your messages and calls. With no gambling regulator overseeing the website, you have no one to help you get your money back.
Our team is very proactive with tracking and blacklisting UK online casinos that do not adhere to minimum standards. Below, we outline what gets gambling sites in our bad books. That way, you’ll be able to spot suspicious casinos even if we don’t have reviews up yet.
Lack of Licenses
The first thing we check when reviewing any online casino is whether it has a UK-compatible license. If the UK Gambling Commission has not cleared the website, we will not recommend it to our readers.
False or Hidden Credentials
Another essential thing to check is if the casino is open about its credentials. If you can’t find any information about the gambling site’s parent company anywhere, it’s cause for concern. Avoid any UK-facing online casinos that don’t disclose their owners.
Withholding Payouts
Blacklisted casinos will drag their feet with payouts or refuse to hand them over outright. You will also find websites that prevent you from withdrawing more than you deposited.
Greedy and Unfair Practices
Gambling sites can give themselves an unfair advantage over players in many ways. They can offer impossibly high wagering requirements or have loosely defined terms that are easy to break. Shady operators do this to deny players bonus winnings or to stop them from cashing out.
Questionable Software
Licensed online casinos offer games from established brands, such as Evolution and Play’n GO. Meanwhile, blacklisted websites often use games from no-name developers that have a much lower RTP.
Misleading Bonus Requirements
This is an all too common trick shady casinos use to deny paying out bonus-related winnings. The most common way such gambling sites do this is by pairing steep playthrough requirements with a short completion period. A 60x wagering requirement is not ideal, but it’s still doable if you’re given a month to complete it.
However, finishing it in just a week is next to impossible.
Lack of Privacy and Security Measures
Excellent security is a must for any online casino. After all, a failure on their end could result in your payment information or personal data being accessed by hackers. That’s why you should only pick websites that use encryption when processing payments or any identifying information.
Poor Customer Service
Customer support in blacklisted casinos is the opposite of helpful. They usually give you conflicting information and stall to keep you playing for as long as possible. That’s assuming they respond in the first place, as many will be radio silent to any questions you send.
Lack of Transparency All Around
Trying to find your way around a gambling site shouldn’t be an exercise in patience. The customer support email shouldn’t be buried at the bottom of a FAQ page. The casino’s license and owner should also be easily visible and not hidden in the terms and conditions. If a website is actively hiding information from you, there’s usually something underhanded going on.
Yes, casinos can redeem themselves and become trusted sites again. However, that happens very rarely. Once a website’s reputation is stained with a blacklisted seal, it’s tough to come back from that. Such casinos are often abandoned after a while, with their owners starting a new venture. That said, motivated management can work hard to improve the gambling site’s reputation.
Because of that, our staff frequently revisit all gambling sites we review to ensure all information at Top10CasinoReview is up to date. If a blacklisted casino cleans up its act, we’re more than happy to drop the label and give them a fair shot. Similarly, if a previously reputable website introduces unfair terms or starts withholding payouts, we’ll quickly add it to the blacklisted pile.
The best way to see the difference between reputable UK casinos and blacklisted gambling sites is to look at a detailed comparison. The table below will give you an idea of just how bad of a deal you’re getting from shady casinos.
| Reputable Casinos | Blacklisted Casinos |
| Licensed by the UKGC | No license |
| Fast payouts | Withdrawals are withheld |
| Transparent about their parent company | Hide or falsify information about themselves |
| Offers high-quality and fair games | Has unfair games |
| Works with licensed software providers | Uses software from developers not authorized to operate in the UK |
| Excellent security | Weak security |
| Fantastic promotions with fair terms and conditions | Bonuses that seem great at first glance but have terms that are rigged against the player |
| Customer support is helpful and easy to contact | Support staff will either not respond or will offer unhelpful advice |
| Other players have left positive reviews about the casino | Only negative player reviews or no reviews at all |
If something seems too good to be true, that’s because it is. That is almost always true with shady websites, whose massive but unfair bonuses are designed to take your money. However, there’s always a catch with blacklisted casinos. It may not be evident right away, but it will show its ugly head eventually. It may appear in many forms. That includes unfair games or being given the run around with withdrawals.
Because of that, we advise everyone to stick to UKGC-licensed online casinos. The regulator only gives out its approval if the website follows all of its guidelines. To sum up, if you don’t see the Gambling Commission license anywhere on the gambling site, it might be a rogue casino trying to trick you.
Fortunately, you don’t have to go out and look for legitimate websites on your own. Here at Top10CasinoReview, our top casino lists only include licensed online casinos with excellent reputations. If you’re looking for the best experience on a proven fair site, choose one of our recommended UK casinos.
Yes, it absolutely is. As long as you choose an online casino that has a UKGC license, you won’t run into any issues. Regulated websites will have the Gambling Commission logo on the bottom of their home page that links to the UKGC’s website when clicked.
If they aren’t licensed, there isn’t much you can do. These websites are usually registered offshore, outside of the UK’s jurisdiction. Because of that, it’s essential to avoid shady casinos.
While a lack of license is a red flag, it isn’t enough to instantly put a gambling site on the blacklist. We do this for online casinos with a proven track record of being hostile to their players. If the website withholds wins and offers unfair games, it will quickly find itself blacklisted by Top10CasinoReview staff.
The answer to this question will vary from player to player. If the website has been taken off the blacklist, that means our staff confirmed all shady activity has ceased. However, many punters are wary of engaging with a gambling site that’s been blacklisted before. With so many fantastic online casinos without any reputation issues, you’re likely to have a better experience if you choose a website with a clean record.
Our staff frequently revisit all gambling sites we reviewed to ensure we offer the most recent information. The same is true for blacklisted casinos, where we monitor if the website has acquired a UKGC license or has changed management. Thanks to that, you can rest assured our list is as up-to-date as it gets and will never lead you astray.
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