One bad apple can spoil a whole bunch, so can you imagine what several bad apples can do? In this section we will cover the warning signs of a bad online casino. Unfortunately, like some bad apples that look delicious on the oustide but are rotten on the inside, some online casinos mask their dishonesty with a fancy website and a professional look. Take precaution and know what to look for to avoid being deceived by casinos that are just not pulling their weight in the industry.

Bad casinos are not licensed

Some casinos do not have legitimate gambling licenses. Some alter real licenses from other casinos, insert their casino/company names in the appropriate space, and post them on their websites. Talk about audacity! Unfortunately, Players fall for these tricks because they don't gather any information on the casino BEFORE depositing and playing there. Online Gaming Jurisdictions have the infrastructure in place to legally host licensed casinos.

Watch out for SPAM

Bad Casinos do not provide you with an opt-out mailing list option in the sign up process but, rest assured, they will email you with advertisements and other communication about promotional offers nearly every day after you register. Some may even call you all hours of the day or night to find out why you haven't played with them recently. Despite numerous emails that you send asking to be removed from their mailing list, they won't stop. Some casinos even sell your personal information to 3rd parties. This is a violation of your privacy and a breach of their own terms.

Bad casinos make up the rules along the way

Terms and Conditions that are posted on their website are very confusing and unclear or have tons of rules attached to them. They do this so that they can insert clauses when it is time to pay a legitimate winner. If the Terms of a bonus or promotion are difficult to understand, contact Customer Support before you give your money over, because getting it back might be more of a hassle than you are prepared to deal with.

Unfair Play for Fun Games

In the hopes of attracting Players to their Real Play version, bad casinos will highly promote their Play for Fun games which are rigged to pay out at a high percentage. Of course, when the Players switch to the Play for Real mode, they get a rude awakening. BEWARE!

So, we've told you what to look for in a bad casino. Now, we will take it a step further and give you a list of reported rogue casinos. These casinos are not recommended by Monarch Gaming because they have a bad reputation for not paying out winnings, for horrendous customer service, and for shady terms and conditions. Don't waste your time at these casinos. Only gamble with real money at secure, reputable, and honest casinos.

Casinos that have made it to Monarch Gaming's Casino Blacklist include (german version is available):

• 50 Stars Casino - This casino is a member of the iGlobal Media Entertainment group of companies and was constantly getting bad press in 2006 for their treatment of players whom they termed as bonus hunters. However, these players were not bonus hunters at all. They deposited, met and in some cases surpassed the wagering requirements, and withdrew. 50 Stars Casino did not want to pay them and termed them bonus hunters. Also a part of iGlobal Media are: CasinoKing.com, CasinoLasVegas.com, and MagicBoxCasino.com, all of whom we have received bad reviews about from our site visitors.


• Bet Royal Casino - A webmaster friend of ours had a serious delayed payment issue with Bet Royal. He won a small sum of money (a little over $300 - nothing to talk about but it was still HIS money) and cashed out using NETeller. He didn't receive the payment within a week. He emailed Customer Support 5 times and they did not reply to any of his emails. He resorted to trying to get an answer from his Affiliate Manager. That took nearly a week. After 6 weeks of waiting, he finally got his payment. The icing on the cake was that he was an Affiliate of Bet Royal! Now if Bet Royal cannot even bother to answer emails from their Affiliates, especially when they concern payments, there is no justifiable reason for sending our visitors to them. Monarch Gaming does not tolerate casinos that treat their players in this fashion.


• Black Widow Casino - Black Widow Casino is powered by Playtech, but just because they use reputable software, does not mean that the casino management is honest and upright. Black Widow, Grand Banks, and Sterling House casinos belong to the PlaySafe Holdings AS group and are renowned for late payments to players. Late is the operative word in this instance, because some players from these casinos have had to wait up to a year to get their winnings! Pretty ridiculous for a casino that takes deposits in seconds.


• Cool Cat Casino - A member of Cirrus Casino & Co., Cool Cat Casino is one of the worst casinos to hit the internet gambling market. There are several sites dedicated to speaking out on this casino, mostly about their non payment or delayed payments to players. To cover up their deceit, they pay players who win small amounts, but make it outrageously difficult for those who win big amounts. You can read about our personal experience with Cool Cat Casino here.


• Fortune Junction Casino - Fortune Junction is a member of the Grand Prive group of companies, such as Casino Grand Bay and Big Dollar Casino. Like Black Widow Casino, Fortune Junction and its sister casinos use the very reputable Microgaming software for their games, which are excellent, but their Customer Service gets 2 thumbs down. Emails go unanswered for endless periods of times. They have a host of phone and fax numbers on the Support page of their site but what is the point if your issue always needs an email follow up to be resolved? And remember, emails are not answered for days on end. Pointless!


• Games4money - This site was brought to our attention by players who never got paid, so we did some research to find out who they are. Guess what we found out? NOTHING! We don't know what software provider they use, whether they have their own proprietary software, whether they're licensed, if their games and financials are audited. We know nothing of Games4money, except that they are a "registered legal business located in San Jose, the capital city of Costa Rica". This came directly from their website but who knows if this is true. Whether or not they're registered in Costa Rica, has no bearing on their license or the fairness of their games. That, coupled with the fact that they don't pay, is enough to land them on our casino blacklist.
• Golden Arch Casino - If the word SPAM only existed in 2008, then we'd have to say that Golden Arch Casino invented the name, because it was that year that Golden Arch began spamming their players. Also the fact that they have games from Real Time Gaming posted in the Games section of their site but use the gambling software from AST Gaming Solutions sounds a bit shady to us.


• Silver Star Casino - This casino does not pay its Affiliates. How do we know? We used to be one of their Affiliates. What is an Affiliate? He or she is an advertising partner for a casino. The Affiliate sends players to the casino via advertising banners, buttons, or text links on the Affiliate site and, in return, the Affiliate is paid commissions from the casino. We sent several depositing players over to Silver Star Casino but never saw a dime. Because of this we do not trust that they will pay their players either and would not feel confident in promoting them as a good casino on our site. Stay away from Silver Star Casino!


• Slots Alley Casino - We have received numerous reports about the crooked software used in their games. Slots Alley has been around for roughly 7 years (the casino was launched in 2002) and they use the questionable Casinova Software Ltd. platform for their games. They are not a transparent and properly regulated online casino. The payout percentages are in the 98% mark, so they say, but the payouts are not verified by a 3rd party testing facility. Moreover, if you click on the last payout percentage posted on their site, it is dated January 2007. Also, if you play their Blackjack games, you will bust 95% of the time; no matter how many sessions you play. Now REALLY!! I wouldn't trust my money there - the negatives clearly outweigh the positives.


• Zex Casino - If I didn't know any better, I would swear that Zex Casino was a bad prank. First off, the website design is very unprofessional. When you register, they send you a Welcome Email with only your registered username and, not even contact info. They post on their website that their payouts are reviewed by Independent Auditors but you can't click on this button to find out more information. There is a scrolling winners list on their Home Page but you can't click on it to get more information, just like the Payout Percentages. There are 3 Progressive Jackpots listed on the Home Page as well, but guess what? You can't click on those either, so you don't know what jackpots they refer to. And, the so-called Progressives don't increase periodically, which is an indication that people are actually playing the games in that Jackpot network. In fact, we don't even know if there is a network. The parent company is iX Entertainment Corp but iX seems to be MIA because we can't find any information anywhere on the Internet about them. They certainly don't have a website that we can find. We're not too sure about their Customer Service. Live Help is only available from 12:30pm - 2:30am GMT, so if something goes wrong with a game outside of those times, you'll have to wait til the next day for a resolution, hopefully! Email support is supposedly available 24/7 but we're not sure of their response time. Zex is licensed in Panama. I don't think I've heard of a casino being licensed in Panama since the late 1990s. We could go on and on but there isn't enough space to list all the negatives about Zex. The only thing we can say is DON'T play at Zex!!!

Good casinos do not have the bad traits we mentioned above. Find out what to look for in reputable casinos. Want information on Gaming Jurisdictions?

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