Online casinos faking licenses from trusted regulators are becoming a growing concern. Learn more about this new phenomenon and how to protect against it with GamblersPick.
With the rise of licensed online gambling, we saw an increasing number of online casinos that would continue to target players in regulated markets despite not holding a license. This reality has seen online gambling regulators begin to roll out large numbers of fines. Not only do they dole out many individual penalties, but the amounts of these fines are incredible.
The Dutch gaming regulator, Ksa, has handed out approximately 30 million euros in fines in 2023 alone. While it is true that 26 million Euros of this total come from legal cases that began almost two years ago, it is still an incredible amount of money that is being generated not by licensing itself but by fines and fees charged to those targeting their residents from regulated jurisdictions.
Casino Are Faking Being Licensed
More recently, however, there has been an increasingly insidious new development in the world of unregulated online gambling. This new movement sees gaming operators faking the fact that they are licensed.
Here is an example of the MGA disavowing a relationship with an operator targeting players in the Netherlands:
Quote“The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) is hereby declaring that it has no connection with ommer-automaten.nl. Any reference to the MGA and/or gaming licence/s said to be issued by the Maltese Authority, as stated by ommer-automaten.nl is false and misleading.”
These sites intend to take advantage of well-intentioned players who want to follow their local regulations and therefore seek out licensed gaming sites. However, these players need to be made aware that these casinos are faking that they have been approved to provide games of chance in their region.
Fake Providers Try to Scam Casinos As Well
This abuse of the licensing system is not limited to online casinos trying to attract players. Unscrupulous companies are looking to scam operators into using their services.
An example of this is PayWayGlobal, a processing company that MGA had to announce was not licensed as they claimed.
Quote“The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) is hereby declaring that it has no connection with paywayglobal.com. Any reference to the MGA and/or gaming licence/s said to be issued by the Maltese Authority, as stated by paywayglobal.com is false and misleading.”
The payment service business in the above example claimed to be based in Manama, Bahrain. However, since the MGA post, their website has shut down defunct, and their social media accounts have gone quiet.
Play Safe with GamblersPick
When it comes to safely enjoying your favourite online casino games and getting the best welcome bonuses on the internet, you need a trusted partner who will do all the heavy lifting for you.
At GamblersPick, our team of online gambling experts take the time to scrutinise every gaming site we list, which includes checking the following:
We take this scrutiny even further when awarding our 
Seal of Approval. Only a limited number of sites receive this accolade as we appraise applicants on the following 5 metrics.
Site Trustworthiness
Overall Customer Experience
Player Safety & Security
Withdrawals Processing
Casino Game Selection
Visit our GamblersPick Select page to learn more about the Select award process and to find your next trusted online casino partner. You can always trust that their licenses are valid and that your local gambling authority regulates them.
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