The Online Casino Sites Aussies Should Avoid At All Costs

One of the undoubtedly great things about online gambling in Australia is the endless choice of casino sites on offer that you can access yourself at home - and on the move on your mobile. It's an Aussie gamblers dream. But what happens when a site isn't as good as it seems? Or it's just downright corrupt and illegitimate?

Unfortunately, not all online casinos in Australia - or around the world for that matter - are created equal. For every legitimate online casino that exists, there's sadly an equally deceiving one that doesn't play fair.

That's why we take the time to personally check out all of the top quality casinos we feature, to separate the truly good, from the bad and the ugly. We do this against a strict set of criteria, which forms the basis of what we've come to expect from a top performing online casino. If a casino we trial fails on one or more of these areas then it makes it onto our blacklist and you know to stay away.

Why We Blacklist Casinos

Withholding Pay-Outs

Not paying a player what they have rightfully won is a cardinal sin in our eyes. If a casino drags its heels over payments, taking weeks or even months to cough up the cash, or if they fail to pay out entirely, then they'll swiftly find themselves on our blacklist.

False Offers

You know those sign-up incentives and bonus rewards you receive when you open an account at an online casino? They're usually so great, they almost sound too good to be true. Well, in the case of a blacklisted casino they are. Any online casino that falsely promotes an offer that turns out to be impossible to redeem will receive a blacklist status from us.

Spam Communication

Fair enough, contact us if you've got a special promotion coming up, or if you've made some important changes you need to alert us to, but sending out multiple communications day after day, even when we've repeatedly unsubscribed, is not cool in our books. We take marketing practices extremely seriously. If an Australian online casino can't adhere to this, then they're blacklisted.

Rigged "randomness"

There you are betting with your real Aussie Dollars, thinking that you know the odds you're betting with, when secretly the online casino you're playing at isn't using random generating software. In fact, the RNG doesn’t exist at all. Duping players into thinking games are fair and random when they're not constitutes dodgy practise to the extreme.

Questionable Operating Standards

If a casino doesn't have a decent customer service centre, or if a player is finding their complaints go unanswered and unresolved, then the casino in question is automatically blacklisted in our eyes. Likewise, if they aren't endorsed by a recognised industry authority, or they're constantly changing their terms and conditions. All of these are dishonest practices, and lack of transparency equals a blacklist status where we're concerned.

Blacklisted Aussie Casinos Online to Stay Away From

Following our real-time testing, the following are a handful of the Australian online casinos our reviewers deemed necessary to add to our blacklist. This means that when it came to the fair practise criteria that we rate all of our online casinos against, the following sites seriously failed in one or more areas.

Site	Status	Our verdict
Casino Fortune	Out of Business	It's no wonder this site went under. Reports were flying around about confiscated funds, slow pay-outs, and denied withdrawals. Sadly, a lot of players never saw their winnings and were left out of pocket. Some to the tune of thousands of dollars.
Gold VIP Casino	Out of Business	When in operation this casino repeatedly committed a blacklist cardinal sin by repeatedly spamming its players. It eventually went on to fold, but not before it had plagued hundreds of thousands of its members' inboxes with daily dodgy marketing practices.
Lady Dream Casino	Avoid	Lady Dream Casino is one of the few remaining Wager21 software casinos. The site was exposed as deliberately misleading players by making free play games easier than the real cash equivalents. This malpractice led to Lady Dream Casino receiving a web-wide blacklist status. Remarkably, this shady casino still remains in operation today.
Card Spike	Out of Business	This now defunct rogue poker casino had one of the dodgiest operational standards in the business. Customers with legitimate complaints and concerns would find their emails repeatedly ignored and unacknowledged. Unsurprisingly the majority of these enquiries related to missed pay-outs, and the site eventually ceased all operations, leaving hundreds of angry players out of pocket.
21 Dukes Casino	Avoid	On the surface Dukes 21 looks just like any legitimate online casino, with an attractive incentive bonus and promises of big prizes. Unfortunately the site has been plagued by player complaints of slow and denied payouts as well as shoddy customer service.
Absolute Poker	Out of Business	In its heyday, Absolute Poker was one of the biggest and most popular sites around, notching up thousands of members. That was, until, a massive cheating scandal was revealed that toppled this rogue site and closed it down for good.
Atlantic Vegas Casino	Out of Business	This now defunct casino misled members by falsely claiming to be legitimately fully licensed by one of the leading international gambling associations. This claim was exposed when the casino began accepting players from outside the jurisdictions of its so-called license, a move that sealed Atlantic Vegas Casino's fate and put it out of business for good.
Balzac Casino	Avoid	Still in operation, this blacklisted casino is a prime example of how a dodgy casino can look like the real deal on the surface. Despite its claims of massive jackpots, this casino has repeatedly been accused of failing to pay out its players time and time again.
Brandy Casino	Avoid	Brandy Casino claims to be one of the best online casinos in the world, but we find that hard to swallow considering its marketing falls far short of best practice. For all its claims of greatness, this online casino has been known to repeatedly spam message boards and that's not ok in our eyes.
Betport	Out of Business	It was only a matter of time before this dodgy online casino operation met its demise. When in operation it made a habit of closing down players accounts and seizing funds to the tune of thousands from individuals. Its days were always going to be numbered.
Carnival Casino	Avoid	This casino lures players in with promises of big bonuses but once you've taken the bait you'll find those aforementioned cash prizes a little difficult to land. Complicated T&C's that are constantly subject to change make it almost impossible to claim that illusive bonus incentive.
DollaroPoker	Avoid	Where to begin with DollaroPoker? Type their name into a search engine and you'll be met with entry after entry about confiscated funds and affiliates who were denied payouts. They claim to not be a scam operation but we think cheating players out of legitimate wins and treating their affiliates unfairly is the mark of a shady site.
Games4Money	Avoid	This online casino is still trading but we've heard reports of winnings disappearing from bankrolls and players receiving threats when challenging this practice. We say better safe than sorry so this one makes it onto our blacklisted sites to avoid list.
Giant Vegas Casino	Out of Business	This casino has ceased all operations and we say good riddance. Apart from accusations that terms and conditions surrounding bonus claims and withdrawals were unfair, we also encountered a series of payout denials when we road tested this casino.
Goldbetting	Avoid	Gold Betting has been accused of making its free play games deliberately easier to lure players into parting with their real cash, only to discover when the stakes are higher, the game play gets harder. Rigging games to falsely attract players is a big no no in our eyes.
Goldgate Casino	Out of Business	Not to be confused with the legit Golden Gate Casino, the now rightfully defunct goldgatecasino.com folded after players repeatedly reported the casino as failing to pay out. Unsurprisingly its customer service was also the source of many a complaint, namely the fact that it failed to respond to any communication.
Jackpot247	Avoid	Failing in more than one area of our reviews process was always going to result in Jackpot247 being blacklisted by us but it appears we aren't the only ones to be let down. Our players have reported various issues with this online casino including unfair operating practices and deliberately misleading T&C's.
Legends Sports	Out of Business	When in operation, Legends Sports was met with accusations that its software wasn't legitimate and games were rigged to deliberately mislead players. The claims were subsequently proven to be true and Legends Sports swiftly took a nose dive, quickly disappearing from the online casino scene.
Lock Casino	Avoid	You only have to click on Lock Casino's site to know that something isn't right about this shady operation. It's guilty of dragging out payouts over weeks and months, and nothing makes our blood boil faster than having to wait to claim our legitimate winnings.
Lovelotto	Avoid	Lovelotto is the sister site to Betport (who featured earlier on our blacklist). This affiliation with a known rogue online casino was all the reason we needed to slap a blacklist on this untrustworthy operation.
Oceans Online Casino	Avoid	Sure, you can play over 90 different casino games on this site, but bet with a single cent of your real money and you'll be wishing you hadn't. Oceans Online Casino has been hit with repeated angry accusations of denied payouts, with players having to concede that they'll never see their real money again.
Ruby Seven	Avoid	This flashy looking casino might seem like a legit operation on the surface but our reviews team uncovered evidence of shady bonus practices that make it impossible to cash in on the incentive being touted to attract new players.
Smartlive Casino	Avoid	Smartlive has been the subject of multiple disputes over denied and confiscated payouts of funds among players. They're also accused of deliberately ignoring customer complaints and repeatedly failing to address communication.
VIP Golden Club	Avoid	If there's one thing you should never trust it's a thief, and VIP Golden Casino have been unmasked as using stolen games in their portfolio. Definitely the practice of a dodgy operation. One to be avoided.
Ultimate Bet	Avoid	Although still in operation, Ultimate Bet was at the center of a massive cheating scandal that cast serious doubt over its operating standards and its trustworthiness. Last time we checked, the site also appeared to have been hacked which throws another big question mark over its security.

Discovering a Blacklisted Site

Under no circumstances should you trust an online casino that makes it into our blacklist. We review these casinos regularly to make sure they're still worthy of their blacklisted status, and only when we're satisfied they've addressed our concerns and improved their practices will we remove them from the list.

If you've signed up to an online casino in Australia that you've since discovered is blacklisted, walk away. It really isn't worth it. Try and withdraw your winnings if you can, and close your account. There are plenty of reputable casinos out there to play at, without you having to take your chances at a blacklisted one.

If you're playing at an online casino that isn't featured on our blacklist, but that you believe should be, report it to us. We'll investigate your concerns and take the necessary action to blacklist the casino if it fails our tests.

Online Casinos Australians Can Trust

We're well aware this article has been full of doom and gloom, so we want to reassure you and end on a more positive note. Things aren't all bad, in fact, there are a plethora of top rated online casinos out there waiting for you to sign up. As we said at the top of this article, for every bad online casino out there, a good one also exists, and the scales are in favour of the good, so don't despair.

Simply use our blacklist for reference before making a decision on where to wager your real cash and make sure you give these sites a wide berth. So long as you avoid playing at a blacklisted online casino, there's no reason why you can't stay safe, have fun, and make money gambling online.

If you want even more reassurance that the casino you're playing at is legit, check out our recommendations of the top rated online casinos for Australians.

Navigating the murky waters of online gambling in Australia is sometimes intimidating, but with help and support from us you'll soon be on your way to winning huge Australian Dollar jackpots.