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Fake games on unlicensed sites pose a growing risk to consumers and the gambling industry, as flagged recently in Brazil, but tackling them will require combined regulatory and industry action.
Website and payment blocking have been the cornerstone of the regulatory effort to tackle fake games and unlicensed operators along with creating a fair and trusted gambling environment, but players are still being taken advantage of by unscrupulous businesses.
A recent Brazilian survey estimated 83 percent of unlicensed gambling sites blocked by Brazil's regulator now redirect users to other web addresses and apps.
The survey was conducted by Brazilian media outlet UOL and revealed some unauthorised platforms copied the graphic elements, user interfaces of famous operators and even offered counterfeit versions of famous casino slot titles to attract players.
One way to educate players is a regulatory requirement to have Brazilian licensed operators set domain names end with bet.br.
Suppliers and operators have also long had intellectual property (IP) teams and taken legal action against sites using versions of their games or other IP, in a costly game of cat and mouse.
“Even if an IP enforcement claim does prove successful and results in a site being taken down; it's rare that the organisation behind the fakes is brought to justice; and new sites may pop-up faster than they can be taken down,” James Elliott, the Founder of Gamecheck, a game verification service for the online casino sector, told Vixio Gambling Compliance.
Elliott has found “it's much more likely that the fakes will be found on the sites targeting regulated markets without a licence or offering to unregulated markets.”
“If the unlicensed sites appear to have the same game offering as the licensed sites, by offering fake versions, and you can open an account and play with just a name and an email address; supply no documents and set no responsible gaming limits, it could be quite appealing to a certain type of player,” he said.
Elliott fears that as a result, the unregulated market will continue to grow.
Fake games on unlicensed sites carry an added risk as they are often altered in some way, such as reducing win frequency and value and altering the return to player (RTP).
Speaking during a panel discussion at the Black Market Prevention Summit in Manchester on March 3, Duncan Garvie, the founder of BetBlocker, said players are being “defrauded en masse” by fake games operated by unlicensed operators.
He praised actions taken by regulators such as in Brazil, which he believes will help signpost to consumers what operators are legitimate.
However, he called for a “body of work” on consumer education “if we hope to get them (consumers) to a point where they can distinguish between a legal and illegal operator”.
Garvie highlighted the issues of going after the developers of these fake games, explaining that many are using company structures “to hide who they are” and based in jurisdictions where it's “very, very challenging to touch them legally”.
There is clearly no easy fix or silver bullet solution to end fake games or the black market, however, better consumer education, industry collaboration and regulatory measures such as those taken in Brazil can certainly help.
