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In 2025, the online gaming industry continues to thrive, captivating millions of players around the globe. While legitimate online casinos and game providers have earned their success by offering original games and ensuring fair play, the industry's rapid growth has also attracted fraudulent operators. These dishonest operators are creating fake games designed to deceive players and undermine the integrity of the gaming experience.
This article aims to shed light on the issue of fake games, raising awareness among players about the risks and helping them make informed choices in this expanding digital landscape.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a challenging time for everyone and undoubtedly some industries suffered considerable losses and struggled to keep up with the increased cost of living. On the other hand, the iGaming industry became very popular during lockdown as it provided an outlet for online entertainment.
Wherever there is a successful market, there is always a group trying to capitalise off it illegally. Indeed, the pandemic accelerated online gambling fraud as fraudsters saw an opportunity to capitalise on the market’s exponential growth.
Online gambling scams were produced in various ways:
In the post-pandemic era, while most of us have moved on with our lives, and are striving and thriving, others continue to turn to online scams as an illicit means of income.
You may have noticed an increase in suspicious text messages, calls, AIgenerated fake news, fake videos, and spam emails. It may not come as a surprise then, that this increase in cybercrime has extended into the online casino industry.
A recent report entitled ‘The Fake Contagion’ by CasinoReviews, highlights how unverified vendors are distributing fake games that mimic licensed gambling games. Unlike their legitimate versions, these fake games manipulate outcomes, leading to significant player losses across various online gaming markets.
Fake games are undermining the integrity and credibility of the entire iGaming industry. For this reason, we believe that the fight against such fraudulent activities requires a more holistic approach.
A good reputation is a lifeline for any legitimate game provider.
For operators, these fake games can result in financial losses, reputational damage, and regulatory penalties. Players, on the other hand, face the risks of compromised account security, financial fraud, and unfair gameplay.
Fake games pose a risk to the relationship of trust that legitimate game providers have been building with their regular players over the years. Unfortunately, numerous reports and studies highlight that many players have fallen victim to scams and outright fraud on fake platforms.
According to a recent article published in The Guardian, gamblers in the UK are betting an alarming £2.7 billion a year on black market websites.
A report commissioned by the UK’s Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) revealed 27 million visits to unregulated sites in 2019, with around 220,000 players engaging with unlicensed operators. By 2022, the number of British players using unlicensed sites more than doubled to 460,000.
This troubling trend has extended across Europe with a large percentage of stakes being placed on black market sites. As players willingly or unknowingly use these black-market sites they are creating a negative impact for legitimate game providers.
With the evolution of the digital age and direct marketing, these copycat platforms are being promoted openly across various online channels and social media platforms. To deceive players, hackers have found a way to include links to their fake sites on other reputable websites.
It is increasingly evident that numerous players are falling prey to their tactics and perhaps these unsuspecting players truly believe that they are using legitimate websites. However, those who engage with these fake platforms are left without legal protection or regulatory oversight.
Some of the most noticeable tactics employed by fraudulent providers include:
The RTP of fake games can be adjusted to ensure game pay-outs are always in the casino’s favour.
Their animations may look genuine at first glance, but the algorithms are set to ensure an unfair advantage towards the fake casino. These fraudulent game providers sell their software at a much lower price than usual, attracting unethical casino operators looking for cheap alternatives. AI has made it even easier for rogue operators to replicate original titles. AI also reduces the time required to develop and deploy new games, enabling these operators to flood the market before the real developers can act.
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Honest operators are suffering the consequences of these fake games. Because fake games often replicate genuine ones, they can tarnish the reputations of legitimate providers simply by association, creating an industry-wide problem.
Gaming companies are susceptible to all the normal attacks that digital businesses can expect, including:
However, attackers have a lot of extra incentives to attack and attempt to copy these platforms instead of other digital businesses.
Fraud can result in regulatory penalties, legal challenges, and even the revocation of operating licenses.
Ultimately, the industry needs to stand firm on its commitment to safe and legal gambling practices. As providers navigate these challenges, it is essential to recognise that long-term success in the legal market can only be achieved by adhering to stringent regulatory standards.
Increased transparency and stricter regulatory frameworks are essential to protect players from exploitation.
Legitimate game providers must not close a blind eye to these fake games, but report them to the regulators whenever they notice that such infringements are taking place. This demonstrates unequivocally, that the game provider does not want to be associated with these fake games.
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Not all is lost. There is a growing call within the iGaming industry for unified efforts to combat copycat casinos and their fake games, through a combination of industry collaboration and consumer awareness.
Gaming companies are using an array of innovative solutions to defeat these attacks, because fraud and abuse can massively disrupt the in-game experience for genuine users and hurt their revenues.
Using multi-layered risk decisioning to assess the legitimacy of activity across their platforms and across the full customer journey (from sign up, login, payment transactions, and when carrying out actions within the platforms), they can assess activity based on real-time risk signals across device, network, and location.
Gaming companies also use advanced behavioural analytics to spot suspicious activity. In time, two-factor authentication should become a standard security feature for all gaming platforms.
Another way forward is to increase collaboration, by working with game vendors and providers who already work with an array of gaming companies, to benefit from shared attack signals and proactively protect against these attacks.
Suggested protective measures include creating a system that requires unique verification seals for legitimate games, which will allow players to quickly identify and test the products they are using.
This is where Gamecheck comes in.
Gamecheck is developing a blockchain-integrated verification tool that allows players to instantly confirm the legitimacy of online casinos and the authenticity of their games. The Gamecheck Seal will serve as a mark of trust, granted exclusively to online casinos offering genuine and fair gameplay.
By collaborating with Gamecheck, the iGaming industry can strengthen its credibility, enhance player confidence, and uphold a secure and transparent gaming environment for all.
