Scams

Fake casinos and cloned sites, and the checks that stop them

A fake casino is not a badly run casino but a payment page dressed as one, and it exists to take deposits it will never repay, identity documents it will reuse, or both. It usually looks better than the real thing, because it spends nothing on licensed games, limits or checks, and the money that it saves goes into the window.

Two kinds of fake

The "clone" copies a registered brand (its colours, its logo, often the pictures of its games) at an address that differs from the real one by a letter, a hyphen or an extra word, and it is reached through adverts and messages rather than typed, since typing the real address would expose it. The "invented casino" has its own name and borrows credibility: regulators' seals in its footer, a licence number that is invented or belongs to another company, and the claim to be "approved in Alberta".

Neither survives the check we describe on how to check a site (it takes a minute): open the AiGC list by typing its address, find the name, and compare the address and the company in the "Details" window with the site in front of you. A seal proves nothing, because a seal is a picture that can link anywhere.

The bonus that should not be there

Alberta's standards allow a registered operator to mention a bonus only on its own site and in direct marketing to someone who has agreed to receive it, so a large offer in a public post, a video or a message you never asked for is either a broken rule or a fake (and in both cases a reason to keep scrolling). The page on advertising rules sets out that line, which also explains why this site prints no offers at all.

How the money disappears

Deposits go through easily, often by cryptocurrency, by voucher or by transfer to a private person; the balance grows quickly, since the games on a fake site can be set to pay whatever keeps a player depositing. The trouble begins at the first withdrawal, which is never refused outright but delayed by a condition that costs money: a "verification deposit", a "tax" on the winnings (which Canada does not levy on recreational play), an "anti-money-laundering fee" or a "VIP upgrade".

Each payment produces a new condition. The balance that the screen shows is a number in a database, and it never existed as money. The pattern (a fee, then another, then a deadline) is the classic shape of an "advance-fee" fraud, and the payment releases nothing, because there was never anything to release.

Since no registered site asks for a fresh deposit before it releases a withdrawal, we treat the request itself as the proof. The page on withdrawals describes what a registered site does ask before it pays (documents, and the same method in both directions), which is friction of a different kind. An ordinary delay comes with a written reason that cites a clause of the terms, and never with a request for more money.

The documents

A fake casino may ask for the same documents as a real one (a photo of a driver's licence or passport, a "selfie" holding it, a bank statement), sometimes before any deposit, and sometimes for extras that no registered site needs. That set is enough to open accounts in someone else's name; we would never send it to a site that is not on the list, and a request for both sides of a card (with the security code visible) is a reason to stop at once.

If documents have already gone, we would ask the two national credit bureaus to place a "fraud alert" on your file, and ask the issuer of each document what to do next, since a stolen identity is used long after the money is gone.

Fake apps and fake support

Some fakes arrive as an app installed from a link rather than from an official store, which lets them skip the store's review and ask for permissions no casino needs (to read messages, for instance, where banks send "one-time codes"). Others run a fake support desk on social media (often with the real brand's logo as its picture), answering complaints that people make against the real brand and offering to "fix" an account in a private chat.

If we needed a real operator's support, we would use the account itself or the contact page of its own site. It does not need your password!

If you have paid

Stop at the first fee, call the bank or card issuer, and report the site to the local police and to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (1-888-495-8501, or online), keeping every screenshot and transaction number, which the police and the bank will ask for. If the site copied a registered brand, tell AiGC too, and treat any later offer to recover the money as the next stage of the same scheme.

By the Alberta Casinos Online editorial team · Last updated: November 13, 2026 · Online since 2026