Africa has a very diverse set of gambling regulations. Some nations have laws that are so strong that they outrightly prohibit gaming. Others, like Tanzania, take a more regulated approach. Unreliable foreign-owned online casinos will target potential players regardless of where you live and the applicable gambling laws.
These unlicensed operators use a multitude of strategies, such as employing stolen email and text numbers, to entice new players. They will also invest a lot of effort in learning about the preferences and requirements of their target market, such as whether they favor betting on horses or cards. In addition, they will use “black hat” marketing techniques. These are unethical, if not usually illegal, techniques to fast reach your audience with your message.
The name of the approach comes from the time when “bad guys” wore black hats and “good guys” wore white hats in western movies. Black Hat SEO tactics are used to boost the internet visibility of your brand or company, but they go against the search engine’s terms of service. Techniques like content automation, keyword stuffing, cloaking, and hidden texts or links could result in Google and Bing banning your company. Asking yourself if you are doing what you are doing to give value to the end-user or merely for the search engine to see is a useful litmus test to discern between a white hat and a black hat strategy.
All of this suggests that a person working in a US, European, or Asian office could be luring players from Africa to sign up for their casino. Why is that relevant? There are principally two causes. These operators are providing a means for people to violate the laws if they are in charge of a nation and believe that the best way to keep its population safe is to outrightly outlaw gambling. On the other side, if your nation has a more controlled approach to gambling, you won’t want individuals playing at illegal casinos that don’t help the state because gaming is a large business.
Gambling in South Africa generates more than $ 2 billion in revenue annually, with authorized operators paying taxes and acquiring a license from the government in order to be able to draw in customers. How then do you stop it? According to Casinos.win, it would take one individual a little longer than one month to find the top gambling sites in each nation. But then what? Whatever they choose, governments can censor websites and social media. It happens often. In reaction to what it called “discrimination against Russian media,” Russia earlier this year disabled Facebook and Twitter. While China and North Korea top the list of nations that censor the internet the most, Turkey has a long history of blocking websites.
How do they achieve this? simply by requesting that they be excluded from their country’s Domain Name System from the Internet Service Provider. Countries may also utilize “geo-blocking,” which limits your access to websites depending on your IP address, which reveals where you are. The ability for governments to filter and restrict keywords as well as order search engines to erase content. But nothing is that easy. Virtual private networks (VPNs), which are widely accessible nowadays, enable consumers to evade geo-blocking methods. Additionally, the struggle against banning is one that takes place every day due to the sheer volume of new online casinos that are appearing and the capacity to alter domain names.
When it comes to dealing with unlawful internet casinos, certain nations adopt different strategies. Payment methods are one of the strategies used by the UK Gambling Commission, which is the regulatory authority there. They are not alone in this. 16 EU member states have laws in effect requiring payment processors to obstruct payments to unlawful gambling establishments. Websites may be prohibited by governments for a variety of reasons. But if you’re a gambler, you should certainly avoid visiting any casinos that lack a license. There is no assurance that they won’t simply steal your money in the middle of the night. It is far preferable to gamble at a legal casino with distinct operational and betting accounts, safeguards for player safety like deposit caps, and more widely accepted banking options. If you live in the UK and are a player who is feeling overextended, you can prevent yourself from accessing GAMSTOP-affiliated casinos. However, it doesn’t follow that you won’t be able to join an unauthorized one.
As this article is being written, “sites not on GAMSTOP” are receiving a sizable amount of searches. Why then, do they not get blocked? The UK Gambling Commission approaches unauthorized casinos in a highly calculated manner. It says ” We assess intelligence gathered from multiple sources and work closely with partner agencies to prevent access to illegal websites by consumers in Great Britain. If an intelligence-led initial approach is unsuccessful, cases are referred to the enforcement team for investigation and further disruption options. This approach ensures that our focus is on those websites presenting the greatest consumer threat. Licensees have highlighted the risks posed by illegal operators who undermine consumer protection efforts and provide an unfair source of competition.”
But isn’t blocking a speedier victory? You won’t find a verified explanation for why the UK Gambling Commission doesn’t just shut unauthorized casinos no matter how often you Google the question. Google claims that the last time this topic was discussed was in 2014 when the IPS providers in the UK held the opinion that it is up to the public to filter or block such websites themselves or to provide a legislative framework to enable them to do so.
Source: BI Africa