PlayersOlymp Warning: iGaming License Suspended [Rogue Casino Report]

After two months of our investigative inquiries regarding operations and games hosted at PlayersOlymp Casino, including official warning we issued in June, casino’s domain has been suspended for more than forty days. We have reasons to believe Curacao licensed venue faced issues with gaming licenses from Novomatic and NetEnt, in addition to disputed casino practices, all of which inevitably resulted in casino operations to be suspended at the time of this writing.

As always, since the first post at our forum appeared, LCB team approached the case proactively with players’ objective interests put first.

Our team inspected the games in question which appeared to be of dubious origin. We contacted Novomatic and NetEnt, and through cooperation with their legal teams learned that games are without valid licenses.

At the same time, we received information from PlayersOlymp about their “site […] experiencing temporary technical issues,” with kind request to “temporarily remove any content, banners, or text links referencing PlayersOlymp and any tracking from [LCB] website with immediate effect.”

Investigating further, we’ve unearthed enough to label PlayersOlymp the rogue casino and, consequentially, warn our members and worldwide players to be aware and stay away.

Events as They Unfolded

As we already wrote in our PlayersOlymp Casino review, it seems this venue was ripe for some quality improvements ever since inception although not without potentials which, unfortunately, have not been converted to capacities.

The offerings included slots and classic table games (roulette, baccarat, blackjack) but without video poker; the most developed section on their website was online sportsbook. Terms and Conditions were missing some key details while no loyalty program was implemented; only two promotional offers were present.

Concluding our review with a suggestion for PlayersOlymp to implement certain changes and for players to have in mind many other online gambling venues at their disposal, we underlined its overall score of 2.9 out of 5 based on nine votes.

However…

Soon afterward things began to shift.

As our community pointed out questionable practices, we deployed our investigative team suspecting there is more to it. Digging deeper and working closely with Novomatic and NetEnt…

Our games’ Content Managers and engineers got official confirmation from the latter that PlayersOlymp’s games are pirated!

Furthermore, it appears that NetEnt has taken action regarding PlayersOlymp.

From Games to Operations

Meanwhile, PlayersOlymp Casino website went down. What started as a temporary technical issue — a glitch can happen to anyone — turned out to be shutdown still in effect.

Looking to understand what happened, we visited validator of Curacao Internet Gaming Association (CIGA) and learned that…

The eGaming license of Playersolymp B.V. has been suspended!

This provided for the explanation of webpage going down, underlining once more that regulating hand of the iGaming industry is effective though rather slow at times.

It might be safe to assume until this suspension is resolved — if any, and this might be a very big if — players with grievances, waiting for withdrawals, will have to practice patience as they’ve been left out on the dry by the irresponsible casino operator.

Trying to at least somehow provide patrons with additional LCB support, we followed up on public information and checked the Commercial Register of the Curacao Chamber of Commerce & Industry search engine.

There, players can find more information about Playersolymp B.V. (registration number 144767), casino owner, and Global Related Services B.V. (registration number 136506), in charge of statutory management of casino ownership group.

Final Thoughts

The case of PlayersOlymp Casino is another reminder of the level of players’ responsibility demanded nowadays when deciding on engaging with a gambling house or not.

Regardless of improvements in regulations and overall legalization efforts which take place worldwide, the final safety resides with each player making the final call on whether a casino is any good. (Luckily, patrons have enough reputable options to choose from.)

Yet again…

We cannot emphasize enough the importance of reading casinos’ Terms and Conditions carefully, checking all jurisdictional matters (particularly in terms of which countries are accepted and which are not), and researching the reputation of a gambling house, payment practices, and operations in general — before players decide to deploy their funds. Before!

The long road ahead of patrons with grievances against PlayersOlymp Casino is a stark reminder of the reality of gambling, as well as life, we all face: all that glitters is not gold and if we play with fire, we might get burned! It’s not always the case, luckily it does not happen often, but when it does, it hurts.

Thus, as we hope that things will turn out for the good at the end, the only way to suppress this from happening again is to be vigilant, prudent, and informed on your iGaming adventures!

Just as we at LCB will remain to be relentless in watching out and putting irresponsible casinos out of the industry’s picture.

Related articles based on our report:

Climb Up the Unlicensed Territory of PlayersOlymp Only to Fall into the Abyss of Pirated Games - by TwoLittleFleas.co.uk, August 12, 2019

Caught Red-Handed: PlayersOlymp Has Its Curacao License Revoked After Counterfeit NetEnt and Novomatic Games Are Discovered - by LatestBingoBonuses.com, August 14, 2019