The iGaming industry must no longer shy away from the issue of fake games in order to educate players on the stark danger they present, according to Duncan Garvie, Head of ADR Services at CasinoReviews.com.
Speaking to iGaming Expert, at the recent Deal Me Out Conference, Garvie explained that it’s time to start “shining a light” on the issue in a bid to protect consumers.
He said: “For a lot of years, we avoided talking about fake games for the good reason that we didn’t want to inadvertently promote unscrupulous operators. But we’ve tried that for a decade and it has not worked.
“We need to find another viable strategy and education is going to have to become a part of that. That means that we need to do better at communicating to consumers about how they differentiate between a licensed and unlicensed operator and it means we need to do better at communicating to consumers what the risks are when they go unlicensed.”
As Garvie previously detailed to iGaming Expert, fake games have never been so prevalent in the market, and this stark rise has been coupled with distributors developing increasingly sophisticated games that are undetectable to the unsuspecting player.
The net result, Garvie warned, is that players are being “defrauded en masse”.
“When we talk about fake games, we are not simply talking about an off-brand version of [a game],” he added. “They are fundamentally different and are designed to trick the player into believing they’re playing a legitimate game, but the engine behind that game is set to cheat them.”
Most commonly, the fake games will be coded to ensure that the top wins on a slot’s pay table are inaccessible, meaning that the fake version of a game will pay out at a significantly lower rate than its advertised RTP.
So what can be done?
Combatting the proliferation of fake games is complicated by the illicit actors hiding away in jurisdictions where they can avoid the wrath of regulators and suppliers. For example, there is evidence that some of the developers are based in Russia, and others can be traced to Singapore.
However, this does not mean that all hope is lost. Garvie emphasised the importance of slot developers using verification seals, allowing players to understand if operators are licensed and if a game is legitimate.
Additionally, he also spoke about the role that affiliates can play in educating players given their unique position in the gaming ecosystem.
“We need to do a far better job at communicating with a gambling audience about how to play safely. It doesn’t always have to be about how not to play, it can be about how to play safely,” he explained. “There is no group that is better at communicating with that audience than affiliates.”
However, to do this, there must be a shift in the relationship between affiliates and the rest of the wider gaming industry.
Garvie said: “The affiliate sector has had quite a negative reputation for a long time and part of that is unscrupulous marketing practices that affiliates have engaged in, but it’s not all affiliates that behave that way.
“Other stakeholders in the sector haven’t necessarily responded to this in the most positive way. They have broad-brushed the affiliate sector and distanced themselves from it. We’ve effectively engaged in othering and made the affiliate sector feel like it’s not welcome in the conversation.
“It’s crucial that we find ways to build bridges with the affiliate community, that we bring them into the conversation, that we make them feel valued and welcome if we’re going to reach the audience that we need to reach.”
