SWC Poker - it's a SCAM / My review and true story

[popek1990]

SWC Poker – WARNING! Withdrawals Blocked • Accounts Suspended • Posts Deleted • Telegram BAN

Is SWC Poker really a decentralized and fair platform? My experience says otherwise

TL;DR

• Played on SWC Poker; everything looked fine at first.
• After a high-stakes session (200/400) I was up ~350 k chips; my account got frozen and the withdrawal never arrived.
• SWC accused me of multi-accounting but provided zero evidence (no TX hashes, no IP data, IOS system, fingerprints etc).
• When I asked publicly, my posts were deleted and I was banned from their Telegram.

⚠️ Warning: Small withdrawals may go through, but if you win big they can simply freeze your balance.

Full story (screenshots & e-mails): 
➡️ SWC Poker Exposed – When Decentralized Becomes a Scam

Let’s expose the truth.

EDIT (22 Apr 2025)

1. What this thread covers: 
   • Page 1 – intro + blocked withdrawal. 
   • Page 2 – full 700-hand history from my 10-hour session (judge for yourself). 
   • Later pages – log of SWC deleting my posts and community discussion.

2. SWC Poker deletes every message that asks for proof in their self-moderated TOPIC: 
   ➡️ https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5068812.0

3. Please read the thread to the end to see how SWC handles payout questions (delete + ban) and why I believe they block big wins.

4. Read my full story here:
➡️ SWC Poker Exposed – When Decentralized Becomes a Scam

5. If you think poker sites should show hard data instead of hitting “Delete”, please support the flag (Type 3 – withheld funds): 
   🚩 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=3394

Thanks for any feedback and for helping spread the word!

Let’s expose the truth.

[owlcatz]

After loading it in windows vm and having a quick look, yeah , it looks scammy af, however has been around quite some time. Maybe they are selective scammers, but I don't see a lot of complaints here either other than someone complaining once then never replying back.

Be careful out there...

 

[popek1990]

They accused me of owning 3 accounts, claiming there was a deposit connection (BTC transactions).

I love Bitcoin's blockchain and transparency. Since I played fair, I asked them for proof (BTC transaction hashes).
They even promised to show it to the community

https://talkimg.com/images/2025/02/04/eETlg.png

They never did. Instead, they quickly banned me and erased all messages to cover it up...

You can also check for yourself – try finding any messages about this on the official SWC Telegram group. They deleted everything  

To understand the issue in more detail read my story on the medium.

[alani123]

Long shot here but while SWC started our in this forum, we never knew their real creators. They would always hire a PR person to speak for them. So we can't even be sure if the ownership is the same.

For a long running casino, the management as far as I know I'd one of the most anon.

Generally I am not sure how it would end up to put a complaint here because they also seem to have abandoned this forum. Somehow they retain an audience without much if any social media presence.

If they have a representative here they would post here still they should also post some evidence if there exists anything related to the above.

[owlcatz]

They accused me of owning 3 accounts, claiming there was a deposit connection (BTC transactions).

I love Bitcoin's blockchain and transparency. Since I played fair, I asked them for proof (BTC transaction hashes).
They even promised to show it to the community

~snip~
They never did. Instead, they quickly banned me and erased all messages to cover it up...

You can also check for yourself – try finding any messages about this on the official SWC Telegram group. They deleted everything  

To understand the issue in more detail read my story on the medium.

Oh I read it for sure mate, sorry no disrespect meant, well done on the write up, beats 95% of the scam accusations I see weekly lol.

I just don't see there could be any recourse in an isolated case like this myself - sites like this operate in a gray area - where are they? Who are they? who knows?

THey appear to allow USA connections without VPN? What does that say?

Long shot here but while SWC started our in this forum, we never knew their real creators. They would always hire a PR person to speak for them. So we can't even be sure if the ownership is the same.

For a long running casino, the management as far as I know I'd one of the most anon.

Generally I am not sure how it would end up to put a complaint here because they also seem to have abandoned this forum. Somehow they retain an audience without much if any social media presence.

If they have a representative here they would post here still they should also post some evidence if there exists anything related to the above.

This... ^^^ thanks @alani123.  

[nutildah]

The case you've presented in your Medium article is compelling, but we don't have any way to verify your side of the story. The BTC address you provided in the article doesn't have any transactions... so when you say "return the funds to this address" it doesn't really help as nothing ever left that address. I mean, that's how I read it, as someone who's been conducting blockchain forensics for over a decade -- you'd have to submit some kind of proof that you owned the address that made the deposit to an address known to be associated with SwC; although I do understand not wanting an invasion of privacy.

Until then, its kind of a your words vs. theirs scenario.

So we can't even be sure if the ownership is the same.

I'm pretty its not after it was shut down and reopened in 2015.

[AHOYBRAUSE]

Oh, SWC is mentioned after a long time, I have to jump on that for sure.
First of all, I am not a fan of SWC because they didn't take action against several people colluding at tables, which I reported and nothing was done. Though, I have always gotten my money, that's for sure.
Also I have to add, I have 3 accounts on SWC, which never gave me any trouble. I have sent money between these accounts using the transfer tool and used the same IP address. What I haven't done is playing on the same table or any other cheating stuff. I straight up had new accounts because some people dodged my original account (scared or something) and I still wanted to play them. 

Anyway, to the case here. Not siding with anybody but to be honest because I am disgusted about the collusion and other stuff that is going on at SWC. OP might have done it, or he didn't we don't know. I am sure they can check it. What would be interesting is to see is the hand history of this table because the 3 accounts mentioned ( gd1990, MichaelDE and caroline93 ) must have been involved in some stuff at least. Looking at the history would paint a better picture for sure!
Also, to be fair, it sounds highly suspicious when 3 high roller accounts register the same day and play at the same table, come on. SWC is such a tiny player pool, mostly there are like 150 people online of which maybe 20-25 are actually playing. What day ever did 3 people register and play big on the same day? That really sounds highly suspicious to me!
Accumulation a 360000 chips stack, which is 900 big blinds with a 100bb buyin is also rare, not impossible, but rare. But having 2 more "buddies" at the table that play the sucker of course makes it more likely.
What the community would need to see are the hands in question that made the session

Like I said, not siding with OP or SWC. I have been on the site for many years, never had any issue with my multiple accounts because I never used them in a scammy way.

PS: about the article. On the update part on January 29th you write:

"The pattern of censorship continues. A community member tried to share this article in SWC-Poker’s Telegram group, asking legitimate questions about transparency. The result? Immediate ban. Here’s the conversation that led to the ban: "

It is obvious that this "community member" is you. Otherwise the post would not be green and would have the initials of the person on the left side, which means it's your own post in the tg software.  . SWC support already wrote that even on tg you were multi accounting to get a conversation about this going, and this post actually proves it. So yeah, looks a bit off tbh.

[popek1990]

1. Did the 3 accounts register on the same day?
I have no idea. Honestly? I doubt it. SWC Poker just claimed this when banning me, but never provided any proof. Just empty words.

2. "The accounts were linked by BTC wallets" – where’s the proof?
SWC Poker claimed that these accounts were funded from the same BTC wallet. But they never showed any logs or blockchain transactions.
If this were true, they would have simply posted one BTC address funding three accounts. Since everything on the blockchain is transparent.
They could have also shown data like same computer, IP address , browser fingerprint etc.
But they didn't. Why? Because they have no proof 

3.The BTC address in my article is new, for privacy reasons.
I don’t feel comfortable publicly exposing all my BTC holdings. But if @nutildah & @AHOYBRAUSE want to verify my deposits, I can send proof via private message 

4. Why would I waste my time making up this story?
Seriously, what would I gain? I wrote an article, I shared screenshots, and I keep responding here. Meanwhile, SWC Poker provided ZERO evidence of their accusations and deleted messages to cover it up. Luckily, I took screenshots before they erased everything. Unlike SWC, I actually have proof.

5. About the session:
Yes, I started with 40K chips and after 10+ hours, I had 360K. That’s not unheard of.
What’s interesting is that most of my big all-in wins were NOT from MichaelDE or Caroline93 (the accounts they claim were mine).
Instead, they came from regular players like: Easy1 , BillySwords & Valentinos77
I even found three screenshots from the session. Take a look:

(Attach screenshots here)
https://i.ibb.co/DDZ0BGk6/2025-02-05-11h26-12.png
https://i.ibb.co/7xFMbg71/2025-02-05-11h28-47.png
https://i.ibb.co/9kQxmqW4/2025-02-05-11h42-23.png

6. It would be best if the SWC-Poker team responded here. But I doubt they will.

P.S. – Yes, of course, I asked a friend to share my Medium article in the SWC Telegram group. Why?
Because I’m banned and couldn’t do it myself.
I’m doing this to warn other users and expose this scam. I’ll keep doing it because there’s nothing wrong with sharing the truth 

[AHOYBRAUSE]

1. Did the 3 accounts register on the same day?
I have no idea. Honestly? I doubt it. SWC Poker just claimed this when banning me, but never provided any proof. Just empty words.

2. "The accounts were linked by BTC wallets" – where’s the proof?
SWC Poker claimed that these accounts were funded from the same BTC wallet. But they never showed any logs or blockchain transactions.
If this were true, they would have simply posted one BTC address funding three accounts. Since everything on the blockchain is transparent.
They could have also shown data like same computer, IP address , browser fingerprint etc.
But they didn't. Why? Because they have no proof 

3.The BTC address in my article is new, for privacy reasons.
I don’t feel comfortable publicly exposing all my BTC holdings. But if @nutildah & @AHOYBRAUSE want to verify my deposits, I can send proof via private message 

4. Why would I waste my time making up this story?
Seriously, what would I gain? I wrote an article, I shared screenshots, and I keep responding here. Meanwhile, SWC Poker provided ZERO evidence of their accusations and deleted messages to cover it up. Luckily, I took screenshots before they erased everything. Unlike SWC, I actually have proof.

5. About the session:
Yes, I started with 40K chips and after 10+ hours, I had 360K. That’s not unheard of.
What’s interesting is that most of my big all-in wins were NOT from MichaelDE or Caroline93 (the accounts they claim were mine).
Instead, they came from regular players like: Easy1 , BillySwords & Valentinos77
I even found three screenshots from the session. Take a look:

(Attach screenshots here)




6. It would be best if the SWC-Poker team responded here. But I doubt they will.

P.S. – Yes, of course, I asked a friend to share my Medium article in the SWC Telegram group. Why?
Because I’m banned and couldn’t do it myself.
I’m doing this to warn other users and expose this scam. I’ll keep doing it because there’s nothing wrong with sharing the truth 

1. Mostly you can spot fresh accounts on their "vip"level. Both 3 accounts must have been "new seal".

3. Even the address you show can't be verified as the address you used to deposit (unless you have a screenshot of the swc cashier that shows the depo address).

4. Your money back maybe? We have seen countless scam accusation that ended up with the casino having done everything right and the accuser just made up a story to basically blackmail the site to get paid. Not saying that's what you do, but it is a possibility.

5. That's where also the problem lies. When people collude they mostly don't win their own money but that of others. Having a 3 man team gives you valuable card information and also the possibility to push opponents out of the pot. Know 4 more cards doesn't sound much but it is. You know possible nut flush blockers, blockers for sets, and so on and so on.
The only visible thing now that doesn't speak for collusion is the way these 3 accounts are seated. When I saw people colluding they always sat in a way so that they don't sit next to each other. Makes sense cause if you want to push someone out you would want to bet, victim calls, next alt raises, you raise, victim folds because too much action and reraiser behind folds.

6. they basically abandoned their presence here, and I doubt they will come back

The only thing right now that would help you is the hand history. If you did nothing wrong the hh would prove that. Alternatively you can try to bring this case to askgamblers or casinoguru or something. Not sure though if they handle poker site complaints.
Maybe ask swc to send you the history. This would be a big break if you did nothing wrong. Sure it's bad that as the accused you have to defend yourself but that's the situation right now and nobody here can do much about it unfortunately.

By the way, I just checked SWC and just 3 weeks ago the bad beat jackpot hit, after 2 years, aces full of kings lost against a royal flush.

[popek1990]

1. VIP Status of the Accounts – I have no idea what status those accounts had, I never checked. Do I really need do that? Even if 2 out of 6 accounts had a "new seal" status, does that mean I shouldn't have played with them as a third player with a relatively new account? That logic makes no sense  

3. Deposit Address & Transaction Proof – I checked, and yes, I have a screenshot from the cashier showing my deposit address along with my deposit transaction hashes. I can also prove that the address used to send funds to SWC’s deposit address belongs to me. I have no issue sending this privately to a trusted senior member of Bitcointalk. However, as I mentioned before, for privacy reasons, I won't post it publicly.

4. If that were the case, SWC poker probably wouldn't have banned me, wouldn't have deleted the messages, and would have quickly replied here, providing my transaction hashes (proof that they didn't cheat me and paid me my winnings)  

5. Exactly - If this was collusion, the accounts wouldn't have been sitting next to each other imho

6. I sent them a link to this thread on Twitter PM. If they ignore it and refuse to respond here, it will only further confirm that they are scamming players.
https://talkimg.com/images/2025/02/05/esZHW.png

I don’t expect to get my money back—I’ve already accepted the loss. If they return and pay me what I'm owed, I will gladly restore their honor.
But for now, my goal is simple: to warn other players about this site.


P.S Finally, I have exported the full history of this +10H game. I exported it before the ban....

[AHOYBRAUSE]

1. VIP Status of the Accounts – I have no idea what status those accounts had, I never checked. Do I really need do that? Even if 2 out of 6 accounts had a "new seal" status, does that mean I shouldn't have played with them as a third player with a relatively new account? That logic makes no sense  

3. Deposit Address & Transaction Proof – I checked, and yes, I have a screenshot from the cashier showing my deposit address along with my deposit transaction hashes. I can also prove that the address used to send funds to SWC’s deposit address belongs to me. I have no issue sending this privately to a trusted senior member of Bitcointalk. However, as I mentioned before, for privacy reasons, I won't post it publicly.

4. If that were the case, SWC poker probably wouldn't have banned me, wouldn't have deleted the messages, and would have quickly replied here, providing my transaction hashes (proof that they didn't cheat me and paid me my winnings)  

5. Exactly - If this was collusion, the accounts wouldn't have been sitting next to each other imho

6. I sent them a link to this thread on Twitter PM. If they ignore it and refuse to respond here, it will only further confirm that they are scamming players.

I don’t expect to get my money back—I’ve already accepted the loss. If they return and pay me what I'm owed, I will gladly restore their honor.
But for now, my goal is simple: to warn other players about this site.

To question 1: I always did that because I always felt it's highly suspicious if I play with somebody and suddenly 2 total newbie accounts join the table. SWC is a tiny site with almost nobody playing there. So it is hard to believe that 2 accounts just registered and immediately join this table. That's why it always looks strange when this happens and I for myself often quite the game right at that moment. And what do you know, the players left right after.
So yeah, it is very strange when 3 newbies join the same table with accounts from that day. At a site with 120-150 players on average that's a big standout.

About swc and their telegram group. Trust me I got kicked out several times as well because they didn't like me speaking up about strange things such as the mentioned collusion, players that don't get chat banned even though they insult everybody, the very strange previous jackpot hit where almost all newbie accounts "won" the 6.5 btc jackpot (nobody ever has seen these players before -> maybe inside job) and other stuff. You say one little thing Dave or one of the other clowns don't like and they ban you instantly.
Email support is just as bad. I got screwed over by the guy that referred me (he actually hat a real website and was one of swc's partners) because he stopped paying my rake back but they kept paying him for my action. They just ignored my case and that was the point when i decided to finally leave this shitty place.

[popek1990]

I also had a conversation with their ambassador on Twitter. He defended them without any arguments—he send me just memes, when I sent him evidence and arguments .
I gave up , waste of time.

Anyway - Do you know any good alternatives to play poker with crypto/BTC?
If not, I guess I’ll just go back to Web2 poker 

[AHOYBRAUSE]

I also had a conversation with their ambassador on Twitter. He defended them without any arguments—he send me just memes, when I sent him evidence and arguments .
I gave up , waste of time.

Anyway - Do you know any good alternatives to play poker with crypto/BTC?
If not, I guess I’ll just go back to Web2 poker 

Unfortunately there aren't many. Nothing I liked at least. I played a ggpoker for a while cause they also take btc and usdt and so on, but it gets converted into usd and of course there is KYC and so on. Also the withdrawal can take some time and you need to provide "significant action" before you can withdraw, basically a rollover.
Just never play at nitrobetting or whatever they call themselves now. Full of collusion, bots, huge rake and low player numbers.

[alani123]

SWC aren't very consistent with their marketing here but I was surprised to find out they did post in bitcointalk the last time in Summer 2024 and their official account was active at that time:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5068812.0

You could try to post on their thread which could get some attention. It's a self moderated thread but at least it could lead them to here to pay some serious attention to the issue at hand.

[popek1990]

SWC aren't very consistent with their marketing here but I was surprised to find out they did post in bitcointalk the last time in Summer 2024 and their official account was active at that time:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5068812.0

You could try to post on their thread which could get some attention. It's a self moderated thread but at least it could lead them to here to pay some serious attention to the issue at hand.

Thank you so much @alani123 for the information about this thread! 🙏
✅ I posted there too - we will see.

[popek1990]

Update – April 2025

I logged in today to see whether the SWC Poker team had finally answered my request for evidence in their official Bitcointalk thread (the one linked earlier by @alani123).

• They have been here: the account “@SwC_Poker” posted on 11 March 2025 in this topic : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5068812.1820
• They gave no answer to my questions.
• Instead, because it’s a self‑moderated topic, they simply deleted my all posts, - They deleted post from other users too.

Here’s the PM I received after the deletion:

A reply of yours, quoted below, was deleted by the starter of a self-moderated topic.
There are no rules of self-moderation, so this deletion cannot be appealed.
Do not continue posting in this topic if the topic-starter has requested that you leave.

You can create a new topic if you are unsatisfied with this one.
If the topic-starter is scamming, post about it in Scam Accusations.

https://talkimg.com/images/2025/04/22/U2XVoc.png

Once again SWC‑Poker shows its true centralized nature: ban, delete, silence.
They do it here, they do it on their Telegram. Evidence requests? No justification, and no evidence. They stole from me and are silent.

Is there really nothing the community can do about scammers who hide behind self‑moderation? Suggestions welcome.

[AHOYBRAUSE]

Update – April 2025

I logged in today to see whether the SWC Poker team had finally answered my request for evidence in their official Bitcointalk thread (the one linked earlier by @alani123).

• They have been here: the account “@SwC_Poker” posted on 11 March 2025 in this topic : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5068812.1820
• They gave no answer to my questions.
• Instead, because it’s a self‑moderated topic, they simply deleted my all posts, - They deleted post from other users too.

Here’s the PM I received after the deletion:

A reply of yours, quoted below, was deleted by the starter of a self-moderated topic.
There are no rules of self-moderation, so this deletion cannot be appealed.
Do not continue posting in this topic if the topic-starter has requested that you leave.

You can create a new topic if you are unsatisfied with this one.
If the topic-starter is scamming, post about it in Scam Accusations.

Once again SWC‑Poker shows its true centralized nature: ban, delete, silence.
They do it here, they do it on their Telegram. Evidence requests? No justification, and no evidence. They stole from me and are silent.

Is there really nothing the community can do about scammers who hide behind self‑moderation? Suggestions welcome.

They know damn sure what they were doing when they made their ANN thread self moderated.
They also deleted all of my posts , they don't like when people speak out against them. Absolute garbage site with true scammers in the background. About their bitcointalk account, not much we can do. You could create a flag and look for support (you have mine). This site need to get kicked out of here with sufficient warnings.

[popek1990]

Fully agreed. They knew exactly what they were doing when they made their ANN thread self-moderated.

It’s sad that your posts were also deleted. Clearly, they’re actively removing anything that exposes their actions.

I'll definitely consider creating a flag here on Bitcointalk. Thanks for your support—I appreciate it. Hopefully, together we can ensure enough people get warned about their scammy behavior.

If anyone else has been scammed by SWC Poker, please speak up. The more evidence we gather, the stronger our case becomes.

[GxSTxV]

Sorry for your loss mate, I also remember having a bad experience with a similar platform, same accusation and no much explanation. They had an announcement thread and since it was new without many reviews on it, I took the risk and paid for it.
Seems like what you have here is almost the same, but I could never understand why spending much money on developing everything, marketing and servers just to end up ruining their reputation, then ending up dead because of that.

[alani123]

Sorry for your loss mate, I also remember having a bad experience with a similar platform, same accusation and no much explanation. They had an announcement thread and since it was new without many reviews on it, I took the risk and paid for it.
Seems like what you have here is almost the same, but I could never understand why spending much money on developing everything, marketing and servers just to end up ruining their reputation, then ending up dead because of that.

SWC isn't new. It's actually one of the oldest crypto poker platforms around. Although nobody can be sure if the platform's managment has remained the same throughout the years.

Fully agreed. They knew exactly what they were doing when they made their ANN thread self-moderated.

It’s sad that your posts were also deleted. Clearly, they’re actively removing anything that exposes their actions.

I'll definitely consider creating a flag here on Bitcointalk. Thanks for your support—I appreciate it. Hopefully, together we can ensure enough people get warned about their scammy behavior.

If anyone else has been scammed by SWC Poker, please speak up. The more evidence we gather, the stronger our case becomes.

FYI the messages you got were automaded from the Forum's system. It just means they deleted your response on their thread and nothing more. Doesn't hurt to keep pestering them with replies in their thread. From what I understand they don't have that many avenues left for marketing so the fact that they have someone coming around here to maintain the thread means that they care about their image at least a little bit.

I've seen accusations floating around that what's left of SWC is just bots trying to part any player from his money. And in case anyone wins like you did they withold the funds. If they care at all to keep their platform up with any players at all they should address accusations like yours at least with a comment from their side of the story instead of just deleting replies to their thread.