Which casinos have IP blocks in place for restricted countries?

[Pmalek]

Background information

What is this all about? I have read many customer reviews where members of Bitcointalk are claiming that various casinos are refusing to let them withdraw their funds on the grounds that they have gambled and accessed the site from a restricted country/jurisdiction.

The only problem is that some casinos allow users from restricted countries to register and gamble, but when they want to withdraw their winnings, they are told they broke the TOS.

I have decided to test 10 random casinos from the gambling section to see whether or not I could enter their site from a restricted location or if there would be an IP ban or other notification telling me that I can't access their site.

How did I perform this test?

1. I opened the ANN threads of 10 casinos that were on the top of the list in the Gambling board.
2. I read the casino's TOS to find information about which countries are restricted.
3. I used a VPN to access the casino to test whether or not there was an active IP block from restricted countries.
4. I did not register a new account, but I clicked on the register buttons to see if it worked.

What now?

If someone's country is restricted from playing at a certain casino, citizens of that country shouldn't be able to register and deposit money to it. There should be an IP ban as soon as you load the site in your browser.
I am planning to notify the casinos who failed the tests.
I will do more tests in the next days and when I have more time and post the results.

Local Rules 

1. This is not a topic to discuss your favorite casinos, games, promotions, sports, etc. I will self-moderate the thread and delete any posts that promote/attack certain platforms.
2. You are free to do your own tests and post some results, as long as you were successful in accessing a site from a restricted location.
3. Keep the discussion nice and clean. 

If you have any suggestions, don't hesitate to let me know.

[Pmalek]

* I used a table layout posted by 1miau here

Casino	Restricted Countries	Active IP Ban
_____________________________	_____________________________	_________________
1.Roobet.com 2. Coins777.com 3. *Stake.com 4. btb88.com 5. PlayBitcoinGames.com 6. Chips.gg 7. JacksClub.io 8. 7XL.co 9. Sportsbet.io 10. *Betcoin.ag 11. BetChain.com 12. CryptoWild.com 13. Cloudbet.com 14. FortuneJack.com 15. Casineos.com 16. Betnomi.com 17. Bitvest.io 18. 777coin.com 19. Bustadice.com 20. Bitcasino.io 21. CryptoThrills.io 22. Bitsler.com 23. Primedice.com 24. *BitDice.me 25. AceDBets.io 26. Duelbits.com 27. Windice.io 28. Bustabit.com 29. Tower.bet 30. BetBTC.co	Germany, USA, Netherlands No Info Available France, UK, USA Germany, Switzerland, Turkey No Info Available USA, UK, Netherlands No Info Available No Info Available USA, Germany, Netherlands USA, UK UK, France, Netherlands USA, UK, France USA, UK More information here France, UK, Switzerland Turkey, France, USA No Info Available No Info Available France, Netherlands, USA USA, UK, Netherlands No Info Available USA, France, Netherlands USA, UK, France UK, USA NO Info Available France, Netherlands, USA France, USA France, Netherlands, USA France, Netherlands, USA NO Info Available	Germany - NO USA - YES Netherlands - NO - France - YES UK - YES USA - YES Germany - YES Switzerland - YES Turkey - YES - UK - NO Netherlands - NO USA - NO - - USA - YES Germany - YES Netherlands - YES USA - YES UK - YES UK - YES France - YES Netherlands - YES USA - NO UK - YES France - YES USA - YES UK - YES - France - NO UK - NO Switzerland - NO Turkey - NO France - NO USA - YES - - France - NO Netherlands - NO USA - NO USA - YES UK - YES Netherlands - YES All countries allowed according to customer support USA - YES France - YES Netherlands - YES USA - YES UK - YES France - YES UK - YES USA - YES - France - YES Netherlands - YES USA - YES France - NO USA - NO France - YES Netherlands - YES USA - YES France - NO Netherlands - NO USA - NO -

*Changes made to the results of Betcoin's IP bans. More info is available here.
*Changes made to the results of Stake's IP bans. More info is available here.
*Changes made to the results of BitDice's IP bans. More info is available here.

[Pmalek]

reserved

[2double0]

Nice work there. Can you also do the same checks at betchain and crypto wild and see if they allow your listed countries or not? I hope the list here is not restricted to your own choices and we are allowed to request other sites to be tested.

[zidanw]

This is great I've seen some users complaining about it where in he was failed to read the ToS and registered on the casino which he assumed was alright since he was able to register on it but as soon as he withdraw the casino detected him and confiscated his money and closed his account. I think this one of the casino's trick to some users or maybe they just didn't care about the user at all? anyways it's important for the users to read the ToS before playing this thread would great for the lazy users who didn't managed to read ToS of the casinos and sports betting sites.

[StephenJH]

Nice work, thanks for sharing. I have tried to access the various gambling platforms with a VPN(US IP) but unfortunately as explained there is no way to access the site. Demo games are not allowed even if the user is allowed to register with US IP. Belarus IP is restricted in Roobet, Czech IP is banned too in Stake. Fortunejack allows us to enter and register with US IP but it is against the ToS to withdraw any amount for US citizens. Unless users can confirm citizenship with personal documents, customers from the USA will waste their time. BTW, some providers block the specific IP addresses, for example, I can't access Play&Go slots due to restrictions by the provider.

[DoublerHunter]

^ You are definitely right and here is the link where OP can research how to summarized because it seems all games had a different restriction on each country. https://fortunejack.com/faq/prohibited-territories.
There are certain games that putting restrictions of FortuneJack, probably OP will take time to summarize all of them. As I observed, most usually from the US have a restriction on gambling.

[Twentyonepaylots]

It seems like USA and UK has the most restricted countries for the casinos. I don't know about their national policies but it seems hard to pass to those policies. Here in my country, I don't know they they restrict any casino since they could just put their hand to it and get tax out of it. It's just a matter of regulation and licensure right? or a lot complicated than these countries?

[Pmalek]

I hope the list here is not restricted to your own choices and we are allowed to request other sites to be tested.

I checked the casinos whose ANNs were at the top of the gambling board so the selection process was in no way biased. I might do the same next time as well or take into considerations what other users suggest, like in your example.

^ You are definitely right and here is the link where OP can research how to summarized because it seems all games had a different restriction on each country. https://fortunejack.com/faq/prohibited-territories.
There are certain games that putting restrictions of FortuneJack, probably OP will take time to summarize all of them. As I observed, most usually from the US have a restriction on gambling.

 
My goal here is not to check which game providers have country restrictions, I am only checking what country limitations casinos have in place and whether or not it is possible to access their site from a restricted country. 

[khaled0111]

@Pmalek, I appreciate the effort you have put into this but if I may ask: what's your aim from notifying them?
I am sure they already know about this, so I suggest you ask them for clarifications or to tell you the reasons why they allow usets from restricted countries to use their services.
What I couldn't understand is why some of them geo-blocked certain countries? Is it because of their strict gambling legislations?

You suggest you post your concerns in their ANN threads or contact them via email.

[Furious 7]

Sportsbet.io and Betcoin.ag cannot be accessed using my country's IP maybe because of the detected restrictions so I rarely open the gambling site occasionally only use a VPN if I want to play there.
But other gambling sites are quite safe so for me every time I play gambling because there are no restrictions on the IP I use, it will remain in my country that gambling is strictly prohibited and because of existing regulations, if it is caught it will be blocked too.

[michellee]

Although gambling sites have IP blocks for some restricted countries, it doesn't mean that a gambler can not access that site because as long as a gambler can use VPN, especially a premium VPN, he can visit on that site without a problem. Even if gambling is prohibited in his country, he can still visit that site using a VPN. So I think that will not be a problem. With VPN, we can open the restricted website, and we can get inside without anyone knows.

[Rikafip]

Although gambling sites have IP blocks for some restricted countries, it doesn't mean that a gambler can not access that site because as long as a gambler can use VPN, especially a premium VPN, he can visit on that site without a problem. Even if gambling is prohibited in his country, he can still visit that site using a VPN. So I think that will not be a problem. With VPN, we can open the restricted website, and we can get inside without anyone knows.

I think that you missed the point of this thread even though OP explained why he is doing that, so let me try to explain

It's all fine and dandy when you use VPN to circumvent restriction, but what will happen in case you hit the jackpot, and then casino decides to ask you for KYC We've seen plenty of those cases in scam accusation board where casinos didn't really care from where people are as long as they were loosing money, but things changed fast when it was time for big payout.


Good initiative @Pmalek, I'll definitely follow this thread as I'm curious whether they do anything after you contacting them.

[Pmalek]

@Pmalek, I appreciate the effort you have put into this but if I may ask: what's your aim from notifying them?
I am sure they already know about this, so I suggest you ask them for clarifications or to tell you the reasons why they allow usets from restricted countries to use their services.

I want to know why they don't put more effort into preventing users from restricted countries from registering/gambling/using their services. It seems weird that you can gamble and deposit money from country X, but when it is time to withdraw your winnings, citizens from country X aren't allowed. It causes anger by the users, and the casinos are making themselves look bad. Issues for both parties can be prevented with active IP blocks.   

Some sites might not be aware that their IP blocks don't work properly or work only partially. If you check my results, you will notice that Stake for example, has active IP blocks for France and USA. The UK should be blocked as well, but for some reason I could enter the site with a British IP address. They might not be aware of that.

Although gambling sites have IP blocks for some restricted countries, it doesn't mean that a gambler can not access that site because as long as a gambler can use VPN, especially a premium VPN, he can visit on that site without a problem.

That is a completely other discussion. In case the users are cheating on purpose and telling lies about their nationality/location, they only have themselves to blame if things go wrong.

I would like to see the casinos do a better job on their end.

 

[michellee]

and then casino decides to ask you for KYC

You can search for the gambling websites which don't require KYC, so no matter if you use VPN, you will be okay to withdraw the money.

To @Pmalek: Did you use a free VPN or premium VPN? Because I think the result will be different between free VPN and premium VPN.

Most people will withdraw their big winning at once without dividing it for many withdrawal transactions. Their reason is that they want to avoid the fee. If he realizes that the fee is not too big than his winning, so he doesn't have to withdraw at once.

I think the gambler needs to find what the gambling site they should choose, and before they can find the right site, they don't have to use a larger amount to play gambling. Their purposes of playing gambling are finding which site allows them to register, play gambling, and withdraw the win money. But if somehow, they got a big win, never withdraw all of the win money at once.

We got a list from @Pmalek. Thanks to him.

So you know which site that you can use to playing gambling.

Although gambling sites have IP blocks for some restricted countries, it doesn't mean that a gambler can not access that site because as long as a gambler can use VPN, especially a premium VPN, he can visit on that site without a problem.

That is a completely other discussion. In case the users are cheating on purpose and telling lies about their nationality/location, they only have themselves to blame if things go wrong.

I would like to see the casinos do a better job on their end.

I think the gambling website don't care wherever they come from, and they never ask their visitor (for the gambling site which doesn't ask for KYC). But they can monitor which countries that access their site. But well, the casino can say that their member breaks the rule because of something.

[NotATether]

Sportsbet.io and Betcoin.ag cannot be accessed using my country's IP maybe because of the detected restrictions so I rarely open the gambling site occasionally only use a VPN if I want to play there.
But other gambling sites are quite safe so for me every time I play gambling because there are no restrictions on the IP I use, it will remain in my country that gambling is strictly prohibited and because of existing regulations, if it is caught it will be blocked too.

I infer you've deposited money and played at sportsbet and betcoin.ag, since you can't place bets there without a deposit, but have you ever sucessfully withdrawn funds from them, or was that blocked too?

And what about the casinos you accessed with your home IP were there any withdrawal problems with them?

N.B. before I forget: chips.gg seems to detect if you are using a US VPN and it stops you from playing the live games until you turn it off. The in-house games and the rest of the site are still accessible, which makes sense as you can't judge a customer's location by a colocation IP address block that VPN providers use.

[Pmalek]

Good initiative @Pmalek, I'll definitely follow this thread as I'm curious whether they do anything after you contacting them.

Thanks Rikafip!

To @Pmalek: Did you use a free VPN or premium VPN? Because I think the result will be different between free VPN and premium VPN.

I used free VPN services.

N.B. before I forget: chips.gg seems to detect if you are using a US VPN and it stops you from playing the live games until you turn it off. The in-house games and the rest of the site are still accessible, which makes sense as you can't judge a customer's location by a colocation IP address block that VPN providers use.

That IP detection might be something that the casino has detected, or it could be a check that the game developers perform. For example Netent and Ezugi games aren't accessible for US players. So if you wanted to play an Ezugi live dealer game on a site that allows US players, chances are that you would either by geo blocked or if the casino were to check your identity, they could freeze your funds.

I informed the first batch of casinos about my findings. I posted in the ANN threads of Roobet, Stake Chips.gg, and Betcoin. I considered contacting the casinos via customer support, but by making the posts public I can reduce the chances of them getting lost, not seen, not sent to appropriate parties, etc.

Coins777, PlayBitcoinGames.com, JacksClub.io, and 7XL.co were not approached since their TOS doesn't contain the necessary info about restricted countries.

[Sadlife]

Your test might not be as accurate as you think, because gambling sites know your using a VPN but still can get your geolocation in other words they can still get your real IP. So better software could be a recommended such as sockets or VPS, because its more untraceable, and mostly undetected.
But the fact that the user can register, and deposit money but can't withdraw is just fraud. That gambling site should be reported here, so users would be notify and stay away from such theft.

[Betcoin.AG]

Hello, and thank you for the inquiry. We do have IP bans in place for USA, UK and all restricted regions. If someone uses a VPN to circumvent the IP ban, we cannot prevent them from registering for an account. Anyone signing up for an online casino should always check the terms of service and make sure they are eligible prior to signing up.

If someone has a Betcoin.ag account which was created before we received our license, they will still be able to login from their US, UK or AUS IPs, but new sign-ups will not.

If anyone has a question prior to creating an account at Betcoin.ag, we offer 24/7 support. Best of luck to you!

[NotATether]

Your test might not be as accurate as you think, because gambling sites know your using a VPN but still can get your geolocation in other words they can still get your real IP. So better software could be a recommended such as sockets or VPS, because its more untraceable, and mostly undetected.
But the fact that the user can register, and deposit money but can't withdraw is just fraud. That gambling site should be reported here, so users would be notify and stay away from such theft.

Casinos and other websites can only get your geolocation if you explicitly give them that permission from the browser, there's usually a modal popup that asks for permission to use your GPS sensor.
And such tracking isn't applicable in the first place if your device doesn't have a GPS sensor.

VPS (unless you install remote desktop software on it) and sockets, which I take to mean SOCKS proxies, won't stop them from collecting your geolocation.

Betcoin staff replied as I was writing this, I'm going to assume that merely accessing the site through a VPN while living in a restricted place isn't going to get your account closed and you'd be able to withdraw normally.