Officials with the Arizona Gaming Department are warning against a national trend they say is starting to affect casinos here, too. The state Department of Gaming is sounding the alarm about a wave of scammers imitating real casinos’ branding in flashy social media ads to promote illegal online gambling platforms.
Dayne O’Brien, a spokesperson and tribal liaison with the agency, said the bogus apps and websites might not always be obvious when you first scroll past them.
“They might use, like, similar branding, enticing promotions,” said O’Brien, “and it might say something like, ‘Hey, like Gila River is now live online on the app store,’ or ‘Casino Del Sol is now live, play online now.’ So stuff like that, just like really, just we would think, ‘Oh, like, hey, that might be legal’. But really, i-gaming or online casino gaming is not legal in the state of Arizona.”
O’Brien said that falling for a scam isn’t your fault and isn’t a crime, but it is important to report it to the Attorney General’s Office.
“Through, like, Facebook — online, on different platforms, people were actually seeing their own casinos that they worked at or their own tribe's casino online,” said O’Brien. “That's how it was brought to our attention.”
These scammers, he said, are siphoning revenue away from tribes that are entitled to it.
“It's really sad because it's like they're like, ‘Hey, like, what is the department doing to protect against this?’” O’Brien said. “And we're obviously doing everything we can. But when it comes to online apps, websites, et cetera, it's very hard to kind of be proactive and get in front of, like, the Google Play Store or, like, the App Store.”
Which is why, he added, reporting it is so crucial.
“Any online operators where that's not legal in a certain state — that's kind of been a huge uptick ever since sports betting was legalized in the United States,” said O’Brien.
He added that it’s a good idea to double-check any online gaming platform before playing with the department’s online list.
