Tips for Spotting Counterfeit Online Pokies

While there are dozens of legitimate online gambling companies that develop online pokies, there are many others that produce counterfeit games. How do you spot a counterfeit game from a legitimate game? Today, we will give you some tips on how to spot potentially counterfeit online pokies.

Title Sounds Similar to Popular Pokie Game

One of the biggest giveaways of counterfeit pokies are games that have titles that sound similar to other well-known games. For example, we recently reviewed Candy Tower. A counterfeit game may be titled Tower of Candy. Instead of El Paso Gunfight, the game may be titled El Paso Gunfighter or Gunfight at El Paso.

These games are usually mistaken to be authentic games by those who aren’t paying careful attention or may not remember the name exactly. Those games may have some of these other features.

Unknown Provider or Nameless Provider

Often, you will see counterfeit games come from providers that are otherwise largely unknown. The game may be the only game offered by this company, or the library of games is very small. If the company has a website, it will generally be very nondescript and it’s possible the company could be a new one.

Alternatively, you may run across online pokies that do not list the maker whatsoever. This should be a big red flag. If you don’t know who made the games, how do you know they are legit. Note, we are not talking about trusted casinos like Ignition Casino who develop their own games.

No RTP or Volatility Information on Counterfeit Online Pokies

Another potential red flag for online pokies is games where the provider will not disclose the RTP or the volatility of the game. This is often done to hide the payout percentages as they are generally much lower than the industry standard. In some cases, they may be as low as 80%, which is what you’d expect in live casinos.

We know what you’re thinking. Real Time Gaming is a company that doesn’t post the RTP of its games. That’s one knock against the company, but RTG has also been in business for decades. However, the company is also famous for having high volatility games, so you kinda already know what to expect. However, a new company that doesn’t list RTP and volatility should be avoided.

Demo Games Play Too Loosely

In the early days of online casinos, you could not trust the demo version of online pokies. That’s because the demo versions were programmed to pay out high to convince you they were loose. Once you deposited money, you’d lose your shirt.

At modern-day Australian online casinos, demo games will play the same as the real money version. That’s because most regulators require this of its licensees. However, counterfeit games tend to revert to the early 2000s era of online pokies. If a game seems to play too loose in the demo version, that should be a major red flag.

Abnormally High RTP on Counterfeit Online Pokies

Let’s say you found that El Paso Gunfighter had an RTP of 99.2%. Would you give it a try? In a normal scenario, you’d probably jump at the chance. However, if the game is a counterfeit one, you cannot pay attention to the listed RTP of the game.

Many counterfeit games will list abnormally high RTPs to try and draw players in. What generally happens is that the game plays a lot tighter than the RTP. One way to tell is by looking at the RTP of all games made by the company. If they all are abnormally high, something may be up. It is not uncommon for companies to develop pokies with high RTPs, but they are infrequently developed. When you see groups of high RTP games offered, beware.