Washington Tribes Fight Back Against Fraudulent Online Casino Apps
Scammers have been cloning casino brands and logos in an effort to lure players into divulging personal financial information
1 min
Washington state residents are being bombarded with ads on social media, hyping the state’s tribal casinos’ online operations.
There’s only one, big problem: online casinos are not legal in Washington, and the tribes aren’t behind the ads. In short, there is a bad actor out there impersonating the tribes — right down to the Washington State Gambling Commission logo — in an effort to get unsuspecting citizens to download the fraudulent apps.
“This has been going on for about the last month,” Jerry Allen, the CEO of 7 Cedars Casino in Sequim told Casino Reports. “We’re not the only ones; several other tribes have been targeted.”
Allen said the Tulalip, Muckleshoot, and Northern Quest tribes have all seen their casino brands co-opted by the would-be scammers.
Allen said the ads to download the online casino apps have been found on Instagram and other social media sites, and all the tribes have been busy sending emails to their player database.
The Washington State Gambling Commission is aware of the issue, but was not able to comment on the details, as it is treating the problem as an “active investigation.”
Brand importance
“We’re interested in making sure our brands aren’t being trashed or compromised,” Allen said. “We’re running disclaimers and sending messages to our players. Every tribe is doing the same thing, doing our due diligence to make sure people in our database have knowledge of what’s going on right now.”
Allen himself downloaded one of the apps, purporting to be offered by the Shoalwater Bay Casino in Tokeland. And despite the lengths the scammers went to, Allen said after he downloaded it, a message popped up saying he couldn’t place online wagers in Washington.
“They’re definitely phishing,” Allen noted.
The Commission could not confirm or deny the apps led to actual casino sites, but did note if any action is taken — and they expect that decision to be made within the month — it would almost certainly be in the form of cease and desist letters.
For their part, the casinos are fighting back on social media.
“Valued guest, please be cautious of this latest scam targeting Washington based casinos,” reads an Instagram post from 7 Cedars. “Online gambling is not legal in the state of Washington. If you see an add like this in your social media feed, using our pictures or logos, please DO NOT CLICK on it. This IS NOT legitimate and not a 7 Cedars product. This goes for similar ads using other WA casino’s likenesses.”
Similar such scams have been reported in Canada as well as California in recent weeks.
