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The allegedly fraudulent casino has been accused of everything from illegal operations to scamming its own players.
In the latest of a string of allegations, Rollbit, a notorious online casino, appears to be operating illegally. Historically, it has stood accused of everything from fraudulent influencer marketing, imposing undisclosed fees on their players, and even price manipulation of their own NFTs. The most recent accusation they face may be the most damaging yet: they are illegally operating following the removal of their license.
These accusations are not surprising, given that Rollbit is owned by the same people behind csgodiamonds.com, which collapsed after they were caught for false advertising by rigging games. It appears these individuals are operating the similar profiteering schemes under a different guise.
The most immediate concern for players is Rollbit’s legal status. The recent removal of their license from the site and the required shield suggests that they are now operating without a license – which is illegal. The company has since stated that they are engaged in an annual license review, which is unconvincing: commentators note that these licenses are valid indefinitely as long as the master license remains valid for five years, which contradicts Rollbit’s claim of needing to renew its license annually.
Those with a financial stake in the matter aren’t taking any risks. Traders have begun selling off the RLB token, which dropped 20% in just 24 hours after rumours began to surface.
But questions as to the integrity and legitimacy of the company’s operations doesn’t end there. Rollbit’s influencer marketing strategy is seriously alarming. The company’s founder has allegedly made dozens of private, undisclosed influencer deals to pump the price of their RLB token through ‘organic’ and undisclosed tweets – and would pay out the funds when RLB hits the price target. These backdoor deals as a method of influencer shilling are highly unethical, not to mention fraudulent and could constitute market manipulation.
The casino has also been known to provide influencers with fake balances, in turn allowing them to showcase huge wins using house money, luring their audience into gambling through affiliate links. Such practices amount to fraud, where unsuspecting players are being hooked and generating risk-free revenue for the casino.
The site also stands accused of historical price manipulation on its Rollbot NFTs, which it did in an apparent last-ditch attempt to narrowly avoid insolvency. With irresponsibly high bet limits on their site, it appeared to only be a matter of time before a highroller won an unpayable amount on Rollbit – which became a reality in October 2021, when a player won $10 million. Rollbit subsequently went into debt and did not have the funds to pay the user back. In a telling sign of Rollbit’s moral and ethical standards, the player in question was drip fed a few dozen thousand every few days (which he lost, predictably, playing their games) before sending him more to pay off the debt after they had scraped together the funds.
The funds were raised with the release of Rollbots V1, a collection of 10,000 NFTs with a $1,000 mint price. To lure buyers in, Rollbit guaranteed a full refund for all purchases one week following the mint, and then manipulated floor prices by buying up all low-listed Rollbots. Although it narrowly escaped insolvency this time around, there are no guarantees it will be able to do it again. And by raising the $10 million needed to stay afloat in a manner which showed no concern for its customers or players, Rollbit proved once again that it is run by deceitful individuals who show no regard for player funds and their community’s wellbeing.
An additional cause for concern is the undisclosed fees imposed upon unsuspecting players for crypto futures trading – which their own staff aren’t even aware of. When a user highlighted that they were charged unexpected fees, Rollbit’s own customer support couldn’t identify the fees and later, customer support claimed that ‘the formula [for the fees] isn’t a one size fits all number…’ The variable fees were then defended by another staff member as ‘almost certainly disclosed.’ Legitimate businesses keep their fee structures transparent and clear. By taking a discretionary and undisclosed fee, with no plausible explanation as to why, Rollbit is scamming its own players.
Online casinos must be transparent, fair, and lawful at the very minimum. It’s not the first time Rollbit’s owners have been caught for their unethical business practices. But now Rollbit has lost its license, players have lost their legal protections, and must be wary of Rollbit and other bad actors like it who don’t operate with their community’s best interests in mind but are instead only interested in lining their own pockets. It’s high time that regulators step in to protect consumers and put an end to unethical business practices, particularly those embodied by Rollbit.
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