AGLC warns Albertans about fraudulent gambling ads

Alberta Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis (AGLC) has recently sent out a warning to Albertans with regards to the persistence of fraudulent casino gambling apps and scammer ads on social media. 

The perpetrators behind this fraudulent behavior are targeting their victims by impersonating the staff members of land-based casinos and stealing their logos and building photos. 

In a statement that was recently released by the AGLC, the following was declared: 

“Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) has recently been made aware of fraudulent apps and social media ads impersonating casinos and racing entertainment centres (RECs) in the province. These deceptive ads imply that the province’s land-based venues have added online gambling to their operations.” 

In this way, it seems that Albertans are being bombarded with ads for online gambling sites and apps that do not actually exist. In fact, online gambling has not been licensed in any of the land-based casinos currently situated in the province of Alberta: 

“None of Alberta’s 29 casinos or racing entertainment centres are licensed to offer online gaming. Using these apps or accessing these social media ads may put a user’s personal information at risk.” 

In addition to this, the AGLC went on to state the following regarding the dissemination of fraudulent online gambling apps that are currently wreaking havoc on Albertans: 

“Along with inauthentic ads for land-based gaming venues, there has been an increase in counterfeit applications for PlayAlberta.ca on both the Apple and Android app stores. PlayAlberta.ca is the province’s only legal gambling website and is available on desktop, tablet and smartphone browsers.” 

In lieu of this, the AGLC has sent out an urgent warning to Albertans, cautioning them to exercise maximum vigilance when coming across these types of advertisements: 

“Users should be vigilant when examining ads online or in an app store and look for signs.” 

Amongst the signs that the AGLC has cautioned users about, the following are some of the most prevalent: 

• Authentic ads for licensed casinos in the province will always utilize the official name of the venue. 

• Common grammatical and syntactical errors present on advertisements is an indication of inauthenticity. 

• If you are asked to share any financial information, following the claim that you have won a prize, you must be extremely suspicious. 

Following these cautionary remarks, the AGLC ended their statement in the following way: 

“AGLC continues to work with Alberta’s casino and racing entertainment centre operators to ensure that both the in-person and online safety of all patrons is of the highest priority.” 

The persistent rise of social media casino fraud all over Canada 

This onslaught of fraudulent gambling apps and social media advertisements has not only afflicted Alberta. Far from that, cases of casino fraud have been popping up all over Canada. 

So far, the provinces that have been affected the most are Manitoba, Québec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. 

The perpetrators of these scams often intend to commit identity theft, persistently bombarding Canadian residents with fake online casino ads and ultimately persuading them to register their player accounts. 

At the beginning of January, Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries had issued a statement, warning residents about the many online casino ads that were floating around the social media platform of Facebook. These ads were promoting online casino apps that, in fact, did not exist. 

Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries had reported these ads to Meta, the parent company of Facebook. Despite this initiative and the efforts involved, however, these fraudulent advertisements still persist.