The Curious Case of BitStarz 🥸
The traditional fiat online casino affiliates are trying to set the tone for Bitcoin Casinos, but they seem to be highly biased due to their business model. 🤑
They seem to apply the traditional casino approach to crypto casino ratings, where crypto enthusiasts has zero tolarence towards unfair terms and anything which is not ‘provably fair’.
Let’s dig into what is happening with BitStarz ratings at traditional fiat casino affiliate giants like: Casino.guru, Lcb.org and Askgamblers and compare it to Bitcoin community hub Bitcointalk.
BitStarz
BitStarz Review
1- Casino.guru Thinks BitStarz is a 10/10 Casino but does not even mention them at their awards 😵💫
Casino.guru is one of the biggest casino review websites out there, if not the biggest. Among many other stuff, they pride themselves for putting ‘Independence and honesty above all’ at their About Us page. This still does not change the fact that they have a affiliate relationship between all the single casinos with a very high Safety Index rating on their site.
According to Casino.guru’s September 2023 archive.org version: BitStarz has a 10/10 rating. As of February 2024, it is lowered to 9.8/10. Still very very high for an online casino rating.
Casino.guru also holds an industry awards called Casino Guru Awards. Here is how they define their awards:
The Casino Guru Awards celebrate the greatest and most successful operators and industry professionals who, thanks to their responsible and proactive approach to doing business, are successfully contributing to Casino Guru’s vision of making online gambling better and safer for everyone, together.
But when you check last year’s moninees, BitStarz is not even nominated for any of the below categories.
- The Fairest Bonus Policy
- The Fairest General T&Cs
- The Most Impactful Social Responsibility Initiative
- The Best Implementation of RG Tools
- The Most Transparent Casino
- The Most Effective Handling of Complaints
- The Most Ethical Approach to Marketing
So when you put this into context, how can a 10/10 rated online casino, is not even be shortlisted for the awards of a website which pride itself as ‘Safety Index NOT for Sale’.
2- Askgamblers Rates BitStarz 10/10, Despite the casino not Refunding a 9.89 BTC Deposit 🤯
Let’s continue to dig in with the industry giant Askgamblers. They were sold for just 45 Million Euros at the end of 2022, but generally they are the ‘go-to’ site for online gamblers to check safety of online casinos. Unsurprisingly, BitStarz is rated 10/10 by Askgamblers and also chosen Best Casino at 2022 Askgamblers Awards.
Despite being affiliated with all of the top rated casinos, Askgamblers claims to use a system called CasinoRank. CasinoRank has very strict criterias including player complaints and reviews.
When you spend just 10 minutes at BitStarz user complaints section at Askgamblers, you can find examples where the casino refuses to refund 9.89 BTC to a player who fails the KYC check. How on earth a KYC check can be an issue for not refunding (we are not saying not paying the winnings, but not refunding) at a crypto casino for a player of that caliber?
Despite the extremely high deposit amount, AskGamblers Complaint Team sees no harm to resolve the case as it is compliant to BitStarz’s T&C. That is also understandable from the casino point of view. They call the shots as long as they have the relevant terms to do so. But how can Askgamblers rate them with 10/10 while they have such an unfair terms of not refunding a player?
3- Lcb.org Awards BitStarz as the Best Online Casino despite a 4.3/5 Rating 🧠
At the end of January 2024, BitStarz has been named the Best Online Casino by one of the casino affiliate giants: Lcb.org. At the 2023 LCB Awards, BitStarz was named not just Best Crypto Casino but Best Online Casino in general. The voting was done by Lcb.org members but it also raised the question of how fair these ratings are.
BitStarz is winning the LCB Award of Best Online Casino for the 2nd consecutive year and they just have a rating of 4.3 out of 5. This rating seems quite realistic for any online casino and LCB Awards are voted by their members. So this whole thing of BitStarz being the best makes some sense. Apart from 4.3 being the best thing out of 5.
4- Bitcointalk Forum Thinks BitStarz might be a Scammer 🥷
Bitcointalk is the hub for Bitcoiners and it is founded by Satoshi Nakamoto who is also the founder of Bitcoin. It is a is a public forum where blockchain people discuss topics about Bitcoin in general, including the Bitcoin casinos. When you visit the official BitStarz thread at Bitcointalk, you see the below warning message:
Warning: One or more bitcointalk.org users have reported that they strongly believe that the creator of this topic is a scammer. (Check their trust page to see the detailed trust ratings.) While the bitcointalk.org administration does not verify such claims, you should proceed with extreme caution.
When you browse just for 10 minutes, you can easily see that BitStarz refuses to refund deposits as big as 1.4 BTC just for KYC reasons. This is understanable as the casino has the right to do so according to their terms and conditions.
But at the same, confiscating deposit money is not acceptable from the crypto point of view and it is no surprise that their thread is flagged. It is likely that there are more complaints like this which caused the thread to be marked with a Warning in the first place.
What are the differences between Fiat Affiliates (like Lcb, Casino.guru and Askgamblers) and Bitcointalk?
- Fiat Affiliates are affiliated with casinos while Bitcointalk has no money relation. Fiat Affiliates make money out of the losses of the players they send.🫰
- Fiat Affiliates think they have the right to ‘resolve’ player complaints while they have ‘zero’ official authority. 👩⚖️
- Fiat Affiliates employ lots of people and have bills to pay while Bitcointalk is run by Bitcoin volunteers. 💸
Bitpunter’s Verdict 🥁
The ‘crypto approach’ to online gambling is very different than traditional fiat online gambling. It all started around 2014 with Provably Fair games like Dice and Crash where all the game play can be verified on blockchain and everything is anonymous as it should be with crypto. Fiat online gambling started with adopting casino table games to online platforms and comes from a very traditional mindset/background from the late 90s.
Casinos like BitStarz has many fiat aspects including fiat currency player accounts, fiat currency deposits and withdrawals. They also offer massive welcome bonuses like 5 BTC + Free Spins. This makes them vulnerable to bonus abuse via multiple accounts with fiat deposits. While still acting like a crypto casino, their operation is very much fiat where they deal with bonus abuse and chargebacks of payments. This makes them very strict in terms of creating and applying their Terms and Conditions.
While they have the absolute right to impose their Terms, this should be noted by crypto players. Provably Fair Casino Sites and Hybrid Casinos (like SoftSwiss Casinos) with both fiat and crypto payments are very different two things. If you sign up to a hybrid casino thinking that KYC is not an issue and think you are using a pure crypto casino, you might end up with having your deposits confiscated. Do not sign up to hybrid casinos without recognizing that you might have to verify your identity. Also, do not use their bonus offers if you want to avoid KYC checks. Or simply go for Provably Fair Casino Sites.
How to avoid ending up with a confiscated balance?
- Choose only pure-crypto and provably fair casinos ⚖️
- Get ready to be KYC-checked if you see anything fiat at the casino 🪪
- Do not use the Welcome Bonus if it seems too good to be true 💰
- Check Bitcointalk threads of casinos before making a deposit 🧑💻
How is Bitpunter.io different? (BitStarz is rated 5/5 at Bitpunter)
- We are a Crypto Casino Affiliate, not a Fiat Affiliate. 🪙
- We understand the concept of crypto casinos. They don’t. 🎲
- We list Provably Fair Crypto Casinos separately for pure-crypto players. 🎰
- We are not that big so we do not risk much when we publish articles like this. 🏃♂️😎
Hope you enjoyed this article and we would be grateful if you can add your comments below.
Top 5 Pure crypto casinos (just to keep them handy)
Stake.com
Stake.com Review
BC.Game
BC.Game Review
Trustdice
Trustdice Review
Bitsler
Bitsler Review
