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The Class1Casino staff has been a very, very naughty bunch of scammers. Check out our review of this rogue casino to find out what went wrong.
Class1Casino Review
Ever heard of Class1Casino? If you started playing online after 2011, chances are you probably haven’t. However, back in 2011, this online casino created quite a stir in the internet gambling community. And quite frankly, some of their actions towards their players were totally ridiculous. Prepare yourself for a thrilling tale of lies and deceit in one of the more famous internet gambling scandals. Spoiler alert: the bad guys lost.
General Information
At first, Class1Casino did not stick out from the rest. There was nothing phony about it, and its website looked like any average gambling site which provided users with a fun online gaming experience. The Class1Casino website offered a large collection of top-class games provided by Playtech, and it openly showed its online gambling license from Curaçao.
Moreover, there was a wide choice of slots, video poker, and table games, and the casino boasted of its reliable SSL encryption, TST certification, bonus offers, and 24/7 customer service.
In theory, this gaming site looked like a trustworthy online casino until a shady secret was discovered.
First Impression
Here is the general lowdown on what happened: Class1Casino was actually born from the ashes of Maxima Casino, which was closed down after a scandal. Namely, Maxima Casino was blacklisted for tampering with their terms and conditions before allowing winners to withdraw some rather large sums in winnings and bonuses. When proof was provided by multiple players who were outright scammed in the same way, Maxima simply closed shop and vanished.
Their organization got away with a lot of money in 2008 and never even gave those players a chance to contact the management. Other players quickly discovered that a new site, Class1Casino, was established by the same owners, and the cherry on top was the fact that this place used the same shady terms and conditions as Maxima.
The kicker here is that Class1Casino did pretty much the same thing with the players’ money. They confiscated winnings, denied bonuses, and when they were busted, they put the blame on Playtech, their game provider. Luckily, their blame game didn’t work, and the evidence was enough to put them down for good in 2011.
Sadly, the Class1Casino name lives on in some way: their website is semi-active, and all the content on it is now written in Thai. Even though we doubt the casino will resurface any time soon, you should definitely keep an eye out for it and familiarize yourself with some of the issues that got this casino blacklisted. The casino looked completely normal and appeared like it was fully legit, and because of that, it managed to lure and scam a lot of users.
Games and Software
Both Maxima and Class1Casino used software by Playtech. This provider is among the biggest in the world, and they strive to dominate the market by creating great titles. In fact, this provider started making games way back in 1999, so that should definitely account for their reputation and reliability. Class1Casino offered all the standard casino games by Playtech (200+), as well as some official movie-themed slots like Marvel’s Iron Man. Concerning Playtech’s reputation and game quality, there was no reason to believe something would happen with Class1Casino.
Yet when it was discovered that Class1Casino refused to pay players their winnings by changing the terms and conditions after those players have already won, it was actually Playtech who took action and shut down their gaming servers. Some forum posts claim that Class1Casino sent out an official email which directly blamed Playtech for breaching their contract. The email from Class1Casino also cowardly stated that they tried to do everything in their power to fix all their issues, but that the shutting down of the casino was unavoidable. Whether this was a payment issue between the casino and the provider or Playtech didn’t want to be involved with a casino that scams its players, it is still unclear. However, one thing we know for sure is that Playtech and their games had played no part in scamming the players of Class1Casino.
User Experience
If you need more details about this bizarre scam story, it’s best to look into user experiences.
Namely, back when this casino was named Maxima, one user won a couple of thousand euros when he used a deposit bonus. And when he wanted to withdraw his winnings, customer service initially told him via live chat that he had met the wagering requirements. However, they quickly changed the terms and conditions for the requirements and told him players from his country had a wagering requirement of 99x of his bonus, plus his deposit. They set him up with an impossible requirement which would have caused him to lose everything. The player had proof that he had met all the requirements before they were abruptly changed and the staff told him they would fix the issue, but never responded after that.
Moreover, there were other, even crazier examples when the newer, Class1Casino, flat out broke their own terms and conditions and refused to pay out real money to many players. Other comments on forums and review websites were also quite negative, saying the staff refused to solve players’ issues regarding payments and didn’t respond to them at all. Overall, the user testimonials prove that the owners of Maxima and Class1Casino treated their players with total disrespect.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- We didn’t spend any money there.
- Playtech played an invaluable role in taking this casino down.
Cons
- Stealing winnings from players.
- Horrible treatment of customers.
- Just about everything else you can imagine.
Our Verdict
Class1Casino is about as shady and two-faced as it can get. Their management cheated their players, and when they were busted, they tried to squirm out of it like treacherous snakes by blaming their provider. This casino’s ownership managed to scam people not once, but many times, with both Maxima Casino and the newer, Class1Casino. It seems like they didn’t even try to cover up their tracks but have still managed to pull the same scam over and over again. Luckily, the bad guys were caught, and we hope their organization never scams anyone again. Our verdict is that, if you’re going to scam people, at least come up with a less suspicious casino name than Class1Casino!
Casino Rating
- Customer support: 1/10 — customer service was pure evil.
- Cashout time: 1/10 — player funds were confiscated or not paid out.
- Software: 1/10 for Class1Casino (but 9/10 for Playtech).
- Jurisdiction: 6/10 — At least they had a license from Curaçao.
- Total: 2/10 — Why aren’t the owners in jail yet?!
The management of this casino has already shown that they can resurface and scam players over and over. They can easily get another game provider and set up a new casino with the aim of repeating their activities. So to stay safe while gambling online, you should always be on the lookout for updated casino blacklists and avoid rogue casinos like Class1Casino.
