How to Detect Fake Online Slots: 2 Different Ways

Probably you have encountered situations when you're not 100% sure that online slot you are playing at is an original product. The good news that there are ways to find out it with high or even absolute level of confidence.

In this article I am going to show you how to detect fake casino software in two different ways:

• comparison of a certain slot with a slot from the software developer website

• establishing from which server an HTTP response comes from

The first one is super easy to use but it is less reliable. Though the second one is relatively complicated (involves a few nerdy steps) but very accurate.

Doesn’t matter which one you prefer to use on a regular basis I will try my best to explain both of them in details.

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What are fake slots and why they are harmful to casino players

As you may know, online casinos don’t develop their own software. Instead, they rent it from companies which focus their efforts only on building video slots and other online casino games (the most prominent are Netent, Microgaming, Quickspin, PlayNgo and many more).

When somebody creates a great product, be sure that some individuals are going to counterfeit it. It causes immense harm to right holders and customers as well and becomes the biggest challenge, especially for software industries.

In case with video slots, malicious actors are trying to impersonate the appearance of online slot and its payout mechanics as well. The last one is especially harmful to online casino players because it allows to change RTP (return to player %) of online slots and set it at any level.

I would say, the whole point of counterfeiting of online slots is to have access to RTP %. When you are playing in licensed online slots, an online casino cannot alter RTP that was set by a game developer at decent levels (around 96% on the average) by using RNG. But fake slots let to do so. They can make RTP even as low as 1% which means that the player is going to be robbed.

Not only RTP is different in fake online slots, but some other parameters could be affected as well:

• frequency of hitting Free spins

• frequency of hitting Bonus game

• disallowing to hit the big win

Needless to stress out how devastating is to fall for fake slots, because there are basically no chances to win when you are playing against a fraud.

Compare with original and establish if there are any differences

Making a fake slot looks exactly like an original is quite a challenge. That’s true because the slot’s graphics and mechanics involve numerous tiny details, which are hard to simulate impeccably.

Hence, the chances are high that fraud is going to make quite a few mistakes and you will be able to tell apart original and fake slot visually.

In order to do so:

• find out which company has produced the slot you are suspecting to be fake

• then visit this company’s official website

• try to play in this slot for free. The majority of software providers allows players to try slots out for free on their website. The coolest thing that even when you are playing for free other components of the online slot stay exactly the same.

• compare it with the slot at the suspected online casino and find out if there is any difference

I deliberately prefer not to provide you with examples of fake slots, because I don’t want to promote them in any ways. Also, there are many versions of fake slots, and appearance substantially varies from one fraud group to another. But be sure, that 9 of 10 they are made really clumsy, and simple visual comparison is going to be enough.

They are usually poorly made because it is relatively costly to impersonate online slot properly. Also, the fact that there are thousands of online slots on the market adds complexity to the task.

From which server HTTP response comes from

This method allows to figure out if an online slot is fake with almost 100% confidence. Here you don’t have to rely on your own judgement. However, it involves a few steps to be taken, but don’t worry, I will supplement everything that is going to be said with images.

First, let’s find out how an online casino player, casino website, and slot developer server interact with each other. I believe that understanding how the whole system works is going to make your job easier.

Whenever you visit any website on the internet, your browser is sending an HTTP request to this website. The website is processing your HTTP request and sending back to your browser an HTTP response.

Both the HTTP request and HTTP response are nothing but a programming code that your browser understands. Then the browser converts this code into a human-readable format, and the code becomes what you see as a web page. That is how every page on the internet is being served.

In case with online casinos, the same rule is applied with one specificity. Since the online casino doesn’t produce video slots on its own, it has to turn to slot developer web servers.

Hence, when you are playing in any online slot, your browser sends HTTP request to online casino website. Online casino website does not have access to slots (they are being rented from software provider). Thus, an online casino redirects your HTTP request to the software provider. The bottom line is that all online slots are being served to your browser not from online casino website but from software provider web servers.