Two Suspicious Cyprus Online Casinos Go Down

Two online establishments, mostly operating online casinos in Cyprus, are closed down, possibly for good.

The main complaint about iButler Casino and Bet821 was their usage of copycat software.

Cypriot gambling news also mention two possible other problems with the operators. One is forcing employees to pose as players, also known as shilling, and the other is playing one the oldest tricks in the book: spamming gambling-related message boards.

Some players had noticed earlier a striking similarity between the games on the two websites launched in 2009 and those on Rival Gaming. According to iButler Casino and Bet821, Malta-based 36 Gaming supplied them with the suspicious online applications.

The rather simple copycat solutions were reported accordingly to Rival, and the information about the dubious software operations was sent to gambling news sites.

A Cyprus-based employee, Nicos Theocharides, tried to minimize the damage by writing to webmasters "for and on behalf of iButler and Bet821 Casino Teams" stating that the companies had innocently used the alleged copycat software. Theocharides also named the Cyprus firm Fenganda as the source of the dubious software.

To this date, both iButler and Bet821 feature the following notices in English and Greek: "We would like to inform you that iButler Casino has permanently suspended all its operation activities. Players who have real money balances in their account, kindly contact Customer Support Team by e-mail.”

The legal entities behind the sites, rumored to be British Virgin Isles licensed companies that also meet the requirements to prescribed Cypriot gambling laws, are specialized in providing white label solutions. The companies are presumed to work with alleged software from 36 Gaming.