Fake (Pirated) Casino Games – How to Spot & Avoid Them

Not every game that looks similar is fake, and there are some major distinctions between what may look like clones to you and actual fake games. There are illegal copies, and there are legal games that are simply inspired by existing games. To make things clearer, here are the main types you’ll come across.

These are the most dangerous type. Exact clones, as the name suggests, are direct illegal copies of real pokies, usually taken from popular providers like Pragmatic Play or Novomatic. Everything is copied, including the name, visuals, features, and bonus mechanics, so there’s no visual difference.

The problem is that these games are not connected to the original developer’s system. They’re hosted elsewhere, which means the operator (or the illegal developer) has full control over the game. They can’t manipulate every individual spin because that’s not how pokies work, but they can adjust the RTP and other settings.

These are illegal and you’ll only find them on unregulated or questionable sites. Unfortunately, they’re really hard to recognise.

This type sits in a grey area visually, but not legally. The game still looks like a known pokie, sometimes even using the same name or branding, but some parts have been changed. That could be slight changes to payouts, different symbols, added or removed features, or any other giveaway that indicates the game has been tweaked.

To the untrained eye, the game looks and feels like the original, which is why these can also be hard to spot. In most cases, they’re still unauthorised and fall into the same category as pirated games.

Note from Mike Waters: These are notoriously hard to distinguish because many original pokies and casino games come in different versions. For example, the same game, like Book of Dead by Play’n GO, can come with many different RTP variations, from 91.05% to 95.71%. Some markets also include a gamble feature, others allow the Bonus Buy feature, etc. So, if a game has some feature added or removed, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the game is an illegal clone.

These are games that are “inspired” by other games, but are developed by another fully legitimate studio.

Let’s be completely honest here: chances are that even your favourite provider sometimes takes inspiration from other popular pokies. They often use the same mechanics and themes, but without copying the original game or trying to be the same as it.

I recently stumbled across these two games:

• Brick House Bonanza by Pragmatic Play
• Huff House Bonanza by ICONIC21

The older game here is Brick House Bonanza, which is a video pokie inspired by the famous fairytale about the Three Little Pigs who build houses from straw, wood, and bricks to protect themselves from the wolf. The game uses a 5×3 grid, has the pigs as symbols alongside a saw, a shovel, and the card numbers.

There are several bonus features where the symbol icons get frames from straw, wood, or brick, and at the end of the feature, the wolf comes out and blows the houses to reveal the multipliers.

What a unique pokie game, right? Well, ICONIC21 clearly took inspiration from it, because Huff House Bonanza is almost exactly the same. Yes, the graphics and animations are different (so it’s not a clone), but all the symbols are exactly the same. You’ve got the pigs, the shovel, the saw, and the wolf as a wild symbol.

Even the bonus features are exactly the same, and the feature ends with the wolf blowing the frames to reveal the prizes.

Both games have a maximum win limit of 5,000x the bet, but the ICONIC21 game has a slightly lower RTP at 95.97% compared to 96.50% in Pragmatic Play’s game. Everything else is exactly the same, but they’re both different legitimate games by two major software providers, so there’s no wrongdoing here.

Also, some providers focus on different markets than others, so even if a studio has been heavily “inspired” to create some game, it might cater to a completely different market than the “original”.

This is a completely legal practice. Some themes have been used so many times over the years, like Ancient Egypt, Irish gold, or classic fruit machines, that there are only so many ways you can present them, and overlap is bound to happen.

In some cases, these similarities even come from agreements or shared ideas between studios, especially when targeting different markets.

You don’t need anything too technical for this. While tools like Firefox Developer Edition can help, you can do the exact same thing using regular browsers like Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge, since they already come with built-in developer tools.

Here’s how to check it:

1. Open the casino website in your browser.
2. Right-click anywhere on the page and click “Inspect” (or press F12 on Windows).
3. Go to the “Network” tab.
4. Now launch the pokie you want to check.
5. As the game loads, you’ll see a list of requests appear.

What you’re looking for is the “Domain” (or “Name”) column. This shows where the game is being loaded from.

If the game is legitimate, the requests should come from the provider’s official servers. If you’re playing a game by a known studio, those domains should match the domain of the studio.

If you see something completely unrelated, random, or unique to that one casino, that’s an indicator that it’s a fake game.

Don’t worry, you don’t need to analyse every line. Just check where the game is being served, as that’s usually enough to tell you whether it’s fake.

Below are some common providers and the servers their games are typically loaded from. These can vary slightly depending on region, but they’re usually similar, and they should be consistent across different casinos:

One important thing to keep in mind is that some providers use multiple servers or third-party hosting (like Cloudfront), so the domain might not exactly match the company name. The most important thing to check is whether the same game loads from the same domain type across different casinos. If you see something completely unrelated or unique to one casino, it’s a red flag.

Note from Mike Waters: Back in 2016, a scandal broke out that pirated NetEnt games were running on a server named casinomodul.com instead of the real casinomodule.com. The difference was just one letter, which shows how easy it is to miss if you’re not paying attention.

Fake or pirated pokies are definitely something that exists, but they’re not something you’re likely to run into if you’re playing on reliable and proven platforms.

In most cases, it all comes down to the casino you choose. Well-known sites work with verified providers and don’t take risks with unlicensed software, while questionable casinos or unlicensed platforms might be willing to take that risk and offer fake games.

The good thing is that spotting fake games isn’t complicated once you know what to look for. Whether it’s checking the provider, looking up the game, or going a step further and verifying the server, you’ve got more than enough ways to check whether a casino game is legit or fake.

At the end of the day, if something doesn’t feel right, it’s always better to double-check than to keep playing a fake or pirated game with questionable RTP and validity.