It appears that we may need watchdogs, for the watchdogs.

With most gambling sites located in offshore locals such as Aruba, Belize and Costa Rica, it is not surprising that many punters are concerned about sending their money to these regions that operate under little regulation.

Thus sprung the demand for watchdogs to monitor and report on legitimacy of these sites.

Indeed, many came to the call and published articles and reviews that claimed to objectively examine the sites and report on those which were scheming and cheating players.

The also recommended sites and scrutinized others.

Recently, it has come to light, that these watchdogs sites themselves are often less than above board.

Many have been receiving payments for their reviews, and have even posted their reviews as advertisements for the sites.

They have also been known to receive payments for sending their customers to specific sites.

Consequently, sites with connections to watchdog sites receive golden reviews encouraging players in their direction, while the opposite is true of those sites without the connection.

The problem is many players are not aware of these problems.

What is resulting, according to Chief Executive of Leisure & Gaming PLC, Alistair Assheton, is that sites are being held to ransom.

Assheton, whose company is publicly listed and operates several online gambling sites accuses watchdog companies of threatening to publish poor reviews on sites they don’t receive payments from.

While Americans provide most of the global revenue for online gambling, it has nevertheless been declared illegal by the US government.
This forces players to wager on offshore sites that don’t necessarily have regulating bodies.

The watchdog sites were intended to quell these consumer fears.

More often, however, their business links to the actual sites themselves is eroding their function.

While watchdog sites are supposed to base their ratings on their own analyses, reports from players and on user factors, more and more, they are being influenced by the online companies themselves.

Further conflicts of interests arise with the intermingling of business relations between gambling sites and rating sites. They often blur the lines without posting the fact publicly that reviews are often also paying advertisers.

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