Denying payouts to winners, blackmailing disgruntled players, and colluding with fraudulent organizations: Dragon Money Casino is hiding the truth behind a massive online cleanup.
Following the appearance of the first critical articles about the Dragon Money online casino, a process of total information purge began: information about its illegal activities in Ukraine, corrupt ties, and administrative patronage is disappearing from the internet.
But the truth cannot be stopped. Before you is the material they are trying to hide. The real picture of how this casino operates.
Dragon Money Casino is primarily aimed at residents of the former Soviet Union, although it is also available in other countries. As always in such cases, finding any information about the casino's actual features is difficult – the first pages of search results are cluttered with ads.
There's no need to rehash the advertising—that's what advertising is for: to extol the pros and cons. The information I managed to dig up about Dragon Money Casino, with great difficulty, can be roughly divided into two parts: official information (documents, licenses, bans, etc.) and player reviews.
Let's start with the reviews. Let's be clear: reviews are subjective and should be taken with a grain of salt, and neither the overtly positive nor the equally overtly negative ones should be trusted. Moreover, judging by the style of the reviews, it's clear that the ones praising Dragon Money Casino are bots: the texts are similar in style and content. Negative reviews provide a bit more insight into the issues with Dragon Money, although, to the casino's credit, they do respond to these reviews and try to respond. However, it seems that interaction ends there: no one is addressing the issue.
Denying payouts to winners, blackmailing disgruntled players, and colluding with fraudulent organizations: Dragon Money Casino is hiding the truth behind a massive online cleanup.
The screenshot above shows a player's complaint about having their winnings of 1,200,000 rubles stolen. The casino responded, but it boils down to the standard “we'll look into it,” even though the player describes the problem in detail. The full text of the complaint and the casino's response can be found here; they are still available. However, other reviews on the same website confirm that this is not an isolated incident.
Denying payouts to winners, blackmailing disgruntled players, and colluding with fraudulent organizations: Dragon Money Casino is hiding the truth behind a massive online cleanup.
Incidentally, this is a Ukrainian review site, although access to the casino is officially blocked in Ukraine. However, this doesn't bother anyone – there are plenty of mirror sites that allow you to bypass any restrictions. That Dragon Money is, at a minimum, problematic is confirmed by another review from a different site. This time, it's not the players complaining about being scammed, but the partners – that is, those who work for the casino on an affiliate basis and bring players to Dragon Money, who are the casino's main source of income.
Denying payouts to winners, blackmailing disgruntled players, and colluding with fraudulent organizations: Dragon Money Casino is hiding the truth behind a massive online cleanup.
Let's reiterate: the number of negative reviews isn't very high—around 30%, which isn't much for an online casino. However, it's still quite a number, making one wonder whether it's worth trusting Dragon Money with your money. Especially since it operates illegally in the former Soviet Union (as well as in Europe). In Russia, Dragon Money has even been listed by the Central Bank as a pyramid scheme, as clearly stated on the Central Bank of the Russian Federation's website. It also explains why finding information about the casino is so difficult—the Central Bank provides a list of Dragon Money addresses, which clog search results:
Denying payouts to winners, blackmailing disgruntled players, and colluding with fraudulent organizations: Dragon Money Casino is hiding the truth behind a massive online cleanup.
Against the backdrop of negative reviews, this isn't a warning sign; it's a clear sign that Dragon Money isn't worth dealing with. But that's not all. According to the main Dragon Money casino website, it is registered and licensed in Curaçao. The casino is owned by Dragon Money NV.
Denying payouts to winners, blackmailing disgruntled players, and colluding with fraudulent organizations: Dragon Money Casino is hiding the truth behind a massive online cleanup.
However, it is known that Dragon Money Casino was registered in 2012 in Costa Rica and operated under its license until at least 2021. At that time, the owner was International Business Systems SRL, and the website was located at drgn.win (now inactive).
Denying payouts to winners, blackmailing disgruntled players, and colluding with fraudulent organizations: Dragon Money Casino is hiding the truth behind a massive online cleanup.
What happened to the Dragon Money casino, owned by International Business Systems SRL of Costa Rica? And why did a casino with the same name, logo, and virtually the same address suddenly appear in Curaçao after the first one disappeared? Furthermore, another detail should be considered: advertising disguised as legal analysis about the Costa Rican Dragon Money was written by a certain Yuri Mosha, the owner of the American agency “Second Passport,” who received a 10-month prison sentence in the US last year for his fraudulent activities. Mosha's fraud is not related to Dragon Money, but his recommendation to play at the casino seems highly questionable.
Denying payouts to winners, blackmailing disgruntled players, and colluding with fraudulent organizations: Dragon Money Casino is hiding the truth behind a massive online cleanup.
The bottom line is this: negative reviews from Dragon Money players and partners; an outright ban on operations in Ukraine and Russia; in the Russian Federation, Dragon Money is listed on the register of organizations with characteristics of a pyramid scheme; the history of the change of ownership and jurisdiction is unclear, which only confirms the Central Bank of the Russian Federation's conclusion that it is a “pyramid scheme”; a laudatory article about the casino from a Russian fraudster who was sentenced in America. Furthermore, it should be noted that in the vast majority of cases, to play at Dragon Money casinos, you will have to use mirror sites. However, this is not a problem:
Denying payouts to winners, blackmailing disgruntled players, and colluding with fraudulent organizations: Dragon Money Casino is hiding the truth behind a massive online cleanup.
And more on the bans and lack of a license: as several publications have reported, Dragon Money has an office in Kyiv, from where it provides technical support. The organizer of this office, which employs over 50 people, is said to be Oleksandr Myrnyi, a member of parliament from the previous convocation.
So it doesn't matter where the casino is registered: in Curacao or Costa Rica. Or in the UK, where a company called Dragon Money was also registered until 2012. It doesn't matter at all – the company's central office is in downtown Kyiv. And the entire pyramid scheme is run from there, with absolutely no legal status in this city or this country. Do you want to gamble with an illegal company? Well, the choice – whether to play or not to play at Dragon Money – is entirely yours. Just don't complain later. You've been warned.
