Scam ads circulating on social media for Casinos Moose Jaw and Regina

By Shawn Slaght

Lotteries and Gaming Saskatchewan is warning residents about scam advertisements on Facebook that look like ads for Casinos Moose Jaw and Regina.

The advertisements illegally lift the imaging and branding of the two casinos. The ads usually ask people to join their online casino or download an app to gamble online.

While Lotteries and Gaming Saskatchewan has only noticed the scam the last few days for Casinos Moose Jaw and Regina, it has learned that other casinos throughout the country have seen similar scam ads pop up over the last couple of months.

While the ads have only been seen on Facebook so far, residents are warned that they could appear on other platforms like X (formerly Twitter) or Instagram.

Brian Miller, the director of communications for Lotteries and Gaming Saskatchewan, noted that the scammers do a very good job of making the advertisements look legitimate, but they are not.

“These scammers are fairly sophisticated even in terms of their graphic design skills. They are able to go on, for example, the SaskGaming, Casino Regina, Casino Moose Jaw website and lift graphics off there and then create a fairly sophisticated-looking online advertisement that does look somewhat legitimate,” Miller said.

Miller said the casinos do not have an online platform for gambling and have no reason to collect credit card or banking information. The only legal, secure, online gaming platform in Saskatchewan is PlayNow.com.

“Casino Regina and Casino Moose Jaw do not have online gaming platforms, so if any of your listeners or readers see these types of ads online, we would really appreciate if they reported them directly to Facebook or whatever online channel they see them on,” Miller said.

If you see one of these ads on your Facebook feed, you are asked to report them to Facebook by clicking on the three dots in the upper right-hand corner of the post and select “Report Post.” Miller also said that Lotteries and Gaming Saskatchewan has reported it to the police.

“The ads get reported promptly and they’re taken down, and then these scammers create another fake account and then a slightly different version of the ads go back up. So it’s a bit like Whack-A-Mole. You’re trying to get one fake page shut down and then another one pops up,” Miller said.

Residents are also reminded to be cautious about giving out banking and credit card information online to an unknown source.