How has society allowed customer service to degrade so badly? Honestly, it’s just so bad now – endless loops of “press 1” and ridiculous chatbots that simply don’t work.

It’s terrible everywhere, but in the Philippines, it’s next level. This week, I’ve made six attempts, over a 48 hour period, to have Globe – one of the two biggest telecommunications companies here – answer the simplest of questions:

Which countries are included in the new Roam Surf packages?

Sidebar

While writing this rant, it dawned on me that other people with the same question might stumble onto this post. If that’s you, scroll to the bottom – I’ve put the full list of eligible Roam Surf countries there. 

Now, back to the tirade.

Digital Nomad

I’m about to go on a six week trip that covers Japan, Aruba and the USA. My usual digital nomad-ery of football, flights and freelancing.

For once, Globe has come up with a really nice product – Roam Surf – which gives you data in “multiple countries”. Normally, you have to buy a roaming package for each individual country, so I welcome this news.

But the thing is, they don’t tell you anywhere on their website – or within either of their apps – which countries are included in the Roam Surf packages. After an extensive search, the best I could find was that it’s “120+ countries”. Does that include Aruba? I’ve no idea. 

So I tried to contact support. 

LOL

This is a simple question that should take seconds to answer. They can either point me to the published list of Roam Surf countries that I’m obviously missing, or they can at least just tell me whether or not Aruba is included.

Wrong. Nothing is ever easy when trying to get customer support in the Philippines. 

48 Hours for Globe to Answer a Simple Question

To reiterate, I did eventually get my answer. But it took six tries and 48 hours. And I had to stop everything I was doing while chatting with the agent who eventually helped me.

The entire interaction took 40 minutes, by the way.

If you look away for just a few minutes, they’ll terminate the conversation. They don’t need much of an excuse. You have to give them 100% attention – no working, cooking or doing anything else – or they’ll kick you and you have to start again.

I had Messenger open on a second screen, as well as my phone, to make sure attempt number six was a success. 

Intentionally Dishonest

What gets me is the blatant dishonesty of it all. You give them everything they need to answer the question, and they don’t even try.

Instead, the agents pose nonsense questions to you, hoping you’ve temporarily gone offline, or have been distracted by something else. This gives them an excuse to terminate the chat.

And this isn’t a telephone call, by the way. It’s a conversation on Facebook Messenger. Why is the chat even being terminated at all? It could be open for 20 years and it would make no difference. Make it make sense.

Dirty Tricks

Here are some of the reasons Globe refused to answer my question:

1. They wanted to know whether I was on a pre-paid or post-paid plan. Does that change the countries on the list? No, but they ended the chat when I didn’t reply quickly enough, in their opinion.
2. I was in bed. Having reached out around midnight, they said wait times are longer than expected and asked if I still needed help. I said yes. They eventually connected me at 7.10am, long after I’d given up and gone to bed. That chat ended ten minutes after it began, when I was very obviously offline. Could they not have just answered my question, instead of pretending they needed a response from me first? They could, but would require a genuine desire to provide support.
3. They wanted my phone number first. Does my number affect the list of Roam Surf countries? No, but they terminated the conversation anyway. Even though I’d already provided it to the FUCKING chatbot before I ever reached a human. 

More Shithouse Behaviour

By now, I’ve cottoned on to the fact that they’re looking to ask questions at all times. They don’t want to solve anything that takes them off script, regardless of how easy it would be. So it all becomes a game of cat and mouse.

The aim is to get you off the line, however they can. If they resolve the problem, sure, that’s one way. But that takes effort. A better way is to ask you a question – literally anything at all – and hope you get distracted. 

If you don’t reply in time, they cut you off.

The most common trick is to repeat the question, then say something like “can you confirm I’ve understood correctly?” – if you don’t reply, you’re gone. 

They did this to me four times during the interaction where I eventually got my answer. But I wasn’t letting the slippery fuckers off the hook this time.

Seriously Globe – go and fuck yourselves. All the way off, and then some more.

Corporate Bullshit

So, why can’t they just take the time to answer the question properly? I’ll tell you why. KPIs and corporate cocksucking.

Customer service teams are only ever interested in checking boxes and meeting nonsense targets. By automatically ending the conversation after half a microsecond, they’re keeping the average customer interaction time nice and low. 

When the manager has their quarterly review, they can show the CEO how quick they are at dealing with queries. Everyone can pat themselves on the back and jerk each other off about what a wonderful job they’re all doing.

Are the customers actually being assisted? No, but who cares? That was never the point. We’ve met the target for interaction times, so we all get bonuses. FUCK the customer.

Companies Just Don’t Care

This angers me for two reasons. First, I’m fucking sick of getting shit service from every company on Earth. But secondly, there’s no excuse for not wanting to improve your products and user journeys.

Why don’t they have pride in their work and the service they provide any more?

Before I switched to freelancing, I gained a lot of gambling industry experience, working for some really big organisations, in pretty senior positions. I always tried my best to use and understand the products I put out there, so I could identify problems in the customer journey.

Instead of sitting in my nice air conditioned office all day, I would go to the coalface and talk to customers and cashiers, asking what challenges they faced and how we could improve the product.

Nobody seems to do this any more. Nobody gives a shit. Did we meet our targets? Cool, bonuses and handjobs all round. Screw the users.

Rotten Culture

But targets are only being met because customers can’t actually get their complaints across. Companies have no idea where the faults are, because consumers aren’t able to report them. We’re not being heard.

Lazy support agents pulling tricks like those at Globe don’t help. But honestly, having worked in Filipino companies for a long time now, I doubt it would matter if they fed this stuff up to the middle management anyway. 

They’re so protective of their own positions, they’d never risk rocking the boat by actually reporting problems to the big bosses.

List of Globe Roam Surf Countries

If you discovered this post because Globe is a telecommunications company that can’t fucking communicate, here’s the answer to your question. 

As of May 14th 2026, the following countries are eligible for Roam Surf:

Albania, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, French West Indies, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guam, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saipan (Northern Mariana Islands), San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, Uganda, United Kingdom, Uruguay, USA, Vanuatu, Vatican City and Vietnam.

I want to quickly share something that happened to me yesterday. If you’re a relatively new and inexperienced writer, or if you just lack confidence sometimes, hopefully you’ll get something out of this.

Before I start, the aim of this post is not to complain about clients who try to lowball you. It’s not about poor rates of pay generally. Instead, I simply want to illustrate what can happen if you assert yourself and push back against people.

Potential New Client

Last week, I received a LinkedIn message about a potential new casino content project. Nothing unusual there – I’ve spent years building a personal brand on that platform, and it’s by far my main source of new business.

However, we didn’t discuss very much at all. They wanted to chat over email first. Okay, no problem.

Yesterday, this dropped into my inbox:

Lowball Rate

“Hi Dominic,

We are looking for a freelance content writer to join our team and think your profile could work well.

I’d like to suggest a paid trial casino review at €0.05 per word.”

Now, if you’ve read my post about how much iGaming writers can earn, you’ll know this is far below my usual rate of $0.14 per word. Although I wrote that piece a couple of years ago, nothing much has changed in terms of my pricing.

Blunt Reply

Naturally, I didn’t see the point in going any further. The proposed fee is too far from my own to bother negotiating. What would they offer me, maybe €0.08 max? It’s still nowhere near my expectations. So, I sent a short, sharp and to-the-point reply.

But within just a few minutes, this happened:

Pushing Back Works

I learned a long time ago that, if you want to increase your prices, you must not accept lowball offers.

I know that’s hard when you don’t have much work and the bills are piling up. But if you keep accepting joke rates, clients will keep paying joke rates. This is basic economics.

When I replied to that email, I genuinely wasn’t attempting to negotiate. It wasn’t some sort of power move. I didn’t even expect a reply, as I assumed my email would be considered rude.

All I was trying to do was say “no” as efficiently as possible, so as not to waste the time of either participant.

But it just goes to show what can be achieved when you assert yourself.

---

My name is Dominic Field. I’ve been in the gambling industry since 2008. Please get in touch to discuss my iGaming content services.

It seems to me there’s a deliberate misunderstanding of what people mean when discussing the use of AI in written content. So let’s clear things up.

Using AI in Written Content

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while, as I find it annoying. There’s not a day goes by where I don’t see someone on LinkedIn talking nonsense about writers and the use of AI.

Take this clown, for example.

Do you see the sleight of hand at work here? AI-driven systems include search engines and grammar tools, so we should also class spell-check and computers as AI.

Playing dumb. Pure engagement farming.

Missing the Point

A similar post in this genre goes along the lines of “AI isn’t bad. In fact, you’re stupid if you’re not using it in your writing process”.

They’re saying it’s okay – good even – to use LLMs for research, brainstorming and other simple tasks. But that’s not what the anti-AI brigade are complaining about. And I think these posters know it, which is the bit that winds me up.

Deliberately Disingenuous

I’ll confess, I’m part of the problem. That’s right – Dominic Field just can’t help shitting on the use of LLMs to spit out hot garbage. I post about it on social media all the time, fuelling the discourse a tiny little bit more.

But for all my hatred of artificial “intelligence”, I’ve never had an issue with writers using it as a search engine, for example.

I mean, it’s always wrong, obviously. But if you have time to waste double and triple-checking everything the AI says, go for it. Knock yourself out. I don’t care.

Similarly, nobody actually minds if you’ve asked an LLM to draw up an awful blog post outline, on which to hang your own words. Nor is it an issue to have the AI summarise large chunks of text, to speed up research.

I honestly believe no one, not even AI’s harshest critics, gives a toss about this kind of thing. If you claim otherwise, you’re either missing the point or being deliberately disingenuous.

So What’s the Real Problem?

It’s screamingly obvious to me that, when people complain about AI in written content, they mean using it for generation. Prompting the model to “write an 800-word blog post about gambling in style X mentioning points A, B and C” – that’s the issue.

People don’t want to read the bland output of a predictive text engine, which is what Large Language Models do. There’s also evidence that Google penalises you for posting such trash. 

That’s what people are talking about. Producing reams of AI-generated drivel that says the square root of fuck all. Then attempting to polish this steaming turd, delivered freshly from the bowels of ShatPGTips. Or even worse, using it as is.

Get in the Bin

So let’s have less of the engagement baiting on social media, yeah? 

Trying to imply that using AI as a search engine is exactly the same as spinning LLM-generated content doesn’t wash. And pretending spell-checkers are the same as Perplexity and Claude is just about the dumbest take I’ve ever read. 

Still, I suppose it’s preferable to the “not takes” offered by AI. So many words generated, but not a single interesting point made.

My AI Usage Policy

If you’d like to know how I use such tools, feel free to check the AI usage policy I recently added to my website.

And of course, if you need quality iGaming content that’s free of tawdry LLM output, drop me a line today.

I’ve seen a few people reintroducing themselves on LinkedIn lately, and honestly, I think it’s a good idea. I started writing my own, but it got a bit “War and Peace” in length, so I figured I’d turn it into a blog post instead.

My name is Dominic Field, and I write iGaming content

If you’ve only connected with me recently, you probably think I just moan about AI and Upwork all day. Well, that’s only about 98.5% true. There’s other stuff going on, too.

I called myself a digital nomad for a while. But after spending the whole of 2022 and 2023 on planes, travelling through nearly 20 countries, I’ve not been nearly as mobile lately. These days, I only really travel for sporting events.

Like how I spent last summer in Switzerland following the England women’s team in their latest European Championships success. Or making the round-trip to see Sheffield United choke on the biggest stage. Again.

At least I got in The Star newspaper for my five minutes of infamy.

Where I Live and What I Do

I live on a paradise island, so I’ve not been travelling as much. Honestly, I’ve just been kinda bone idle.

Boracay’s White Beach is consistently named among the world’s best, so it’s really easy to stay at home and avoid the hassle. I’ll try to move around more again in 2026.

One thing I’m never lazy about, though, is my work. I’m a content writer, not a copywriter. Why do I make this distinction? Because I *can* write sales copy, I just don’t want to. I hate the process. It’s not for me.

If I wanted to work hard and not enjoy it, I’d go back to the corporate world.

I quit my career to do things I actually like. Things like sharing my thoughts and experiences of casino games and betting sites. So that’s why I focus on reviews, “how to” guides and blog content.

Slot reviews are my absolute favourite things to produce, but I’m just as comfortable writing poker strategy articles or sportsbook reviews. You can see examples of what I get up to in the showcase on this website.

My Backstory

I quit a decent 13-year career in the gambling industry to do what I love – writing. Most of that time was spent setting up or managing sportsbooks, both online and retail, in SE Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

As a result, I like to think I can bring unique experiences and angles to my content. I’ve been a gambler all my life, so I understand the products inside and out. But I’ve also led teams in developing betting websites, products and games.

Social Responsibility

Similarly, you may see me commenting on the dangers of gambling. Again, I have a unique experience here, as a problem gambler myself.

It’s a battle you fight daily. Even when you’re responsible for the bottom line of a betting site. That’s why I get upset when people accuse the gambling industry of being ruthless, money-grabbing crooks.

There are some of those, as in most industries. But nobody wants to look out for vulnerable players more than somebody who *is* one.

I’m not in a position to shape those strategies any more. But I do my bit by refusing to write shithouse content that clearly prey on people’s addictions. Like “non-GAMSTOP casinos” and such.

Thoughts on AI-Generated Content

I’m probably best-known for my LinkedIn takes on the use of AI to create content. If you aren’t familiar, allow me to summarise:

The only thing shitter than AI content is that pseudo-scientific garbage they call “AI checkers”.

Bollocks to the lot of it.

Let’s Connect!

So that’s me and my story in a nutshell. If you’re interested in more of my ramblings, let’s connect on LinkedIn.

And if you’d like to give me lots of money in exchange for insanely high quality iGaming content services, please get in touch using the contact form on this website.

I’m a freelance iGaming writer. But I don’t know for how much longer, thanks to AI.

I jumped aboard the ChatGPT bandwagon right away. Recognising it might one day take my job, I wanted to stay in touch with, and ideally ahead of, the latest developments. 

That’s why I was among the one million people who created an account within five days of its public release. 

First impressions 

Perhaps I could use it as a tool, I thought, making my own processes more efficient. It should help with research, at least, even if I don’t actually use it to produce text. 

Maybe it would create other forms of work, too, such as editing AI-generated content. I trialled a couple of gigs on freelancing platforms like Fiverr, doing exactly that.

It didn’t take more than a few weeks to realise this thing was not going to replace me. 

LLMs consistently make ridiculous factual errors. They hallucinate all the time, then spin generic, boring text. They can only really produce an average of whatever already exists on the internet, much of which is increasingly AI slop itself.

Don’t get me started on pseudoscientific nonsense like AI checking tools, either.

A change of heart

AI simply cannot do what I can. I’ve been extremely bullish about this for three years. However, on December 9th 2025, I changed my position.

Within the space of three or four hours, I learned the following:

• First.com, a gambling affiliate site that gave me a few bits and pieces of work in 2025, unexpectedly closed. I have at least half a dozen writers in my LinkedIn network who felt the impact of this.
• ClickOut Media, a huge employer of gambling writers, cut 85% of its content team. As a rough guess, that’s at least 50 English-language writers alone. They’ve run AI experiments throughout 2025, so you can draw your own conclusion as to why.
• Gentoo chose to defer November’s freelancer payments for a month. Whether or not this specific decision is linked to AI, I have no clue. But it’s no secret they’ve been struggling for some time.

I’ve never seen so many out-of-work gambling writers in my LinkedIn feed. Naturally, I’m now questioning my own future. I certainly don’t think I’ll be able to repeat my 2024 earnings any time soon.

What’s the problem?

So, what’s going on? I thought you said AI can’t do what you can do?

Well, it can’t. 

Take slot reviews, for instance. How can an LLM play a real money casino game, then recount its experiences in a compelling, engaging manner? 

I suppose you could invent some kind of API that feeds slots in and spits out some kind of review. Maybe it can detail the mechanics that way. 

But it still can’t tell you how it feels to play that game. LLMs will always lack that human connection. 

But that’s not the issue, here. AI overviews (AIOs) are.

Impact of AIOs

Affiliate marketing relies on attracting potential customers with a combination of quality content and SEO optimisation. But we’ve seen a dramatic drop-off in click-through rates (CTRs) since the introduction of AIOs. 

People just aren’t visiting affiliate sites at the same rate. And if they’re not doing that, they’re not clicking through to the casinos and sportsbooks being promoted. 

A Seer Interactive report in September 2025 revealed that organic CTRs for informational queries had dropped a staggering 61% since 2024. Paid CTRs fared even worse, plummeting by 68%.

Many affiliates just can’t make it pay anymore. As such, content budgets are being slashed. 

It’s AIOs that are putting gambling writers out of work – and that’s what I didn’t see coming. 

Inevitable changes

Now, I definitely did anticipate a reduction in the number of writers. I always talked about a pyramid, with the elite writers at the top, and swathes of low-quality output at the bottom. 

Those guys charging $0.01 per word – or less, God forbid – will undoubtedly be swept away by the AI revolution. Why pay for crap content, when you can generate it free of charge? 

But I always imagined those of us nearer the tip of the proverbial pyramid would be safe. The cream should rise to the top, right? 

Perhaps we’d have to drop our rates a bit, but there’d always be a need for iGaming content services provided by talented humans.

Now I’m not so sure.

The counter-argument

Some people continue to hold this view, like John Wright of StatsDrone, the iGaming affiliate analytics company. 

“I disagree that Google is completely destroying everything, but rather things have changed”, he told me.

“Google rewards authority, and that sometimes requires more than just words. It is products and deeper research.

If I had to write iGaming content today, or casino reviews, I’d be spending more time on the planning of content and research.

People are giving up with how Google is today, and are not willing to pivot or adapt. A lot of the good SEOs I know seem excited at the opportunity. They are using better writers and deeper research.”

Drawing thin?

It’s encouraging to see some optimism about the future of written iGaming content, at a time when I’ve never been more pessimistic. 

Personally, I still have a few clients keeping me busy – for now at least – who clearly value human content over AI slop. So I’m not folding just yet.

I guess we’ll see what happens in 2026. Only time will tell who’s right. 

As a writer, I’m really hoping it’s John. 

As 2025 nears its conclusion, I thought I’d share an update on the ambitious annual targets I set in December.

Transparency Is Good for All

Before I start, I want to reiterate my belief that financial transparency is good for all of us. Sharing is caring.

When I started as freelance iGaming writer, I had no idea of my worth. And it’s become screamingly obvious since I first created my Fiverr account in June 2020 that I was undercharging for too long.

I’m not bragging when I discuss my earnings as a freelance writer – there are many doing far, far better than me. But in those early days, I lacked a mentor. I’d have loved someone to tell me what to charge, and how to build my own brand and move away from freelancing platforms.

The more information we all share, the less likely we are to be ripped off. Knowing the true value of your work is vital, and if we all discuss pricing, it should lift the floor for everyone.

My 2025 Targets

Okay, let’s get into it. When I shared my 2024 earnings, I also set three targets for 2025:

Let’s start with the good news: I had no problem meeting the last two goals.

I’ve worked much less than last year, where I was consistently pulling six-day weeks, often for 10–12 hours at a time. I set up a spreadsheet to manage my time like an employee, and I’ve stuck pretty closely to it.

Of course, the whole point of ditching my corporate career was for a better work-life balance, so I’m still flexible. If I feel like working on what is a scheduled day off, I do. I’ll just take a different day off next week when I’m tired.

The financial side, however, has not been good.

Actual Figures

I’m going to share some actual numbers in this post. When I’ve written about this before, I’ve been vague, using graphs to illustrate progress, but removing exact figures – stuff like that.

Looking back, I don’t really know why, as it’s not hard to work things out from the wider context. So for this post, I might as well go all-in.

The target was six-figures in GBP. This felt tough, but not unrealistic – I was already doing close to those numbers, so I just had to increase my rates slightly and reduce the time spent working.

Unravelling Quickly

January got me off to a flier, bringing in just over £9,000. However, in February, I argued my way into losing my second-biggest client.

Actually, I just pushed back against some stupid feedback.

I’d been working with them for a year, writing poker, casino and a little sports betting content. I’d never had anything but lovely comments from six or seven different editors. So I thought I had enough goodwill in the bank to call out this one bit of pointless feedback that was wasting everyone’s time.

I’ll concede I did it with an unnecessary attitude, for which I later apologised. But my point was valid, and I stand by it.

A few days earlier, I’d stopped working with a smaller client. I’d been looking to get out of that gig anyway, as the briefs were too fiddly. But the timing was horrendous – had it been the other way around, I wouldn’t have left that project.

A few weeks later, I completed the disaster hat-trick (disastrick?) when my main client unexpectedly suspended a project. I’d gone from regularly making £8,000–£10,000 a month, to literally no work at all.

Emotional Roller Coaster

It was clear by the end of February I’d miss my ambitious targets. There was no margin for error to begin with. Losing so much work so quickly was already too much – I knew I’d blown it.

The rest of the quarter was spent using my new vacation allowance, and trying to get over losing my two main clients. Honestly, I didn’t really snap out of my low mood until May, when my main casino content client returned. That guy pays $0.15 per word for priority access to my services.

The damage to my annual target was already done, but I’d realigned my expectations, and things were normal by July. That month I made £8,425 and I was feeling good again.

But being positive was an error. In August, my biggest client disappeared again, and is yet to return. As a result, I produced my lowest monthly figure since July 2021. For context, that was only my second full month as a freelancer, having left my “proper” job in mid-May.

All I really had in August was my sports betting content for OddsNews, plus whatever dribs and drabs came in from Upwork and Fiverr, which I basically abandoned years ago.

Depressing stuff.

In September and October, I bounced back to some extent, with figures of £5,389 and £5,987. But I’m currently having a quiet November, and I expect I’ll pull in something around the £4,500 mark. I’ve lost another casino content client this month, but I still project a figure of around £6,000 for December.

Reflections

Obviously I’m guessing at the last six weeks of the year, but I expect a final annual figure of about £66,000.

This is a complete disaster compared to my £100,000 target.

However, it’s important to zoom out. That’s still a great living – especially for someone with no kids who’s based mostly in the Philippines.

I’m obviously not complaining about “only” pulling in those numbers. Especially at a time when AI-generated content is threatening us writers. But it remains true that I missed my target by miles. I think it’s important to be honest, and not just talk about the good times.

It seems I’m returning to my 2022 and 2023 figures, which were £67,684 and £62,201. So last year was probably a fluke, rather than the norm.

2026 Goals?

I think I’ll wait a month before setting my 2026 goals, but it’s fair to say I’m not shooting for six-figures again. I hit my working and vacation targets, and I’ve quite enjoyed not burning out the way I did in November 2024.

There have been other positives, too. Having accidentally become pigeon-holed as a casino writer recently, I found myself producing sportsbook content again.

I managed a couple of trips to the UK this year, spending time with family – I haven’t done enough of that in recent years. There was also a month in Switzerland, watching the Lionesses do Lionesses things, and the saga of rescuing and homing a kitten!

I wonder what ups and downs 2026 has in store?

As an iGaming writer, the bulk of my work involves reviewing online casinos and gambling sites. Most affiliates provide a brief, but they never give you dummy account to play with.

Now, you can’t write casino reviews without testing a site thoroughly. Unless you’re a complete chancer, of course. But content creators don’t always have accounts of their own.

I’m asked to produce a lot of sweepstakes casino reviews, for example. But I don’t live in the United States, so I haven’t got a local phone number. This makes it hard to open an account.

I can’t be the only affiliate writer who’s struggled with this. By sharing my own experiences and solutions, I hope to help others.

Fake Accounts and Numbers

Inspired by a recent post from the excellent Ozric Vondervelden on LinkedIn, I want to discuss temporary and virtual phone numbers.

I’ve always gambled, so I have a lot of casino and sports betting accounts. But it’s unrealistic to expect an iGaming writer to use every single betting site.

That said, I am thorough. I always create an account and use the site before writing a review. But I don’t want a barrage of SMS spam, so I use virtual and disposable phone numbers to set them up.

Emails Are Easy

Getting a dummy email is easy. Create a burner account for joining casinos and betting sites, or use a disposable address. I favour TempMail, personally.

However, getting a fake phone number is harder.

The days of simply punching in a random string of numbers are long gone. The vast majority of gambling sites now require a real number, verified by OTP.

Disposable Phone Numbers

I’ve always used disposable numbers from Receive SMS Online, plus one or two others. These provide a whole bunch of numbers from around the world, but mostly the USA and UK.

Writers, or whoever else, can use these when creating a casino or sportsbook account. Just click on the number to open the inbox and receive your verification code.

Enter this at the casino site, and congratulations – you now have a verified account with which to write your review.

Temporary SMS Services

I’ve tried all of the following free-to-use fake number sites, and I’ve ranked them based on my experience:

1. Receive SMS Online. As I mentioned, this works for pretty much every regular gambling site and sweeps casino. There are lots of countries and numbers. However, if the it’s more than a few days old, expect someone else to have used it.
2. Online SMS Box. A wide variety of Geos, but not many numbers for each. This increases the likelihood that someone else has beaten you to it. However, I can consistently use these numbers to register at sweepstakes casinos.
3. SMS Activate. I’ve only discovered this recently, so I’m still pretty neutral on it. I used it successfully last month when writing a sweepstakes casino review in the US. Early signs look promising. [Edit March 2026] This site appears to have died already.
4. SMSPinVerify. Massive selection of countries, but you have to pay. Only a handful of free US numbers are available, which work for every casino or betting site I’ve tried. But they’re always registered by someone else.
5. Quackr. I hate this one. You now have to create an account to use any of their numbers. But whenever I tried in the past, the numbers were always old, so I never had much luck.
6. TempSMSS. Vast selection of seemingly inactive numbers from a limited choice of Geos. That said, the most common countries are present (US, UK, Canada, Australia). However, the US numbers are blocked by some sweepstakes casinos.

Far From Flawless

I’d say temporary phone number services work close to 100% of the time for regular online casinos. But not sweepstakes sites in the US.

However, the main problem is the numbers have already been used by someone else. You’re not the only iGaming writer out there, you know – we’re all at it.

I got fed up spending 30 to 60 minutes per review looking for a number that works. So I tried to set up my own private inbox.

I’ve tested a few services, but the amusingly-named Fanytel works best for me.

Seriously, though – what is that name all about? As a Brit, I can’t take it seriously…

Anyway, Fanytel is great, but it won’t be suitable for everyone, because:

1. Numbers are only for the US, UK, Australia and Canada
2. It’s not free. Each number costs $0.99 to set up, then $0.99 per month to maintain it.

The second problem is easily solved – bill your client. Ask them first, obviously, or you’ll piss them off. But if they’re too cheap to pay $1.98, you probably shouldn’t be working with them.

Sweepstakes Casinos Are Different

Fanytel solved most of my dummy account problems – but not all of them.

I write a lot of sweepstakes casino reviews for a US audience. These sites are getting clever when it comes to detecting people like me.

Not only do many of them enforce strict geo-blocking, including VPN detection. But they also know when you’re using virtual phone numbers.

I’m not a techie, so I don’t know how they know. But they know. My paid Fanytel subscription doesn’t work at many such casinos.

I’m too lazy to count them all. But I estimate I’ve refused around one-third of sweepstakes review requests this year, just because I can’t get an account.

Some brands, like Scarlet Sands and its sister sites, let me join. I can access enough features to write a proper review, but I still can’t verify my virtual phone number.

If you include those cases, I reckon half the sweeps casinos I’ve worked on won’t accept my virtual phone number.

Cheap SMS Verification

How do I get around this specific problem? So far, Textverified is the only tool I’ve found that helps.

For a small fee, you can receive both voice and SMS verifications. And crucially, it works at every casino and sportsbook I’ve tried, even the sweepstakes sites that block my virtual number.

Because I’m normally reviewing new sites, they’re often not in the Textverified list yet. As such, I have to use “Service Not Listed”, which costs $1.25 per SMS verification. Otherwise, prices range from $0.50 to $1 each.

Again, I suggest charging this to your client, rather than wasting time looking for free numbers that probably don’t even work anyway.

Wrapping Up

Hopefully, some of my fellow gambling writers will find these ramblings useful.

If you know of any similar services, paid or not, please drop a reply and share the love.

I write for gambling affiliates, and have done for nearly 20 years. Contact me if you need casino, sports betting or poker content.

I just read a LinkedIn post about someone almost getting arrested in Moscow. It reminded me of the time I did get arrested in Nairobi.

Here’s the story.

Setting the Scene

The incident took place in 2018, long before I quit my former career to become a freelance gambling writer.

I’d been working for the AsianLogic Group in Manila since 2016. I started out with MSW – the only legal sportsbook in the Philippines at the time – but in late 2017, they move me to Dafabet. I was tasked with saving their failing African business.

Basically, they’d started up in Kenya and didn’t understand why it wasn’t working. They needed an operations manager with experience in the region, which is where I came in. I’d already spent six years working with Africa’s largest retail betting operator.

Company Phone

When I arrived, I didn’t have a local phone, so the company gave me one.

Unbeknownst to me, it actually belonged to our IT guy. He’d loaned it to my outgoing colleague in exchange for a much better company phone provided by the management.

The relevance of this will become clear later.

Alleged and Actual Theft

Just before I arrived, a load of equipment has been stolen from our storage facility, including PCs, monitors and other hardware. Only one person had the key – that same IT guy.

The CCTV had also mysteriously stopped working shortly before incident. Who looked after that? That’s right – the IT guy.

As you’d expect, my colleague fired him.

But that wasn’t the end of it. Mr IT man reported my colleague who sacked him to the police, accusing him of stealing his phone.

Parklands Police Station

Picture the scene. I’m in the office, holding a meeting with my new team. The Director of Operations and my colleague, now wanted by the police – not that we knew – are away having lunch.

In walk a man and a woman wearing casual clothes. I distinctly remember she wore blue jeans and a green hoodie. Since I was still new, I didn’t yet know the more junior members of the team. I genuinely thought these guys were our customer supports staff, and I was about to lose my mind at them marching into the meeting room and interrupting my work.

“What’s going on?”

“We’re from Parklands. We’re looking for [My Colleague].”

I have absolutely no idea what’s going on and I don’t know what Parklands is. Turns out it’s an area of Nairobi that has a police station.

“You’re not even wearing uniforms, you could be anyone. Where’s your ID?”

The guy shows me some plastic card that could’ve been anything. I was thinking of McLovin in Superbad the whole time. She didn’t even have any ID.

“Okay, you’ve seen my ID, now show me yours.”

Keystone Cops

Naturally, I’m not taking my passport to the office every day. I explain this, and tell them they’re welcome to go to the company apartment where they’ll find my passport, complete with visa and paperwork.

He grins. “Let’s go to the station.“

Just as I’m getting up, my two colleagues return to the office. The guy they were actually looking for is immediately arrested, accused of stealing the phone. I’m also arrested, for having the temerity to ask a plain clothes police officer for ID.

Now for the best part of this farcical story.

My colleague and I step outside to the elevator, accompanied by the two local plod. Waiting for us is a grinning ex-IT guy. Everything now makes sense.

We descend to the ground floor and step outside. I look left, right and everywhere to see where they’ve parked their vehicle.

“Where’s the car?”

“You call an Uber”.

“You can’t be serious? I have to pay to have myself arrested?“

“Call an uber.”

“There’s five of us. We won’t fit.”

“Then call two.”

Appreciation

When we arrive at Parklands, we’re taken straight to an interview room. They explain the situation and get to work on my colleague, while I sit and listen. Bizarrely, the IT guy is also in the room.

It takes less than five minutes for the police to realise the whole situation is a complete farce. The green hoodie woman looks a bit embarrassed once it’s been explained that no theft has taken place. In fact, the IT guy still has our company phone – a better model – despite being fired for an obvious theft.

They didn’t even bother speaking to me.

“Okay, so what happens now? Are we free to go?“

She puts her head back, as if looking at something on the ceiling, and says nothing.

“Hello? Can we go?”

She leaves the room.

My colleague and I exchange looks. She wants a bribe.

Sorry, no – it’s absolutely not a bribe. The police would never do that and it would be wrong to suggest otherwise.

However, we should definitely show a token of our appreciation for the great service they provide, keeping the local community safe. Otherwise we’re not going anywhere.

Cat For Sale

While we sat around waiting to be released – which was never going to happen unless the big boss came with the “appreciation” money – I saw a cat.

I love cats, so naturally I played with it for a while to pass the time.

“You like it? You can buy it from us”.

Jesus Christ.

Eventually, the big boss shows up, laughing his arse off. I guess you have to.

If I remember rightly, he paid the equivalent of 200 US dollars in Kenyan shillings to get us out. I can’t honestly remember if that was for both of us, or the price per person.

Either way, the whole experience was completely ridiculous.

Not a Happy Time

Sadly, this type of thing was not uncommon. It’s one of many reasons I chose to stop working in gambling operations – especially in that part of the world.

Let’s just say I much prefer my life writing casino, poker and sportsbook content from the beach.

Require iGaming content sevices? Contact me today.

Last week, I said how nice it is to be working as a sports betting writer again, thanks to a collaboration with SportyTilt.

I’ll be writing a weekly column for the 2025/26 Premier League season, posting two betting tips per week.

Perfect Start

Both of my opening weekend selections came in, getting us off to the best possible start.

Then, on Saturday, victories for Burnley and Bournemouth produced another two winning tips for EPL matchday 2, taking me to 4 out of 4 for the season.

Small but Steady

Admittedly, I haven’t bagged any winners at huge odds yet. But Leeds and Burnley both delivered at odds of 2.55 and 2.45 respectively, so I’m not just tipping favourites.

I did also post a couple of outright 2025/26 season predictions at bigger prices, before a ball had been kicked.

Let’s see how we get on for the rest of the campaign!

Follow my weekly betting predictions at SportyTilt.com

I feel like casino reviews are all I’ve produced for the past two years. I like this type of work, but I also need a bit of variety. Otherwise I run the risk of my writing becoming stale and repetitive.

Since I stopped writing slot reviews for SlotJava.com in 2023, the only “variety” has been reviewing sweepstakes sites, as opposed to traditional casinos. But I’m very thankful to SportyTilt.com for breaking the monotony.

Sports Betting Writer

I recently wrote a few guides explaining the basics of sports betting, including how to read decimal odds, this type of thing. But the site owner has given me a little more freedom to play around, and I’m taking full advantage.

First of all, I’m now writing weekly Premier League tips, and we got off to a flying start on the opening weekend. Both of my picks came in, including Leeds to win at 2.55 with Betway. Hopefully I can keep this form up for the entire season.

I used to be a sports betting writer for BetPal.com in the 2021/22 season, and my EPL tips showed a profit. However, it’s a long old time since I had a regular football writing gig like that. I guess we’ll find out quite quickly how rusty I am!

Interview With Dylan Kerr

My favourite piece to work on so far, though, has undoubtedly been my interview with Dylan Kerr, the former Leeds and Reading player .

Since retirement, he’s been coaching around the world, winning a string of trophies in places like Vietnam, Kenya and South Africa. He feels – quite rightly in my opinion – his success in such places is ignored when applying for roles in Europe.

Since that interview was published, he’s been shortlisted for a really interesting position. I’m not saying my article influenced them, but it definitely influenced them.

Get In Touch

I’m certainly not new to sports betting content. Over the years, I’ve produced a string of sportsbook reviews, betting guides and other content, for readers on five continents.

Of course, I also gained 13 years worth of gambling industry experience prior to becoming a freelance writer. Most of that time was spent in operations management, launching and managing retail betting outlets and online sportsbooks in sub-Saharan Africa and SE Asia.

If you’re in need of a sports betting writer with genuine experience, drop me a line today.