After 15 years and untold amounts of losses to these crooks, I finally realize that they are, always have been, and alway will be scams. It's embarrassing to have come to this realization.
Fighting back by challenging their shady payment practices is fair play, so long as you are honest. But, shady payments is only tip of the iceberg and, by themselves, do not scratch the surface as to why these casinos are scams. In fact, you can have shady payment practices and still run an honest casino.
The cancellation of winnings for any reason they can contrive is the wildest and most crooked part of the scam. What I resent the most, and am most embarrassed about, is how they gaslight the player. You win, they don't pay you, and they act like you have done something wrong.
Here's an example of why this is so problematic. Suppose, for arguments sake, you enter the wrong zip code by accident when you sign up. You play on the site and lose $1000. Then, you make one more deposit and get lucky hitting for $2000. You request a withdrawal, submit your paperwork. They notice you used the incorrect zip code when you signed up, and say, for security reasons, that your wins are nullified because of this.
The issue with this example is, 1) many of us have had similar experiences for equally as minor or insane reasons and, 2) this means that you were never really gambling at all with the first $1000 you lost because there was never the possibility of winning as any win would eventually be disqualified. So, you did not get the service you paid for, every dollar you deposited was always going to be forfeited.
If these casinos were operating in the US, they would be subject to a massive class action lawsuit for such practices. They are scams.