1win Casino - Player requests a refund of deposits.

I joined on 24th October even though they should never have accepted me as I am a UK citizen and they do not have a licence to operate in the UK. I pleaded with them to close my account on 25th October and they refused to do so. This led to me depositing over £1,000 more. I have a gambling block on my bank account but 1Win are clearly transaction laundering to get around this as payment to the casino show on my bank statement as going to various retail companies in Lagos, Nigeria. The casino is now blocking my emails. I have contacted their licence provider in Curaçao but no response to date.

Dear Tracy,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your problem. Please understand, that UKGC license is necessary only for those casinos which want to operate on the UK market (targeting the UK) but if the casino does not target the UK market with their commercials (do not offer GBP currency, bonuses for UK players, etc.) they can accept UK players, they are just not protected by UKGC.

Here is an example, that could help you better understand our standpoint:

You are from the UK, and in the UK people drive on the left side of the road - that's the law. In my country, people drive on the right side of the road. But we are not building special roads for UK citizens because their laws say people should drive on the left side of the road.

And the same principle is applied for the UKGC license - you are working on the UK market, you need to follow UK law. But if you come to play in Curaçao licensed casino (by your free will and they are not targeting the UK market), you need to follow Curaçao laws.

Unfortunately, in this case, we are not able to help you and you have no right for a refund of your deposits. I can only recommend you to do better research next time and play only in the casinos licensed by UKGC.

However, if you have sent a request for a self-exclusion and it wasn't accepted, please forward it to petronela.k@casino.guru. Thank you in advance.

Best regards,

Petronela

Dear Tracy,

We are extending the timer by 7 days. Please, be aware that in case you fail to provide the required information in the given time frame, we will reject your complaint.

The main issue isn't about the lack of UK licence but the fact all deposits are showing as going to various retail companies in Nigeria including a shoe store and a porn provider so they are clearly transaction laundering and not processing payments through the recognised Visa/Mastercard code for gambling transactions. I have a gambling block on my bank account yet transactions to 1-Win were still processed as their payment process allows them to bypass gambling blocks. I asked them to close my account within 12 hours of opening it which they refused to do. I am trying to find the email evidence of this but as they have now blocked me it is proving hard to access historic records. I have since noticed on their website they do not accept requests to close accounts unless they have been inactive for 3 months. This is surely not acceptable and must also contravene the conditions of the Curaçao licence which they claim to hold

Thank you, Tracy, for your reply. I have checked the Responsible Gambling section, and this is what I found (here):

"Self-exclusion from the game

The betting participant retains the right to decide to terminate the game by terminating the agreement with the Betting Company. The application for self-restriction is accepted for consideration only if there is no activity on the game account for at least 3 calendar months. The resource for submitting the request is our email address - contact@1win.xyz."

As you can see from our review (here) 1win Casino is a bad online casino. We don't recommend playing at it and strongly advise you to stay away from it.

Could you please forward any supporting evidence that you have requested a self-exclusion previously and it wasn't granted? Please understand that without relevant proof we stand no chance to confront the casino.

Dear Tracy,

We are extending the timer by 10 days. Please, be aware that in case you fail to provide the required information in the given time frame, we will reject your complaint.

Unfortunately, we’re rejecting this case because the player hasn’t responded to our messages and questions. Therefore, we’re not able to proceed with further investigation or suggest possible solutions.

The player can reopen this complaint anytime.