Arlekin Casino - Player’s winnings have been reduced.

Hi everyone,

I was playing on Arlekin Casino with a deposit of 100 EUR + 100% match bonus + 50 Free Spins. It was from this offer I received via email:



I lost the balance and the corresponding match bonus, however, I won 34,55€ from the deposit free spins:

I managed to wager them successfully with a remaining balance of just over 1.000€. As soon as the wagering was done, my balance automatically reduced from 1.000€ to 50€.

I stopped playing and contacted live chat who was unable to help and told me:

"You were playing with the bonus. It has max win limit of 50 EUR. When you wagered the bonus, the balance was changed accordingly."

It is correct that I was playing with deposit free spins. I won 34,55€ of these, so we'll below the maximum win limit. There is NO withdrawal limit.

In Arlekin Casinos bonus terms it states nothing about a maximum withdrawal limit from deposit spins.

https://www.arlekincasino.com/bonus-terms-and-conditions

There is just a maximum win limit of 50 EUR of the free spins as stated in the email offer I received. This means, that any amount won from the free spins exceeding 50 EUR should be void once the free spins are finished.

It does NOT state that you cannot win or withdraw anything more than 50 EUR from deposit free spins.

Therefore, I kindly ask Arlekin Casino to reinstate my balance of slightly above 1.000 EUR as according your their own bonus terms and T&C.

Dear Rattekruemel,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint and forwarding all the relevant screenshots. I’m sorry to hear about your problem.

I have checked carefully the forwarded evidence and this is what I found:

Those are the T&Cs that you have received for a specific promotional offer under a bonus code SEPTENDER and there is written that the maximum cashout from the rewarded Free Spins will be €50.

I would like to emphasize, that according to our Fair Gambling Codex https://casino.guru/fair-gambling-codex-for-casinos#win-limits, we consider imposed win limit to be unfair and predator, only when it’s applied to a real money game, however, we accept bonus T&Cs that restrict the maximum cash out from a bonus play, especially.

Please understand that it is nothing unusual to have a maximum cash out applied to any promotional winnings.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Petronela

Hey Petronela,

thank you for reviewing my complaint!

[...] and there is written that the maximum cashout from the rewarded Free Spins will be €50.

And that is exactly the point here. There is no max. cashout mentioned.

The offer I received via email states: "Max. win from free spins: 50 EUR/USD, 80 AUD/CAD/NZD, 0.00135 BTC or equivalent."

This is referring to the maximum amount you can win by playing out these free spins.

Example:

Free spins pay 65€. After the free spins are finished, your balance will be credited with 50€ (max. free spins win).

You then have to wager 40x 50€. Whatever will be left after wagering, can be cashed out, since there is no max. withdrawal/cashout limit.

My free spins paid about 34€, well within the max. win limit. I then wagered them fully and was left with slightly above 1.003€ after wagering. Since there is no cashout limit, I should have been able to withdraw the full amount. Nevertheless, it got reduced to 50€ against Arlekins bonus T&C.

Let me further emphasize that Arlekin casino does not have any withdrawal limit of deposit free spins whatsoever in their general bonus T&C as well. They only restrict no deposit spins, which is fine industry standard. (https://www.arlekincasino.com/bonus-terms-and-conditions)

If Arlekin casino would like to restrict the payout of deposit free spins (or deposit bonusses) in general - which I would already consider predatory - they need to impose a withdrawal limit on those. But they don't do that.

Therefore, I stand by my point, that I am entitled to have my balance fully reinstated to 1.003€ as according to Arlekin casinos bonus T&C because they do not impose withdrawal limits on deposit bonusses and deposit free spins.

So far, I have not received any update/answer from Arlekin casino unfortunately despite me contacting them via email as well.

Dear Rattekruemel,

I'm afraid I can't agree with you. I have checked the general terms and conditions and this is what I found https://www.arlekincasino.com/bonus-terms-and-conditions:

"The maximum winning from the free spins is 50 EUR/USD; 75 CAD/AUD/NZD; 500 NOK; 200 PLN; 6,000 JPY; 20,000 KZT; 50 USDT or its equivalent in BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH, DOG. General bonus terms and conditions apply.

The maximum winning from the welcome package free spins is 150 EUR/USD (225 AUD / 225 CAD / 1500 NOK / 525 PLN / 225 NZD / 18000 JPY / 150 USDT or its equivalent in BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH, DOG)."

In the promotional offer that you received the same wording has been used. I'm afraid that maximum win and maximum cashout are synonyms in this case. Please understand that €50 is the maximum win that you can cash out. It is the same thing.

Good morning Petronela,

Arlekin casino has changed their bonus T&C after my complaint.

The paragraph you are citing from their bonus T&C was talking about "NO deposit free spins".

They now changed it to "free spins" and deleted the "no" after my complaint. I am 100% certain about this. You can check my complaint history on casino.guru and you will see that I would never make false complaints against an operator and have been honest all the time. As far as I know, there are methods to check for older website versions but I can't remember how right now. Maybe you can help out it with that?

I must say, that changing T&C retroactively and without notifying users in order to avoid paying is very shady and big no-go.

I have cited the paragraph to emphasize that the wording is the same, not to prove that the maximum cashout is shown there. Your maximum win/cashout has been described in the promotional offer that you received.

Let me know if there is any additional information that I have overlooked, otherwise, I’m afraid I will be forced to reject your complaint. Thank you in advance for your reply and understanding.

Dear Petronela,

I'd like to thank your for your swift response.

If Arlekin, or any casino, expects a user to read and obey by their (bonus) T&C, these have to be written accurately enough to avoid any misunderstandings. It's the casinos sole responsibility to take care of accuracy.

A maximum win restriction is just not the same as a maximum withdrawal restriction. Especially since the 'maximum win' was by wording only referring to the free spins themselves. There is a good reason, other casinos use typical statements like "The maximum you will ever be able to withdraw from winnings of free spins are 50 EUR etc. [...]" But they stated in their email offer:

"Max. win from free spins: 50 EUR/USD, 80 AUD/CAD/NZD, 0.00135 BTC or equivalent."

This is especially true, considering their bonus T&C were not reflecting this: You have to ask yourselves why on earth would Arlekin casino change their bonus T&C one day after my complaint here and without notifying their users (which is a must)

from

"The maximum winning from no deposit free spins is 50 EUR/USD; [...]"

to

"The maximum winning from the free spins is 50 EUR/USD;[...]"

Changing terms in stealth without notification and applying them retroactively is for good reason considered plain rogue by all ADR entities.

If Arlekin casino is willing to do things like that just to avoid a small payment of 1k€, you have to ask yourself what are they willing to go trough if you win a really large amount. To me, this is completely untrustworthy behaviour.

They changed their bonus T&C after my complaint because they obviously acknowledged that they made a mistake. They should have just said "Well, we made a mistake here. We will change the terms for the future, here is your withdrawal, thanks for letting us know". I would not have charged you for my help, no worries, Arlekin. 😉

I'd like to hear from Arlekin casino directly, what they have to say about this issue and why they have changed their bonus T&C without notification and applying them retroactively. Unfortunately, they have been unresponsive to my email (from Friday last week). So I am glad to hear from them on casino.guru, since I still consider this complaint unresolved. My bonus winnings have been capped against Arlekin bonus T&C and I am still missing out on 953€ (1.003€ minus 50€).

Once again, Rattekruemel, the maximum win was clearly stated in the promotional offer that you have received (see below). It means before you started the wagering.

Let me know if there is any additional information that I have overlooked otherwise, I will be forced to reject your complaint at this time. I really wish I were of more help. Thank you.

Dear Rattekruemel,

We are extending the timer by 7 days. Please, do not hesitate to contact us if you need any assistance or help, otherwise, we will reject your complaint.

Unfortunately, after gathering all the necessary information we are rejecting this complaint as unjustified. Sorry, we were not able to help you with this one, but please, do not hesitate to contact us in the future, if you run into any issues with this or any other casino. We are here to help.