Bet O Bet Casino - Player has succeeded in opening an account from a restricted country.

Hello Casinoguru,

I have been having this dispute with Betobet since the 16/10/2022.

Betobet allowed me to sign up with their site even though it's supposed to be restricted to Irish players. I contacted livechat when signing up to ask what the situation was and they inserted Ireland into my country of residence along with my mobile number to complete the sign up process instead of blocking me/not allowing the sign up procedure to continue.

As such they allowed me to, knowingly, from a restricted country, deposit money and play with them.

When I confronted them about it they offered me €100 as a gesture of goodwill to which I refused as they were the ones to allow this to happen and should not have done so. If I wasn't able to sign up to the site I would not have been able to deposit such money and therefore they allowed the sign up to happen.

To date I have emailed and contacted them several time through email and live chat and no response has been given.

I am requesting a refund of funds due to the unlawful sign up of their agents with my information, after I notified them I was from a restricted country and they still allowed the sign up. They then offered me 100 instead of my total deposits back after they messed up.

Kind regards,

Andy

Dear Shandy37,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your problem. I have checked the terms and conditions, and this is what I found (here):

2.4 If you are a resident of the following countries or jurisdictions: Aruba, Australia, Bonaire, Curacao, France, Iran, Iraq, Netherlands, Saba, Spain, St Maarten, Statia, U.S.A or the U.S.A dependencies, United Kingdom. We reserve the right to refuse customers from any other countries over and above the aforementioned jurisdictions at our own discretion.

I'm sorry, but I didn't find Ireland among the restricted countries. Nevertheless, even if Ireland was listed in terms and conditions as a restricted jurisdiction we accept the situation when the casino allows players from restricted countries to open an account as long as they don’t use this as an opportunity to later cancel the player’s legitimate winnings. Simply said – if the casino allows players from restricted countries to deposit and play, they should pay out their winnings as well.  

Therefore, I would like to emphasize, that we investigate further and help only those players, whose funds (or winnings) have been confiscated due to being from a restricted country. Nevertheless, it doesn’t seem that this is the case here (but correct me if I am wrong, please).

Thank you in advance for your reply and understanding.

Best regards,

Petronela

Hello Petronela,

Thank you for the response.

In regards to the terms and conditions, I too was under the same impression with regards to not breaching their terms and conditions but doubted myself when this was a reply I received from their support staff saying I breached them:

I also looked up the terms and conditions which you quoted above, quoting it to them (Betobet) and didn't receive a response. They have stated they do not accept players from Ireland (as can be seen in the screenshot of the email) yet did so. I would also be under the same impression as yourself to say that if I did win any money on that site and I tried to withdraw those funds would be cancelled/voided and I would not receive them.

I have verbal confirmation, through that email above and also live chat below, that they do not accept Irish players. I also, after depositing and finishing with the site, entered the website name into the url and received this message:

Three forms of communication to state that Irish players were restricted from playing:

I would not have been able to sign up to the site had it not been for the chat agent/live chat support helped me sign up at the time and they did not state anything about it being a restricted country.

They have tried to "fob me off" with 100 euro stating it's not their problem/fault, when in actual fact it is because it was them that allowed the sign up. As per the screenshot of the email attachment above.

Whatever other information you need please don't hesitate to contact me and I'll provide what I can.

Kind regards,

Shandy37

Thank you, Shandy37, for your reply. Could you please clarify what the disputed amount represents? Are there any funds being held by the casino?

Hello Petronela,

I'm after looking through my bank statements and my initial evaluation of the accounts was considerably lower than what I stated. Apologies for that.

I put it at €1,000 was what I deposited into the account when in actual fact it was €1,915 as such I'm attaching documentation to prove that amount was deposited.

Apologies again about the initial amount submitted. The disputed amount,totalling now at €1,915, was what I was allowed to deposit into the account. Currently nothing is in that account and I have no access to it. I have tried for months on end to get the transaction history but have been ignored.

I have tried for months on end to know why one of their agents allowed my country of residence to sign up but have been ignored.

I have looked for a refund of funds due to being from a restricted country and have been ignored. If I had winnings, as stated by yourself and tried to go through KYC process I believe I would not have been able to withdraw any winnings from the account and I would have been blocked.

The funds were allowed to be deposited from a restricted country and played through.

I hope this helps and if you need more information please don't hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,

Shandy37

Dear Shandy37,

I'm afraid you misunderstood me. I stated that we investigate cases when casinos confiscate players' winnings and use the restricted countries as justification. That's not the case here.

• You deposited funds into your casino account.
• Your country is not listed between the restricted ones.
• You played and lost your funds.
• No winnings were confiscated.

I'm afraid there is no solid ground to demand a refund. Please let me know if there is any additional information that I have overlooked, but I’m afraid I will be forced to reject your complaint as unjustified. I wish I could be of more help. Thank you in advance for your reply and understanding.

Hello Petronela,

Thank you for the response.

I believe that had I any winnings and tried to withdraw them as such I would be refused as they could state I am from a restricted country. Even though their terms and conditions do not state as such their website when trying to sign up to it does not have Ireland as a listed country when signing up to it and you cannot enter in your Irish mobile number.

This was all completed via the operator (live chat support) when I contacted them way back. Their live chat support at the time stated Ireland wasn't restricted even though that kept popping up on the screen. It was the support staff that allowed the sign up to happen.

If, as it states both on the site and via the operator, that Ireland is a restricted country then I wouldn't/shouldn't have been able to sign up to it only for the operator helped me to sign up. Therefore I wouldn't have been able to sign up and play with the funds and I wouldn't be submitting a complaint.

I unfortunately understand if you have to reject this complaint but I just wanted to show that they allowed a sign up from a restricted country as they state and are allowing it to happen still with the help of their own live chat operators. I would have hoped to have received my funds back but if you feel the complaint is unjustified then I understand and have to go with your decision.

Thank you for the help so far with this matter.

I apologize for not being able to provide more assistance in resolving this case. Please feel free to reach out to us if you encounter any problems with other casinos in the future. However, due to the reasons mentioned above, I must reject this complaint. Thank you for your understanding.