Betti Casino - Player criticizes casino's responsible gambling practices.

I have a gambling problem. I have already taken steps to reduce my risk by registering with gamstop, but I came across this casino that is not licensed in the U.K. they have a range of games and features served to me that are illegal here. Because I have this problem, I lied to myself and believed I would be able to control my gambling this time round if I employed the sites responsible gambling tools. I set a deposit limit of €400 a month, but this was easily removed with only a 24 hour cool down. I also self excluded my account, but was able to re-open this with no questions asked by their support team. I believe the site should have prevented me removing my deposit limi, as this was set to a month for a specific reason. Allowing me to remove it and then exceed the limit within 24 hours is very predatory. I also believe I should have been questioned on my state of mind when asking to re-open my account, but they did not do this.

Dear ryanwright93,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your problem. Before we contact the casino and ask for their standpoint, could you please forward emails or screenshots showing that you have sent a request for a self-exclusion? My email address is petronela.k@casino.guru. Did you specify in that request for how long you wish your account to be suspended and the reason why?

I hope we will be able to help you to resolve this issue as soon as possible. Thank you in advance for your reply.

Best regards,

Petronela

Hi petronela, the site allow for the self exclusion to be activated from within their responsible gambling section. They did not ask for a reason or do any checks. I contacted their live support and they re-opened my account. I have tried to ask them for chat logs of this, but they will not provide the information. I have also been completely locked out of my account (after my request) and their support are now unable to view any of my information apparently. I have asked for my player ID as I require this for another complaint that I need to lodge with their licensing, and they confirmed they have no records of old chat logs, see attached. I have submitted a subject access request that they should have to reply to that may include the information but I am not confident they will comply as I do not believe they would be fined by european GDPR laws. At this point, they are refusing to answer any questions and just saying that my request has been forwarded to another team. The only other email correspondence I’ve had is them saying "no" is their final decision.

Thank you, ryanwright93, for your reply. Could you please advise if you received any email confirmation about your self-exclusion request submitted through casino's responsible gambling section? Have you ever mentioned gambling problem when communicating with the casino? Please understand that it is hard for us to proceed with any case without having supporting evidence from players. Therefore, we always recommend sending an email to have solid proof supporting your actions.

When applying for the self-exclusion, state clearly the reason why you want your account to be deactivated and specify the time period. Also, email "Subject" should be clearly marked and easily recognizable as casino support receives many requests per day hence, if it’s visibly marked you stand a better chance to have your request granted as soon as possible. 

Example:

Email subject: Self-exclusion

Player’s info:

First name:

Last name:

DOB:

Casino login:

Email address:

"Greetings Betti Casino,

I’m writing to inform you that I wish to exclude immediately from this casino and from receiving any gambling-related marketing material for a minimum period of xxx months/years (lifetime).

The reason that preceded my decision is xxx

I acknowledge that I will not be allowed to rescind my self-exclusion during this period and self-exclusion cannot be lifted before the end of the agreed period."

Hi Petronela,

the issue we have is that the deposit limits were not enforced. I had set a monthly limit that was removed. My dispute is with the deposits made after this limit was removed.

as previously mentioned, Betti have successfully excluded my account now, but this is preventing me from getting any information from the account itself.

i spoke with their live support and they confirmed that my monthly deposit limit set on the 28th August, was removed on the 4th September. My point is that this should not have been possible.

I have had no further correspondence from Betti on this matter, and their support will not provide me any information. Even requesting chat logs requires their managers to approve now (this was never the case before I raised this with them) so it appears they are done investigating the issue and are happy to ignore me.

I have been in contact with their support everyday requesting an update via email, but they so far have not been able to provide one.

Please let me know if this helps clarify my complaint and my apologies for not being able to provide more information. I am relying on their live support as that is the only channel of communication I have with them, and they very often just refuse to provide even basic information regarding the issue.

many thanks,

Ryan

I'm happy to hear that your account has been successfully blocked now. I have checked the responsible gambling section and this is what I found (here):

8. Responsible Gaming

We endorse responsible gaming and gambling. We want you to enjoy your experience on our site, while remaining aware of the social and financial harms associated with problem gambling.

We offer the opportunity to apply limits to your account at any time. If a limit is set up and reached, you will be unable to continue to play or access your account beyond the relevant limit. You may at your discretion choose to limit:

- Deposit Limit: allows you to limit the amount of funds you can deposit into your account

- Self exclusion: allows you to block yourself out of Betti.com for a period of time.

- You may choose to implement Daily, Weekly or Monthly limits

- You may change or revoke a limit on your account by contacting customer support.

For those customers who wish to restrict their gambling, we provide voluntary self-exclusion tools, which enable you to close your account or restrict your ability to place bets.

To request self-exclusion for longer periods than the options available via our tool, please send an email to support@betti.com with details of the account you wish to exclude and the period that you wish the self-exclusion to apply. If a specific period is not given, we will exclude you for the minimum duration.

You may change or cancel your limits via My Account > Settings > Your Limits. If you decrease your limits the new settings will be live immediately. If you increase or remove your limits a 24h cool-down period will be applied to your account. After that cool-down period is over your new limits will be active.

I understand that your limits can be changed at any time after contacting the casino. Why do you believe that your limits shouldn't be removed?

Hi Guru,

it has become apparent that this method is possible, but I did not use this feature. I agreed to use their site under the impression that it was not user controlled and that support would have to make the adjustments. When I raised this with them, they have said that I must have changed the limits but provided no proof other than when the limits were removed.

i have explained to them that I did not want the limits removed, but they will not even investigate how this has happened and they dismiss any idea that it is a system error.

i explained that if limits were not removed by their support, then according to the terms I agreed to, they should not have been removed. Their response to that has simply been to change the terms and conditions to the ones you have just quoted. See the attached photos of the terms I agreed to, and the revised terms they’ve updated just this week.

they have added in the information that the users can change their own limits, but I would’ve not signed up if this had it been clear originally. I wanted the protection from having to go via their support and these terms promised that, only to end up being false.

in my view, they have breached their terms, then altered them, and then provided no proof that I am at fault and refuse to investigate further.

I regret to inform you that responsible gambling tools vary significantly among casinos, making it challenging to demonstrate their correct application without substantial supporting evidence. It is important to recognize that challenging a casino's decision to remove limits, especially when their terms and conditions explicitly allow such actions at any time, can be difficult.

If you possess concrete evidence that you communicated a gambling problem, and it was disregarded, allowing subsequent deposits, we would be inclined to intervene. However, it appears that such evidence is not present in this case.

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.

Dear ryanwright93,

We are extending the timer by 7 days. Please, be aware that in case you fail to respond in the given time frame or don’t require any further assistance, we will reject the complaint.

We regret to inform you that we must reject this particular case due to the lack of response from the player regarding our messages and questions. As a result, we are unable to proceed with any further investigation or provide potential solutions to address the issue at hand. However, we want to emphasize that the player retains the option to reopen this complaint at any time in the future should they decide to do so. We remain open and willing to assist with resolving the matter should the player choose to resume communication.