Bitcasino.io - Player’s account closed but winnings are not refunded.

BitCasino has grossly failed to protect vulnerable player residing in a prohibited jurisdiction, allowing to play through more than 33,000 USDT equivalent in cryptocurrencies. The complaint centred around the following points was submitted to BitCasino 

On 12th of September, 2023 a formal complaint was submitted to the casino management after 6 turbulent months of gameplay, addressing the following serious issues:

A. Breach of Russian Legislation Related to Provision of Online Gambling Services: 

Despite being fully aware that the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation blocked access to BitCasino website due to the illegality of its operations, BitCasino have unlawfully allowed a Russian player, namely myself, to register and play on BitCasino platform. 

While in BitCasino Terms and Conditions it has been stated that 

«BitCasino are responsible for determining whether BitCasino accessing and using our website is compliant with any rules, laws, and regulations applicable to BitCasino and BitCasino warrant to us that gambling is not illegal in the territory where BitCasino reside.» I believe that the Operator has been in direct knowledge of illegality of provision of gambling services to the residents of Russian Federation and should have promptly included it in the Prohibited Jurisdictions List.

B. Negligence Towards a Vulnerable Player:

I began my gambling journey in March 2023, a tumultuous period for me due to the ongoing military and political events in my home country, the Russian Federation. The emotional and psychological strain led me to seek solace in online gambling. Having received a significant inheritance from my grandfather's estate in late 2022, I had converted practically all my net worth at that time to cryptocurrency and, unfortunately for me, got hooked in the nets of online gambling with BitCasino website.

BitCasino platform allowed me to deposit and wager an amount I could not afford to lose without any interference from human being. In particular, BitCasino have not paid any attention or procured any sort of fitness to play check, nor have offered or imposed any cooling off period or limited despite having all signs of compulsory gambling in place: (Attachment B is a comprehensive overview of compulsory gambling patterns during the whole history of account)

- Chasing of losses;

- Betting patterns involving placement of high-value bets in very short period of times, up to 4 bets per minute;

- Bet sizing of up to 150% of initial deposit on the gameplay day;

- Redeposits of any withdrawn amounts;

At no point did BitCasino attempt to check on my well-being, and instead, BitCasino only encouraged further gambling by placing widgets urging me to redeposit despite having positive balance and «keep on playing». 

However, BitCasino have failed to address that which is clearly proved enticing and encouraging me to gamble further on via BitCasino Website by both means of automated banners and direct e-mail message from «VIP Manager».

C. Failure to Conduct AML Checks:

I was able to wager more than 1,500,000 USD, deposit 176 thousand USD, and withdraw 144 thousand USD without any Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks or identity verification from BitCasino side. It was only upon my initiative that I verified my identity on 4th of September, 2023. 

This negligence on BitCasino part is a clear violation of the national Curacao legislation, 

This issue is particularly interesting due to the fact that Russian Federation is currently considered a territory with heightened money laundering and sanction risks by the Kingdom of Netherlands, of which Curacao is integral part of, 

Given the severity of these infringements, I've made a formal claim for:

• A full refund of any positive gain made by operator of BitCasino.io, Moon Technologies B.V., which, according to my calculations, constitutes a total of:
• 31362 USDT (Tether USD) cryptocurrency tokens
• 0.02246289 BTC (Bitcoin) cryptocurrency units
• 0.031 ETH (Ethereum) cryptocurrency units
• Immediate closure of my account at BitCasino.io

Aftermath of complaint was closure of account without any notice 2 days after complaint submission and... complete silence for the past 5 weeks, despite further reminders sent on 19th September and 18th of October. Direct approach to the executive management of Yolo Group didn't help as well.

I hereby demand complete refund of any gains made by BitCasino

Dear ovalbit,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your negative experience with Bitcasino.io and your circumstances.

First, let me emphasize we don't deal with issues and won't investigate issues regarding licensing obligations and policies. I understand your views, but sadly, we’re not in a position to be able to help you. If you believe the casino didn't adhere to its AML obligations, you'll need to contact the casino's regulatory authority, which is Curacao e-Gaming info@curacao-egaming.com

Please let me ask you a few questions so I better understand the situation.

• Have you requested a self-exclusion in the casino due to your gambling problems at any point in the past?
• Could you please advise what the disputed amount руб35000 refers to in this situation?

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

Best regards,

Tomas

Dear Tomas,

Many thanks for opening my complaint against BitCasino.io in due course.

I understand that parts of this complaint can only be evaluated by regulatory authority, however, for the record it should be noted that according to current information I have the regulatory authority lapses its activities on 31/10/2023, which will highly likely limit my abilities to seek any sort of meaningful resolution from there.

As mentioned in the original correspondence with casino, me and my representative are prepared to go further than that in necessary, but I would like to make final approach here via instrument of public mediation before the whole bunch of issues encountered with BitCasino goes further down the road.

Therefore, let's focus on the following issues that we can certainly discuss here and hear BitCasino representative's side of story if there's anything of value they can add up to:

1) Did the casino have appropriate resources and capabilities in place to protect and prevent/intervene in my problematic gameplay on pro-active basis?

My point of view: Yes, highly likely, not only under Curacao licensing obligations it is obliged to follow, but in practice and that can be proven since we have significant amount of publicly available information about organisational size and resources, utilised software, and personal review of account when making a decision to classify player as candidate for VIP.

In addition to 660 headcount of employees, 10s of account managers and legal employees according to LinkedIn, Yolo Group has a dedicated Social Responsibility Director who has

2) Did the casino act in predatory manner at the time of manual review of account and pop ups incentivising to "Keep on playing?"

My point of view: Yes, definitely. As seen from attachment A, Bitcasino has literally bombarded me with incentives to redeposit to continue to play on the website. Given extremely problematic game history by the time it has happened and advanced business analytics system that Hub88, listed as "powered by" on BitCasino website, I believe that I was specifically targeted as vulnerable player.

3) Did the casino violate its obligations to communicate with customer promptly after receiving a complaint and blocking account without any notice of particular reason why casino has done so?

My point of view: Yes, definitely. Not only has casino failed to respond during the past 5 weeks, but it has blocked the account and has not provided the exact reason why it has undertaken such action: based on request of me as player, but without providing any notice? For breaking for legal action threats fully presented with respective evidence and analysis? For investigation of claim, again without giving any notice or update for the past 5 weeks? That sounds not like how casino shall behave.

All in all, that's something that has to be answered by casino executives and I have absolutely no clue how can I get those answers and reaction to complaint, since even approach via e-mail to senior management of Yolo Group went without any acknowledgement.

Now, let me answer the questions you have asked me:

Have you requested a self-exclusion in the casino due to your gambling problems at any point in the past?

No, while I have considered that, the following factors have influenced my decision not do so:

• Since BitCasino has extremely lax registration system without proper AML controls made at this point, only requiring e-mail and DOB I've felt that I would not resist temptation to create another account with same DOB, deposit money there and at some point when there would have been an occasion to withdraw, casino would make use of T&C multi-accounting prohibitions terms on me, confiscating everything.

Again, I did not feel that it would help me in any way and would jeopardise my position.

Could you please advise what the disputed amount руб35000 refers to in this situation?

My apologies, I've tried to submit a complaint multiple times before I succeeded (file name issues) and have used this as placeholder.

Actual disputed amount if converted to single currency equivalent of cryptos (USDT in this case) is exactly 32100 USDT.

Let me also express hope that BitCasino's generous affiliate program would not come as an obstacle to fair and independent mediation attempt.

Thank you for the detailed explanation.

Please note the casino has its own policies regarding protecting players with gambling addiction, https://bitcasino.io/help-center/help-terms-and-conditions/bitcasino-self-exclusion-terms-and-conditions

In order to be protected from gambling you need to inform the casino about your gambling problems and request a self-exclusion.

Our position is that you have only a valid claim for a refund if you requested a self-exclusion due to your gambling problems but the casino failed to enact adequate protections.

We also cannot conclude it is a predatory tactic when the casino entices players with popups as you explained.

Regarding other points that you brought up, unfortunately, we cannot consider them valid reasons for a refund and won't be able to assist you based on these accusations.

If you happen to have other accounts open in online casinos, I would recommend you request self-exclusion in these casinos immediately.

I would like to call your attention to our Self-Exclusion Assistance Tool https://casino.guru/global-self-exclusion-initiative/assistance-tool 

This tool will make it easier for you to block your casino accounts across multiple gambling establishments simultaneously and is not affiliated with any specific casino. The Self-Exclusion Assistance Tool was designed to assist individuals who may be facing challenges with their gambling habits by helping them limit their access to gambling and reduce the potential for further harm.

I'll await your reply.

Hello Tomas,

Casino Guru's position has been well understood for the most part, and while not being in line with what was expected, I accept that

However, don't you find BitCasino has broken rules with regards to Section 12 of Fair Gambling Codex with regards to enforcing rules?

It's absolutely not clear what was the exact reason behind stopping communicating with player and just disabling account completely without any formal response as to:

What was the exact reason for account closure? Player request, decision of casino management taken on the grounds which should have been clearly communicated to the player?

How long account disablement would apply for? Permanently, six months, three months? Wouldn't there be a risk that a month later I try to log in and casino would just have opened this account by this time?

Thanks for the reply.

Article 12 of Fair Gambling Codex concerns rules that are explicitly used against players to confiscate funds, which isn't a comparable situation.

If you have doubts about your account status, I would recommend you contact the casino and inquire about the reason for account closure and whether it was applied permanently.

I wish I could be of more help. Although, we weren't able to help you in this situation, don't hesitate to contact us if you run into issues with any online casino in the future.