BitStarz Casino - Player's bonus winnings have been confiscated.

Hello!

I ve played at this casino and made 3 deposits consecutive ( lost the first 2 ) but won on the 3rd deposit. I ve played with bonus, I saw they gave me the match bonus for my deposits .

I wagered the bonus amount and left with 6k in winnings. First thing I spoke with the chat support and they informed me that I need to verify my account. I did what they asked so I uploaded passport, proof of address and proof of deposit.

They also requested additional verification like:

1. Selfie in the street
2. Selfie in the street with passport
3. Payslip
4. Proof of my income

This was sent all one by one and waited days to get an answer on each.

Now after days of waiting and sending what they wanted, I just received an email saying I violated a rule as " All customer offers are limited to one per person, family, household address, email address, telephone number, same payment account number (e.g. debit or credit card, NETeller etc), IP, and shared computer, e.g. public library or workplace."

No one from my familiy played casinos, nor I shared my email address or phone number, my ip was from my home which is private and I have a personal laptop that I only use myself.

So its a bit frustrating that I waited days and days just to get an email saying they confiscated my winnings which is not even true.

So Casino Guru I would want to receive help from you in this.

Dear johnedw18,

Thank you very much for submitting this complaint. I'm sorry to hear about your problem. Please allow me to ask you a few questions to clarify the situation.

Have you used any VPN or IP-masking software to access the casino website?

Have you logged into your casino account from a public wifi or a public computer?

Could there be any chance that someone from your household or using the same IP address has also created an account at this casino? 

Could you please confirm that all your identity documents were approved during the KYC verification?

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

Best regards

Veronika

Hello!

No vpn or IP-masking, didnt logged in from public wifi nor public computer, I just used my personal one with my wifi .

No one from my househole plays casinos .

All the loads of documents I ve sent were apporoved.

Thank you very much, johnedw18, for providing all the necessary information. I will now transfer your complaint to my colleague Peter (peter.c@casino.guru) who will be at your assistance. I wish you the best of luck and hope to see your problem being resolved to your satisfaction in the near future.

Hello there,

Thank you johnedw18 for providing us with all the information. I hope we'll be able to resolve this issue together.

I would now like to ask BitStarz Casino for their help in resolving this complaint. We would like to know why were the player's winnings confiscated and what can we do to help resolve this issue.

Thank you!

Hi Peter & CG,

Thank you for the invite.

So, the reason for the confiscation was as the player already mentioned here. He's using a clean IP (No VPN) and it's shared with another player who also used the Welcome Bonus Package (and no further deposits). Hence, in an attempt to protect ourselves from potential bonus abuse, we rightfully enforced the 1 bonus per IP rule.

If you have any questions or need further details, just let me know.

O

Thank you for the update BitStarz Casino representative. We consider IP not to be a justifiable offense for confiscation of the winnings due to its nature of being able to change, if there aren't any other similarities between the accounts we would recommend performing the KYC verification on both accounts and doing a video call if you want to be sure this isn't a multiple accounts case. All players should have the chance to play as their own person even if they're sharing a household if they verify themselves with proper documents and play with their own funds. I hope we will be able to come to a compromise in this matter. Thank you in advance for your reconsideration!

Hi Peter,

With all due respect 🙂

We both know that CasinoGuru are very keen and thorough when it comes to looking through Terms and Conditions of casinos, and ask them to change when they deem them not to be justifiable. That said, you've never mentioned this before. Not to us, nor to any other casino you promote which has the exact same term.

So if that's the case, why haven't you asked us to change the term for the past 10 years when others have been changed?

You'll have to forgive me, but there's a growing frustration at BitStarz and many other casinos I'm aware of, that there's a culture over at CasinoGuru of green-lightning terms and conditions and when you feel like it, decide to ignore the terms you've OK:ed prior.

Olle

Dear BitStarz Casino representative, I discussed your concern with the rest of the team and we concluded that first and foremost we judge cases using our Fair Gambling Codex and have done so for the whole operation of our site. When we see a rule, like in this case, that states that players cannot open accounts or take bonuses from one IP, we do not penalize the casino for it, because it is mainly focused on the group of players who create multiple accounts, but also there is a very small number of cases where casinos use this rule to confiscate funds of fair players. At that stage, we still accept players' complaints regarding such issues, because anything can happen and we judge every case individually according to our Fair Gambling Codex.

The segment about IP use has been there from the beginning as well due to the fact that it can be changed without the players' input. We had a situation where players had the same IP due to the fact that one of the three internet providers in their city had the same IP for every one of their customers. That's why we don't like to reject complaints only on the basis of IP address matches. Of course, if there are other indicators along this that it is mostly like a duplicate amount we have no problem rejecting such complaints. However, we believe you should look at each case individually as this could be two genuine players using their own funds to play at the same establishment. I hope we will be able to come to a compromise in this matter.

Thank you in advance for your reconsideration!

Hi there,

I've spoken with the anti-fraud team and we're willing to make an exception in this case.

I will re-instate the balance for the player 🙂

Olle

Thank you, CasinoGuru for the help!

BitStarz Casino Team, I requested 2 payments of 1k euro each, from the total of 6000 euro.

I guess the complaint will be open until I get it, right?

Hi there,

Sure, absolutely 🙂 you can keep it open until you get the funds if it makes you feel more comfortable.

Olle

Thank you very much for the update and positive outcome BitStarz Casino representative.

Dear johnedw18, we will keep this complaint open until you confirm your withdrawal has been successful. Please keep me informed about any further developments.

Dear johnedw18,

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.

It appears that this issue may have been resolved, but without confirmation from the player we are forced to reject this complaint.

The player can reopen this complaint anytime.

We’ve reopened this complaint at the request of johnedw18. We have received the following message:

Hello!

Thank you CasinoGuru! I got the money thanks to the complaint I made it here!

I apreciate your support! Would recommend you!

We’re thrilled to hear that your issue has been successfully resolved, and we’ll be marking the complaint as 'resolved' in our system. Thank you for your cooperation and confirmation throughout the process. We’re glad that our intervention helped to resolve the situation, and we’re always here to support you if you encounter any other issues with this or any other casino in the future. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to our Complaint Resolution Center—we’re committed to helping players like you. 

As you know, we do not charge for our services, nor do we accept any gratuities. However, we would greatly appreciate it if you could take a moment to share your experience with our services on Trustpilot https://www.trustpilot.com/evaluate/casino.guru. Your honest review and any suggestions for improving our complaint resolution and mediation process would be invaluable. Your feedback could also assist others who are considering contacting us for help with online casino-related issues. 

Thank you in advance for your time. 

Best regards, 

Peter