CasinoFest - Player’s account has been blocked.

Casinofest banned my account and confiscated my money.

I have been playing at PB group quite a lot. The promotions were good and the sites seemed trustworthy. On 11.3 I noticed the withdraw page was turned into "You havent indentified yourself yet, please make a trustly deposit". I made some deposits and continued playing, but the page didnt change. The sites PB sites seem to be very connected so I asked the 21.com customer support about that and they told me there shouldnt be any problems and I can continue playing. I made some more deposits.

Then 14th of march I got an email from 21.com:

"Hei,

Kuten varmasti tiedät, meillä on ehtojemme mukaisesti oikeus tarkistaa tilitapahtumatiedot, ja jos epäilemme, että pelaaja on osallistunut sääntöjenvastaiseen pelaamiseen, meillä on oikeus sulkea ja jäädyttää tili sekä takavarikoida bonukset ja voitot, jotka on saatu sääntöjenvastaisen/rikkomuksellisen pelaamisen seurauksena.

Viimeaikaisten kotiutuspyyntöjesi jälkeen olemme tarkastaneet tietojasi ja meillä on perusteltu syy epäillä, että olet käyttänyt palveluitamme vilpillisessä mielessä ja ehtojemme vastaisesti.

Ehtojen 17 ja 20 mukaisesti olemme päättäneet sulkea pelitilisi ja kaikki muut tilisi, joita sinulla on meillä, ja takavarikoimme kaikki tilillesi jääneet voitot ja bonukset, jotka sait ehtojemme vastaisesti.

Ystävällisin terveisin,

21.com

Anni"

translated by google:

"Hey,

As you know, in our terms and conditions we have the right to full account transaction information, and if we suspect that a player has engaged in gambling, we have the right to close and freeze the account and confiscate bonuses and winnings received due to non-payment/abusive gambling.

Following your recent withdrawal requests, we have reviewed your information and have reasonable grounds to suspect that you have used our services in bad faith and in violation of our terms and conditions.

In accordance with terms 17 and 20, we have decided to close your gaming account and all other accounts held by us and confiscate any winnings remaining on your account and any bonuses you received in breach of our terms.

Regards,

21.com

Anni"

So they banned me and confiscated the money I had on my Casinofest account. That money left on the account were money I had deposited and played with, so no bonus money or bonus win money there. I didnt break any promotion rules. I played the allowed games, didnt bet more than 5€ per round etc. Now it looks like some of the games I used to play are not playable with bonus money but when I played them they werent.

The terms 17 and 20 are very vague so I dont know why they banned me and they refuse to tell me. They dont answer my emails anymore.

They just gave me bigger and bigger deposit bonuses before confiscating the money. Can you please look into it? Thanks!

Im not sure whats the exact sum I had on my account because they didnt answer when I asked for my account transaction history and their parent company PressEnter Group sent me all the other sites GPDR information but not Casinofests. I think it was slightly over 1000eur.

Dear mik2, 

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your problem. Please allow me to ask you a few questions, so I can understand the whole situation completely. Could you please advise how long ago you registered your account and if you’ve completed the account verification successfully? Which games you’ve been playing (live casino games, slots, or sports betting)? Were your winnings accumulated with or without an active bonus, please? 

If there’s any relevant communication, please forward it to nikolas.b@casino.guru. 

In the last few weeks, we received several complaints from Finnish players describing the same issue with PressEnter Casinos. We addressed the topic during our internal meeting. While we acknowledge that some complaints were submitted up to a month ago, we also need to take into consideration that investigating such matters can be time-consuming. The investigation is being conducted by the entire group of casinos carefully, and we have already informed the affiliate team of PressEnter casinos.  

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, 

Nick

Hello Nick!

I registered my Casinofest account 2th of february. I used Trustly to deposit and my account was verified. The Trustly withdraws also worked fine until 11th of march when the withdraw page was replaced with "You havent indentified yourself yet, please make a trustly deposit".

I made some sports bets at PressEnter group but Im fairly sure I just played slot games at Casinofest.

I dont have the transaction history because they refused to give me one, but from my bank notes:

I withdrew the account empty 4th of march. Then I deposited total of 1210eur for daily promotions during 4th - 13th. At the 14th when my account was banned I think I had slightly over 1000eur there but less than 1210eur. 0eur bonus money at that point.

After some weeks of internal discussions and communications with the casino, no progress has been made regarding this case. We acknowledge that the investigation may be stalled by the involvement of multiple casinos and players, and therefore, we recommend seeking assistance from the Licensing Authority. As a possible solution, we suggest reaching out to eCOGRA, the official Alternative Dispute Resolution of the casino, by submitting your request here.

ADR is a free of charge service and the ruling reached by the nominated ADR entity will be considered final by both the Company and yourself, subject to full representation being given to all parties involved. You may submit a Claims Form at https://ecogra.org/forms/adr-dispute-step-1. Alternatively, you may email eCOGRA with details of your complaint at complaints@ecogra.org.

Kindly refer to this complaint as a point of reference. Let us know if you need any assistance when filing the official complaint and keep us informed about any further developments. Thank you in advance. 

Dear mik2,

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.

Hello Nick!

The last email I got from casinofest was 20th of March. I asked them for my money and account history:

"Dear xxxxx

Thank you for your last message.

We have passed on your complaint and request to the relevant department and they will revert to you as soon as possible.

With kind regards,

Elias"

Im fairly sure they arent going to answer as it has been almost 2 months now.

I'll contact eCOGRA. Do you know if I should file a complaint for each PressEnter casino or make a combined one?

Hello mik2,

It would be the best to submit 1 complaint but describing the whole situation with the group and state every single casino you had account with.

We will be also closing the complaint as unresolved until you get an answer the licensing authorities so please if you do, let us know as soon as possible.

Wish you best luck.

Regards,

Nick