CasinoFriday - Player’s winnings have been confiscated.

I joined Casino Friday via an affiliate link on Casino Ring assuming that they would have only trustworthy casinos on offer.

I joined 25th May after reading their Welcome bonus page which encourages players to know that the bonus is treated as para and the player can do anything they like - in fact the text actively encourages the player to use high stakes or play roulette etc. It also is very clear that any winnings in real cash can be withdrawn any time as long as the deposit turned over x1 and the bonus hasn't been used.

I played a slot (Jammin Jars) on €10 stake and turned my deposit over a few times and decised to cash out after winning a few hundred euros

Later on the same day I receive an email stating that I have abused the bonus in relation to terms :

16.10 You must not engage in any activity which is intended to take unfair advantage of a Bonus. CasinoFriday reserves the right to withdraw the availability of any Promotion and void any wager funded by the Bonus and remove any winnings from such wager at any time and at CasinoFriday’s sole and absolute discretion.

§16.11 If we have reasonable grounds to suspect that a Bonus is being claimed by or for the benefit of the same person more than once or by a group of people acting in concert then it may withdraw the availability of any Bonus or all Bonuses to that customer or group of customers and/or void any wager funded by the Bonus and remove any winnings from such wager.

§11.4 The Casino has zero tolerance to advantage play. Any player who will try to gain advantage of casino welcome offers or other promotions agrees that Company reserves the right to void bonuses and any winnings from such bonuses, for the reasons of:

§11.4.5 any other actions which may damage the Casino.

I believe the terms 16 do not apply as I never used the bonus, I have never made an account with them before and I am a just a regular player.

I believe terms 11.4.5 is unfair because it allows the casino to say they can take any winnings at will at any time, which is unfair without any transparency.

Dear theGluke,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m very sorry to hear about your negative experience. Do I understand correctly that your deposit has been refunded? Could you please forward me your bonus and cashier history?

Additionally, if there is any other communication between you and the casino, please forward it to kristina.s@casino.guru.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Kristina

Hello,

yes they claim my deposit will be sent back to me as per the email chain I uploaded. I have no way of forwarding the bonus / cashier history as they have also closed the account the same day they sent the original confiscation email. But to clarify I did sign up and take on the bonus offer - I just never ended up going into the bonus. Again they make a huge selling point in their welcome bonus blurb about doing anything you like in real cash as long as you haven't started bonus wagering.

EDIT - I can confirm from my bank statement that the deposit has been refunded

Thank you very much theGluke for your reply. I will now transfer your complaint to my colleague Jozef who will be at your assistance. I wish you the best of luck and hope to see your problem being resolved to your satisfaction soon.

Hello theGluke.

I absolutely appreciate that you shared your experiences with the Casino Guru team. We will now try to get in touch with the casino.

Hi and apologies for the late reply.

Sorry to hear that you feel you've been mistreated Luke, let me try to clear things up a bit and maybe make it a bit more understandable for everyone.

The reason your account was closed and winnings were confiscated (your deposit has been paid back now, by the way), is due to several indicators that we use to spot players who take advantage of our welcome bonus or any other bonus for that matter.

I have had a chat with our Risk department and they are confident that, since you "ticked" many of these boxes, we stand by our decision of the confiscation.

I joined 25th May after reading their Welcome bonus page which encourages players to know that the bonus is treated as para and the player can do anything they like - in fact the text actively encourages the player to use high stakes or play roulette etc. It also is very clear that any winnings in real cash can be withdrawn any time as long as the deposit turned over x1 and the bonus hasn't been used.

I don't believe that we encourage players to use high stakes because of this, it is possible to do it sure, but it's not encouraged or told to the players that this is something they "should do".

I believe the terms 16 do not apply as I never used the bonus, I have never made an account with them before and I am a just a regular player.

To clear this up; as we believe that there was little incentive to wager the bonus, §16 applies even if you don't necessarily hit the bonus itself. You decided to take the welcome bonus and play €10 per spin on a €200 deposit, which in this instance would be a justified reasoning for us suspecting advantageous play.

I believe terms 11.4.5 is unfair because it allows the casino to say they can take any winnings at will at any time, which is unfair without any transparency.

This is in place to protect ourselves and our players from advantageous play. You can see similar paragraphs in most casinos where this is in place as a just-in-case. We don't see ourselves being any different.

Hopefully, this would clear up things both for yourself and for CasinoGuru, and if you have any further questions about this, please let me know.

However as stated previously, after a thorough investigation, we are confident that we have made the right decision and its outcome will stand.

Wish you all a great week ahead.

Alexander, Head of Customer Relations

This is the first three paragraphs of your welcome bonus promotion page:

At CasinoFriday, we’ll give you a Parachute Bonus on your first deposit, also known as a No-Sticky Bonus. In short, that means that your deposit amount and bonus amount are completely separated.

You play with your real money first. The bonus wagering and game restrictions don’t kick in until you drop down to your bonus balance. That means you are free to play whatever you want for whatever stakes you prefer BEFORE you hit your bonus balance.

Example: You deposit €100 and get your €100 Welcome Bonus. Your playable balance will be €200. Until your balance shows €100 or lower, you are free to do whatever you want. Play high stakes, do bonus buys, play roulette, go nuts. The first €100 is virtually a free-for-all. And the best part: If you win (before hitting the bonus balance), you can withdraw straight away! You do however need to wager your deposit amount at least once (and you will forfeit the bonus amount if you withdraw) before you can make a withdrawal.

It seems a convenient fall-back to say it's allowed in your welcome blurb then when somebody uses a stake you deem high (and surely this is arbitrary) can claim advantage play based on stake size alone ?

That's an impossible situation for a player. And your text is therefore a honey trap knowing that you can claim any stake is "too high" and therefore must be advantage play ?

Dear Alexander and CasinoFriday team.

Thank you very much for your cooperation in this case. Please, could you specify if the player has breached any of the bonus conditions? Could you also specify what do you mean by advantageous play (what advantage has the player gained)?

Be aware that in Casino.Guru, we don't support taking winnings from players after they have fully cleared the wagering requirements without breaking additional rules for bonus play, even if the casino suspects that the player is a bonus abuser. If a player has received a bonus and has played with it, they deserve to keep the winnings. You can find more info about our position in our Fair Gambling Codex (in this case, especially parts Betting Patterns & Bonus hunting (bonus abusing).

We are extending the timer by 7 days. If the casino fails to respond in the set time frame, we will close the complaint as ‘unresolved’.

Dear Alexander and Casino Friday team.

Thank you for your part in this case. Although we fully trust your statements and decisions of your Risk department, during our complaint resolution process we need transparency and fully valid information. Unfortunately, it is still unclear what were the reasons for winnings confiscation and without providing it we consider the confiscation as unjustified.

Please, could you provide us with more information?

We are extending the timer by 7 days. If the casino fails to respond in the set time frame, we will close the complaint as ‘unresolved’.

Since we haven’t received a further response from the casino, we are forced to close the complaint as ‘unresolved’. It is still not clear if the winnings were confiscated legally.

The casino can reopen this complaint anytime.

Dear theGluke.

I am very sorry but since the casino team is unresponsive, we’re not able to proceed with further investigation. Another option is to file an official complaint at ADR and/or licensing authority of the casino. I will gladly help you with it. Please, be aware that this complaint will affect their reputation on our website. Let me know if you have any questions or require further assistance.

Best regards, Jozef

jozef.k@casino.guru