Casinoways - Player’s self-exclusion request was ignored.

 (www.casinoways.com), which is licensed under Curacao eGaming. I am seeking your assistance in resolving an issue involving significant financial losses due to the casino's failure to address my self-exclusion request.

Details of the Issue:

Total Amount Lost: £66,000

On the date above, I lost a total of £66,000, including £59,000 that I had previously won. Before this incident, I had expressed a desire to self-exclude in order to prevent further gambling, but despite notifying Casinoways customer support, my request was not honored. I was not provided with the tools or processes to effectively self-exclude from the platform, and as a result, I continued to gamble and lost the funds.

Despite the casino's disclaimers in their terms and conditions, which attempt to absolve them of liability, the failure to implement responsible gambling measures such as self-exclusion left me in a vulnerable position. I did not receive adequate support or safeguards from Casinoways when I requested assistance to prevent further losses.

i woke up one morning dosed with medication as i was fighting a throat infection and a second degree burn all down my arm i wasn’t thinking straight at all i literally wasn’t myself… i was able to then cancel and play through £59,000 in a two hour session with no safer gambling tools ever popping up or any message from any safer gambling team about the massive amounts of money i was playing with. I proceeded to lose it all despite the fact my account should have been self excluded at my request previously when i had stated to customer support i was worried that i will lose this money, Can the casino be liable for this ? is this a breach in safer gambling laws or rules ? please help this was everyhting to me and now that i have recovered i cannot fathom or understand what has transpired on that one single day last week when i wasn’t myself at all…

Dear utopia1771,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your problem. I checked the Responsible Gaming section and I found this:

We offer you the option of deactivating your account for a specified time period (self-exclusion). The deactivation is effective immediately and is not reversible. Your account will be deactivated for the selected time period regardless of whether you change your mind during the time the account is deactivated.If you feel that you would like to take a break, please visit My Account and Play Safe section or send an email to our customer support team stating your preferred self-exclusion period and your personal details.

Could you please forward me the self-exclusion request and any other relevant communication between you and the casino? My email address is kristina.s@casino.guru. 

Do you currently have access to your casino account?

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,

Kristina

Hi, yes i will forward my emails back and forth with a VIP staff member for their customer service whom of which i stated i was worried i will lose it all and i request the pending option on my withdrawals to be removed or if there is any way i can self exclude myself to guarantee the payouts and there to be no risk of me playing further, i also have a problem with the fact i was able to cancel €59,000 and play through it all within an hour without any intervention

I also do not have access to my casinoways account since they have fully restricted access to my account which is limiting the resources i have available to prove everything unless they provide it for me

I have forwarded one email of me asking a support email address for casinoways to see if initially there was any way of protecting my pending withdrawals which they replied there aren’t any and i have attached the transcript i was able to locate in my emails from when i had asked to self exclude before i lost it all… i was told to contact another support email address to which i haven’t had a reply from since my first initial response from them …

A quick follow up:

Despite their terms and conditions, which disclaim liability for losses, there are unique circumstances that I feel warrant a thorough review.

Reasons for Refund Request:

Self-Exclusion and Cooling-Off Period Not Honored:

The week before i lost it all , I reached out to request a self-exclusion period, as I was concerned about potential gambling losses. I clearly indicated my intent to avoid further participation and to prevent the risk of losing funds. However, I was not provided with any effective self-exclusion tools, nor was my account limited in response to this request. Without this necessary intervention, I was able to gamble away my winnings and additional funds, which would likely not have occurred had a self-exclusion measure been honored.

Failure to Enforce Responsible Gambling Measures:

Most online casinos prioritize player welfare by offering safeguards like cooling-off periods, reality checks, and session limits. These measures are considered industry standards and are part of responsible gambling obligations, even in jurisdictions with fewer restrictions. By allowing me to continue depositing and losing funds without any intervention, the casino did not take reasonable actions to help protect a player at risk.

Casino’s Duty of Care and Good Faith:

The lack of response to my self-exclusion request indicates a failure to exercise a reasonable duty of care. When I expressed concerns, I hoped the casino would act in good faith to help manage the risk. Instead, I was permitted to play through all my winnings and more. This absence of safeguards allowed the continuation of play in a manner inconsistent with responsible gambling principles, and it ultimately led to significant financial loss.

Unique Circumstances Surrounding My Losses:

Given that I was under medication due to medical issues during this period, my ability to make fully informed gambling decisions was compromised. Casinos often offer tools to prevent impulsive decisions in situations like these, and such tools would have helped mitigate losses.

Responsible gambling practices require that casinos respond to players' requests for help in limiting their gambling. My request signaled that I was concerned about my gambling behavior, particularly in relation to impulsive play and loss of significant funds. Allowing me to continue depositing and playing without offering any protective measure is, in my view, a breach of the casino’s duty of care.

Many reputable casinos offer options such as self-exclusion, locked withdrawals, and cooling-off periods to ensure players can protect themselves from excessive losses. Had Casinoways followed industry standards and implemented my request, I would have been protected from these losses.

For these reasons, I respectfully request a refund of €40,000-€59,000 I believe this request is reasonable, considering my proactive request to limit my gambling activity and the absence of a response from the casino to protect my welfare.

Thank you for taking the time to review this appeal. I look forward to your response and am hopeful for a favorable resolution.

In addition, total amount is €59,000 which translates to £48,940 not £66,000 or £59,000

Could you please clarify when exactly was your account closed? Do I understand correctly that you lost all your winnings before it was closed?

Yes on the 31st October 2024 my account was permanently closed and i had lost the money on the 28th 3 days prior

In addition my account still was not closed because of my gambling problem it was closed since i had believed that my account had been breached so they had closed it as a safety measure… So they still have not even acknowledged that i have had a gambling problem and that my account should’ve been closed when i asked… I had asked for my account to be closed and for the cancel button on my €59,000 in pending withdrawals to be taken away since i have a gambling problem and addiction which i knew would lead me to play through it sooner or later on the 22nd which is a WEEK prior to when i lost my money… This was not listened to by casinoways and was not honoured despite the fact it is in my right to wish to be self excluded to guarantee my payout .

So I investigated the whole case and the emails you sent and this is the timeline:

• In one message you sent on October 22 I see:

Okay thank you, is there a way to make it so i cannot cancel my withdrawals so i don’t end up losing it ? if not it’s fine i can resist the urge to play until it’s all paid out 

• The casino informed you on October 23 that this wasn't possible.
• You also sent me a live chat transcript from October 29 in which you asked for self-exclusion and indicated a gambling problem.
• On October 31 your account was closed.

Are there any other messages between October 22 and October 29 in which you asked the casino for self-exclusion and informed them about your gambling problem? Maybe I overlooked them, so please forward them to me, if possible.

Hi Kristina,

Thank you for your reply, yes i will check my emails for any more correspondence. I have so many emails to and from the casino so i’m sure i should have more buried somewhere relating to actually asking directly for a self exclusion as i remember doing so

I have forwarded the email to you i forwarded it to the wrong email at first but i have re forwarded to you so you should be able to see an email before the timeline on the 21st October in which i requested it through live chat and the agent actually sent it to a team to reach out to me and discuss my requests of self exclusion and removing the option to cancel my withdrawals which were overlooked

I understand from the timeline initially when i first enquired simply about removing my option to cancel my pending withdrawals it was not a request or a cry for help with my gambling addiction however once i had followed up on the 29th it was a red flag to the casino and they should have locked off my account immediately… Even on the 21st i clearly stated i have a big gambling problem and addiction and i would like my account self excluded, i was told that he would forward this to the correct team which would handle it and reach out to me and they did reach out to me but never mentioned anything to do with my self exclusion i believe this was almost targeted at myself since i had been the second highest net profit winner on the site last month, Even if the casino would try and settle this with an amount a little below i would be satisfied

I have found a live chat transcript sent to my email address from the 24th October where i had requested yet another self exclusion request… I will forward this aswell… As if one attempt at self excluding wasn’t enough

Thank you very much, utopia1771, for your cooperation. I will now transfer your complaint to my colleague Jozef (jozef.k@casino.guru) who will be at your service. I wish you the best of luck and hope the problem will be resolved to your satisfaction in the near future.  

Dear utopia1771,

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

Thank you casinoguru i hope casinoways will solve this and refund the lost funds accordingly…

Hi,

I have been reviewing all the emails and chat sessions that you have had with out CS team, from what i can see there are no information given from your end that you should suffer from any kind of gambling related issues prior to your contact about the account being compromised. Kindly also remember that any account closure request needs to be sent to our CS department by email, we do not close any accounts thru any live chat, if there is a chat that i have missed during my review this should have been informed to you in case you mentioned that you wanted to close your account there and then.

Also from having a quick look at your deposits compared to your withdrawals at Casinoways you are currently up 13702.78€. Total deposits in 2 months since registration are 2.297.22€ and total withdrawals are 16.000€.

As we have explained several times in every email you sent us the liability to keep your account details safe and secure is solely laying on you and therefore we cant refund anything that is claimed being used on your account. This is also stated in our T&C which was accepted upon registering your account.

We did take action and closed your account as a security measure once you informed us that your account was being compromised, at that point we also started an internal investigation to see if we could find any irregularities in logins, betting pattern, game pattern etc, this investigation lead us to the point that there was no such discrepancies, same game was played as previous sessions and the stakes used was similar to previous sessions as well. We also have an email with your direct contact from our VIP department where you are stating that you have lost all your winnings due to choosing the "wrong coin value" whilst playing your funds. This also indicates that your account was not even compromised as your claiming it to be.

Also as mentioned above in this thread by CG representative there are RG related measures that you could have taken part of in case you felt that you were in the need of these, we are offering various limits and they are up to you to activate at any point desired.

If you need further information from my end feel free to reach out to me otherwise we are seeing this case as closed as already explained to Mr Durrant several times in both chats and emails the last month. No refund to his looses will be given based on the facts above, T&C applies and are very clear.

Regards

Early Indications of Gambling Problems: On multiple occasions, including my message on October 22, I explicitly voiced concerns about my ability to manage my gambling behavior, stating: "Is there a way to make it so I cannot cancel my withdrawals so I don’t end up losing it?" This was a clear signal that I was struggling to control my gambling impulses. While I may not have explicitly used the term "self-exclusion," the intent was evident. Your team had a duty to identify this as a Responsible Gambling concern and take action to protect me, such as offering cooling-off periods, restricting my access, or directing me to available RG tools. Failure to Proactively Offer Support: While your email mentions that various RG tools were available, these tools were never proactively offered when I expressed concerns. Under responsible gambling principles, operators are expected to identify red flags—such as requests to prevent access to funds—and provide appropriate interventions. Merely stating that tools were available is not sufficient if they were not communicated or utilized when signs of problem gambling were evident. Breach of Responsible Gambling Duty: Responsible gambling obligations, as outlined by industry standards, place a shared duty on operators to detect signs of problematic gambling and act accordingly. Even if my earlier statements were ambiguous, my request on October 29 explicitly indicated a gambling problem and a request for self-exclusion through live chat. It is clear that the casino failed to act swiftly in addressing this request, allowing further losses that could have been prevented.

Given these circumstances, I respectfully request that you reconsider my case and provide a partial or full refund of the losses incurred after my initial October 22 message. This request is not about reversing my personal responsibility but about acknowledging the lack of timely and adequate intervention on the casino's part.

In addition, I have sent multiple emails from various email addresses attempting to contact the support team to request a self-exclusion. To this day, I have not received a single reply to these emails. Therefore, it is incorrect to claim that I did not make efforts to request self-exclusion. I can upload photos of these emails, which clearly demonstrate my attempts to address my concerns. Furthermore, since you mentioned my staking patterns, I believe these should have raised significant red flags. Given that the casino has access to my financial information, including my stated income, it should have been evident that my betting behaviour far exceeded what I could reasonably afford. This lack of intervention further highlights a failure to uphold responsible gambling obligations and protect me as a player. If a casino can see that a player’s declared income is €1,500 per month and observes that the same player is staking over €70,000 within two hours, this should trigger immediate intervention. Responsible gambling measures should include safeguards to identify such discrepancies and act accordingly to protect the player from potential harm even more so when the player has stated they have a problem with gambling and are scared of losing their full balance

Hi Kai,

There are no records of you stating this in any communication with our support team from what i can see, my guess this has then been raised to your VIP contact who reached out to congratulate to your winnings in the first place, If there was such a request to not use the funds that are pending as withdrawals im sure you were informed that we do not offer such feature on the site, however all the RG related options that we offer and that you mention above was always there for you to use thru out your journey with us.

And as mentioned before, if you have had any live chat stating that you want your account closed due to any kind of RG reasons you were then informed to send an email stating this and once that is reveived and replied to the account would have been closed, as per our T&C again. All this can be read about in our T&C section under clause 8.Responsible Gaming.

Quoting: "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

- Time Out: allows you to block yourself out of Casinoways.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 time out tools, which enable you to close your account or restrict your ability to place bets."

Quoting:

"To request Time Out for longer periods than the options available via our tool, please send an email to support@Casinoways.com with details of the account you wish to exclude and the period that you wish the time out to apply. If a specific period is not given, we will exclude you for the minimum duration of 24 hours.

We will endeavor to implement your request within a reasonable time period and to ensure compliance with your time out. However, you accept that we have no responsibility or liability whatsoever if you continue gambling before your request has been implemented or you seek to use the Website and we fail to recognize or determine that."

Thanks for your understanding and wishing you a great evening.

Regards

Thank you for your response to my concerns. However, I must strongly reiterate my position that the casino failed to uphold its responsible gambling obligations in my case.

I explicitly communicated my concerns about controlling my gambling behavior and requested measures to prevent access to pending withdrawals to avoid further losses. While I understand you do not offer such a feature, my request clearly indicated a need for intervention, and your failure to provide meaningful support or alternative solutions constitutes negligence under responsible gambling principles.

Even if you believe I did not explicitly request self-exclusion, the casino's lack of proactive measures in the face of obvious problem gambling signs, such as my substantial losses far exceeding my declared income of €1,500 per month, is deeply concerning. Allowing a player to stake over €70,000 in two hours without any safeguards or intervention highlights a failure to protect me from harm. This is not only inconsistent with industry best practices but also disregards the social responsibility guidelines that Curaçao licensed operators are expected to follow.

The absence of timely action or communication about responsible gambling tools when I was visibly exhibiting harmful behaviour places significant liability on the casino. These measures should be enforced proactively, especially when it is evident that a player’s activity is unsustainable and potentially damaging.

Furthermore,

in the email with live chat transcript it clearly shows my request for self exclusion and many times i had told the live chat agent i am really really worried about losing my money and that "i have a gambling problem" this was not listened to at all…

Hi Josef i have forwarded more information to kristina if you can kindly ask her to see this as it was overlooked earlier i think i had forwarded it to the wrong email originally but this will help update the timeline.

Thank you

I am extending the timer by 7 days as I need more time for evaluation. I am sure I will provide with a final statement much sooner.

Dear Utopia1771,

I have completed the full evaluation of the casino and concluded discussions with their representatives. After reviewing the case even during our council meeting, we believe that you should be compensated. The casino's customer support was clearly made aware of your gambling addiction, and further action should have been taken. As I mentioned previously, when a casino becomes aware of a gambling problem, the player's account should be closed immediately to prevent further play. While we understand that some response time is reasonable, this issue should not have been entirely overlooked.

Had the support agent asked follow-up questions to verify your situation, it would have been a step in the right direction. However, it appears that your concerns about gambling addiction were ignored, and the agent was primarily focused on preventing you from canceling your withdrawal.

We also discussed your false claim that your account was hacked. Since this claim was made much later after the incident, we do not consider it a valid justification for overlooking the primary issue. It seems more like a desperate attempt, which would likely have been unsuccessful regardless.

Based on the evidence presented, it is evident that you have serious gambling issues, which you expressed clearly before losing control. We believe the casino should have taken action. In our estimation, the appropriate compensation should be around €27,000. While this is a significant amount, it reflects the losses that could have been avoided, had your gambling problem been addressed promptly (as the account should have been closed within a few days of your request, preventing further wins or losses).

I have already given the casino sufficient time to process this matter; however, they have not agreed with our recommendation. Unfortunately, this leaves us no choice but to close your case as "unresolved." I am deeply sorry about this outcome, as I have done my best to assist you. Please note that this complaint will impact the casino's safety index on our website.

As an alternative, you may consider filing an official complaint with the licensing authority of the casino.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need further assistance.

Best regards,Jozef

jozef.k@casino.guru