Casombie Casino - Player's account has been blocked.

Dear complaint resolving team, 

Casombie casino refuses to payout my winnings allegedly because of a breach in Terms and Conditions from my side. I believe that this is the false claim from their side and I did not breach their rules. I have exhausted all the direct communication options with the casino and because of that I’m writing this complaint.

On 28.09.22 I’ve won the jackpot in Divine Fortune slot in the amount of 223975$. After that my account was frozen and I received an email with KYC-request.

The KYC-procedure took almost two months, during which Casombie requested immense amount of redundant documents, most of which had no relation to my activity in their casino.

On 23.11.22 casino informed me by phone that they have found some inconsistencies in the documents that I have provided. They proposed to payout half of my winnings and wanted to withheld the other half.

On 25.11.22 I informed casino that because I didn’t receive a written confirmation (they refused to provide it) of the proposal I consider it non-existent in a legal sense. And hence I cannot respond to it.

On 30-th of November I received an email from Casombie, in which they suggested to sign a waive letter (which was not discussed with me before), according to which I receive a refund of my deposits and also 5000$ on top of that as goodwill gesture.

In the waive letter Casombie claimed that I’ve had no legal right to register and play in their casino because of my Ukrainian citizenship. I was absolutely surprised by this claim, because at this moment it has already been two months since the KYC-procedure have started and it was the first time when I’ve heard from them that I allegedly had no legal right to play in Casombie because I have Ukrainian passport.

On 03.12.22 I responded with the demand of full payment of the entire winnings amount.

I consider the allegations invalid and the investigation of the casino to be incorrect because of the following reasons:   

1. Before registering in Casombie, I’ve communicated with the livechat support of the casino explaining my circumstances and they confirmed that I can play.

2. I indeed am an inhabitant and resident of Thailand. This fact clearly follows from the documents that I’ve provided to the casino. Namely from my Thai Bank account Statement (it is impossible to open a bank account in Thailand without a residency status) and by my Residency Certificate from Thailand Immigration Office.

Also photos of my Thai visas confirm that I stay in Thailand for more than 180 days, which automatically makes me the resident according to Thai legislation.

Based on the above I assume that it is clear that I have the right to act as a Thailand resident while playing in an online casino in current circumstances.

3. T&C of Casombie states the list of excluded jurisdictions. It is directly stated in clause 2.3 that the person who lives or is located on the territory of Ukraine has no right to open an account in Casombie. I am not living and not located in Ukraine for quite a long time already. Nothing is said about citizenship in this clause. The statement refers to the residency status only.

The employees of the casino knew about my citizenship. Why didn’t they immediately inform me that I have allegedly violated some clause in terms in conditions? I suspect that in an imaginable event of me losing all my deposited money Casombie would not pay attention to the fact that I’m a citizen of Ukraine and would not return my funds. It seems to me that the employees of the casino have searched for a long time for something they can nitpick. They didn’t have success in finding any violations in my other documents and that’s why they payed attention to my citizenship despite their own rules.

All in all, I consider my rights to be flagrantly violated. I think that Casombie casino creates non-contractual conditions, which interfere with implementation of the rights of the consumer. I think that casino’s actions fit the definition of aggressive commercial activity. According to the Directive of May 11, 2005 No. 2005/29/EC, commercial practice shall be regarded as aggressive if, in its factual context, taking account of all its features and circumstances, by harassment, coercion, including the use of physical force, or undue influence, it significantly impairs or is likely to significantly impair the average consumer's freedom of choice or conduct with regard to the product and thereby causes him or is likely to cause him to take a transactional decision that he would not have taken otherwise.

I would not have registered or played in Casombie if I knew that they will not honestly payout my winnings. I am sure that the casino abuses their power and acts illegally.

I’ve described the situation very briefly and I am ready to provide any other information needed. I attach the screenshots of my full correspondence with Casombie and some other documents. 

Dear ChaosGen,

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. Do I understand correctly that you created your account from Thailand and always played from this country? Could you please confirm that you have never used any software that could alter your location while playing at this casino (VPN for example)?

Have you made any successful withdrawals before? Have you accumulated your winnings with or without an active bonus?

If there is any other relevant communication between you and the casino, please forward it to kristina.s@casino.guru. Alternatively, you can post it here.

Thank you very much in advance for your reply.

Best regards,

Kristina

Dear Kristina, 

thank you for the reply. 

>Do I understand correctly that you created your account from Thailand and always played from this country? 

Yes. That is totally correct. 

>Could you please confirm that you have never used any software that could alter your location while playing at this casino (VPN for example)?

Yes, I confirm that. I never used any VPN or other software like that that alters location. 

>Have you made any successful withdrawals before?

Yes, I've made a successful withdrawal on 18.09.2022 (10 days before winning of jackpot). 

>Have you accumulated your winnings with or without an active bonus?

I've accumulated my winnings by playing Divine Fortune slot only and by eventually winning the jackpot in this slot. So the answer is no, no active bonus was involved in the process of accumulation of my winnings.

>If there is any other relevant communication between you and the casino

Regarding the relevant communication. In the initial complaint I attached 44 screenshots of my entire correspondence with Casombie. Recently I received a call from KYC-department and it appeared that two days ago they've sent one more email to me after more than a month of silence. The email went to spam folder and I didn't see it initally. 

I'm attaching the screenshot of this email to this post. 

Thank you,

Denis

Thank you for your reply, ChaosGen. Could you please advise when exactly you moved to Thailand and how long are you allowed to stay there according to your documents?

Do I understand correctly that you are not officially a permanent resident yet?

Dear Kristina,

I moved to Thailand on 13-th of May 2022 and constantly reside here since that moment. 

Because of the situation with war in Ukraine, Thai government allows me to prolong my visa as many times as I need to. I prolonged my visa on the following dates: 19.05.2022, 23.06.2022, 23.08.2022, 07.11.2022, 06.12.2022, 04.01.2023, 03.02.2023. 

Currently I reside in Thailand and do not plan to leave this country. 

>Do I understand correctly that you are not officially a permanent resident yet?

I officially am a permanent resident of Thailand since the moment I received the residency certificate. I initially obtained this certificate in order to open bank account, to rent the apartment on a permanent basis and to drive a vehicle. Without such a certificate all of the mentioned above activities are impossible. 

Also I would like to note that according to the Thailand legislation, a person who is staying in Thailand for 180 days within a year automatically becomes a resident of Thailand even without a forementioned certificate. This is directly stated in section 41 of the Thailand Tax Code at the Thai Government's Revenue Department official website (https://www.rd.go.th/english/37749.html#section41). 

It can be seen from the dates I mentioned above that I clearly am a permanent resident of Thailand, according to the local legislation. 

P.S. I'm also sending to the email kristina.s@casino.guru a residency certificate and photos of my visas. 

Best Regards,

Denis

Thank you very much, ChaosGen, for your cooperation. I will now transfer your complaint to my colleague Matej (matej@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.  

Hello ChaosGen,

I am sorry to hear about your troubles.

I would like to invite the casino representative into the case:

Dear casino representative, could you please check the case and explain to us what happened?

Dear Casinoguru Team,

We would like to inform you that the customer’s account was closed and winnings were voided as the residents of Ukraine (including the territory of Crimea) do not have the right to open accounts with our Website or add monetary funds to their accounts. However, the system was bypassed by selecting an unrestricted country for registration.

In order to check the situation with the customer, we proceeded with account verification and re-examined all the relevant data provided to us. Please note that the customer is a resident of Ukraine and temporarily staying in Thailand. However, the terms and conditions still apply to the residents of the restricted country as follows:

2.3 Residents of the following countries (the "Excluded Jurisdictions"): Afghanistan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Curaçao, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lithuania, Malta, the Republic of Moldova, Portugal, Romania, Russia, North Korea, Netherlands, Sweden, Ukraine (including the territory of Crimea), United Kingdom, United States of America, Cote d’ivoire do not have the right to open accounts with our Website or add monetary funds to their accounts. We reserve the right to change the list of Excluded Jurisdictions at our sole and absolute discretion and without forewarning. All such changes will be published on our Website. You must check the Terms frequently to make sure you are not located in any of the Excluded Jurisdictions as updated from time to time. If you live in or are located in one of these jurisdictions, you agree not to open and/or use your account on the Website and to immediately close your account if you have previously opened it.

The customer moved to Thailand on 13.05.2022 and he claimed to be a resident of the country. In order to clarify this, we have consulted with local lawyers in Thailand and after a thorough investigation, it was concluded that the customer has only a temporary stay in Thailand and is not a resident of the country, as the documents provided are not of residency. According to the documents he is able to stay for a specific period of time without being considered a resident.

However, as a responsible casino, we decided to return all the deposits made by the customer and informed him about the case.

We hope that the above description has clarified the case to you. We are at your disposal, should you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Casombie.com

Dear ChaosGen,

After checking all your documents again and discussing your case internally, we believe the casino acted correctly.

You were renewing your stay regularly, and the document you presented proves that you live at the address in Thailand. However, it does not prove that you are a permanent resident.

It is very nice that the casino refunded your deposits.

Dear ChaosGen,

The article you refer to only says that if you stay in the Thai territory for more than 180 days, you should pay the taxes as a resident. The same rule we have in the EU. The rule does not mean that I am a resident of the country where I am staying. It only means that I should pay taxes in the country where I am currently staying.

To be a permanent resident of a country, you need much more than be long enough in the country. I am not an expert in Thai law; however, if you do not believe the casino's lawyers, please feel free to submit your complaint to the casino regulator. We can help you with that.

Dear Matej,

Yes, I plan to file a complaint to the licensing authority because I disagree with the decision of the casino and its lawyers. How can you help me with this?

Hello ChaosGen,

Sure, I can help you with that. Our decision was based on how it works in the EU, and we are not experts on Thai Law. Sure, you can anytime contact the casino's regulator.

Here is what you need to do:

Please write an email to:

complaints@gaminglicences.com

The email should contain the following:

1) Your personal information:

Name (your first name, your last name and the middle name if you have it)

your country of residence

your age

2) Complaint body must include the following:

casino name + license (License No. 8048/JAZ)

Your login (username) and email in an online casino (with which you had registered the account)

Describe what has happened as thoroughly as possible (including the sum of money you are challenging)

3) Attach to the email files (screenshot images or email correspondence) that prove you have already tried to resolve the problem with the casino. (link on this complaint)

Thats it.

Please note that it may take some time til the regulator decides (1-3 months). If you prepare your email well, it helps a lot.

Dear ChaosGen,

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.

Dear Matej,

I still disagree with the decision and will be appealing to higher authorities, including complaints@gaminglicences.com.

Thank you for offering to help, but I think I will file the complaint myself.

Dear ChaosGen,

You need to file the complaint yourself.

I can only give you the instructions and advise what the complaint should look like. ( I can't represent you.)

Now I only need the information that you already submitted your complaint to the regulator.

After that, I will close this complaint as unresolved with the status:

Waiting for the regulator's decision.

When the regulator responds, please reopen the complaint, and we will close the case accordingly.

>Now I only need the information that you already submitted your complaint to the regulator.

Dear Matej,

Currently I am consulting with lawyers to file a complaint to the regulator in the future. This takes some time as I need a professional opinion. I will inform you of the regulator's decision when it is made.

Please update the complaint status to "Waiting for the regulator's decision".

Dear ChaosGen,

Nowadays, some players are waiting for the regulator's decision, even three months. We are reopening the cases closed with the status: waiting for the regulator's decision after three months. Therefore I would like to close this case with the status of waiting for the regulator's decision only after you already contact the regulator. (so you will not lose the time from 3 months period)

So please update the case after you submit your complaint to the regulator.

Dear ChaosGen,

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.

Unfortunately, the player has not responded to our messages and questions. Consequently, we are unable to investigate further and have no choice but to reject this complaint.

The player can reopen this complaint at any time.