The player from Finland is struggling with account verification at CatCasino which is with-holding winnings of €520. The initial passport for verification was expired and the subsequent document, a valid driving license, was rejected by the casino without credible reason, contradicting their terms of service. Player’s complaint has been resolved successfully.
CatCasino - Player's valid identity document is rejected.
Amount: €520
CatCasino
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Resolved
Our verdict
Case closed
RESOLVED
Case summary
1 year ago
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1 year ago
Translation
I decided to play at this casino and made a deposit of €85 without a bonus. After a couple of hours of playing, I managed to win some money and decided to withdraw €520 from the casino.
Shortly after my withdrawal request, I noticed that I should verify my account, so I provided them with the necessary documents (passport and a selfie with passport, proof of address, and bank card details). After submitting these documents, I realized that my passport was not accepted as a document because it expired last summer. This was indeed my mistake as I forgot about its expiration and I currently do not have a new passport as a replacement. I then went to their live chat for advice and received a response from their customer service agent that identity can also be confirmed with a driving license, which is also mentioned in CatCasino's terms of use as an approved method.
After this, I sent them a picture of my valid driving license. I assumed that the issue was now resolved until I noticed a while later that my driver's license had also been rejected. I went again to the live chat to ask about this and surprisingly received a response that a driving license cannot be accepted as a verification method from the country where I live (Finland). This sounded to me like a suspicious fabricated reason not to verify my account as I have never had problems with account verification using the same driving license at many other casinos where this document has been perfectly accepted for identity verification.
Upon further study of CatCasino's terms, it clearly states that a valid driving license is an acceptable document to verify identity. However, at this point I'm only getting replies from the customer service on live chat saying that it's illegal to use a driving license for identity verification, among other fabricated reasons. I have also sent them an email requesting visible proof stating that a driver's license cannot be used for identity verification for people living in Finland, but unfortunately, I'm not getting any response to my question via email.
Would you possibly be able to assist me with this issue?
I honestly feel at this moment that CatCasino does not have any intention to pay me my due winnings and they are coming up with false justifications for not being able to verify my account even though I have provided them with all the required documents.
Attached are some screenshots of conversations with their customer service agent on live chat. Unfortunately, I cannot include email discussions in the attachments as I'm not getting any response to the emails I have sent them.
Automatic translation:
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1 year ago
Dear Penala,
Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your problem.
Please understand that KYC is a very important and essential process, during which the casino makes sure that the money is sent to the rightful owner. As they don't have the luxury of being able to physically see all of the players and check their identification and documents, this is the only way gambling establishments are able to complete the verification procedures. None of the serious and licensed casinos take KYC lightly and it might take a few working days to complete this thorough process.
Have you received an explanation for the ineligibility of your location for KYC verification using a Driving License? Is there a photograph on your Driving License? Do you possess any other form of personal identification that includes your picture?
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,
Petronela
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1 year ago
Translation
Hi Petronela,
Thank you for your message.
I fully understand the importance of KYC and I always follow the casinos' instructions regarding sending the appropriate documents. But in this case, I feel that the casino in question does not follow their own terms of service and refuses to verify my account without a plausible reason.
Really, the only reason I received via live chat from the casino representative immediately after sending the document is that, surprisingly, it is illegal to accept my driver's license as an accepted identity document for my location. In my opinion, this statement is very contrary to the previous instructions from the representative, where he said that I can also send a photo of my driver's license to verify my identity. Even in the casino's terms of use, I have not found evidence for the claim that it would be illegal to verify identity with a driver's license from Finnish persons. I have also requested a more detailed justification for this claim from the casino by e-mail without success and I have not received an answer to my question.
My driver's license is a valid document that fully complies with the standards, with a photo, and which has been accepted as an identity verification document at several casinos with Curacao and Maltese licenses. This is why I find CatCasino's claim that it would be illegal to verify a person's identity to be very suspicious. And indeed, I currently have no ID other than my valid driver's license and my passport, which expired a couple of months ago.
Thanks and best regards,
Penala
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1 year ago
Translation
Hey,
Update to my previous post. Through email discussions, we were able to agree on the account verification issue and CatCasino finally accepted my driver's license to verify my identity.
But the overall problem is still not resolved and I have not received my winnings in my bank account.
I have now made three different withdrawal requests for the amount I won, fully following the instructions given by their representative, making the withdrawal request with the same payment method that I have deposited, i.e. Visa to my card. Every time my request is rejected after about an hour and when I inquire about it on their live chat I always get the same answer that my request has been rejected due to a technical problem and then they instruct me to do it again. So the same pattern and explanation repeats itself over and over again. The funniest and saddest thing here is that I never receive any notification from them about the rejection of the event, but I always have to check the status of my withdrawal from my account.
This experience is starting to feel very unreal and I feel like I will never see my winnings in my bank account. My confidence in CatCasino as a casino is not very high at the moment.
Regards,
Penala
Edited
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1 year ago
Translation
One more update on the situation.
I have finally received the money I won in my account, so my complaint can now be closed for me.
Thank you for your help and have a nice future.
Best wishes,
Penala
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1 year ago
As the problem has been successfully resolved, we will now close the complaint as ‘resolved’ in our system. Thank you very much, Penala, for your cooperation and confirmation, and please don’t hesitate to contact our Complaint Resolution Center if you run into any issues with this or any other casino in the future. We are here to help.
Best regards,
Petronela
Casino.Guru
