Cloudbet Casino - Player with gambling problems was allowed to bet in the casino.

I am currently permanently excluded from online gambling across all jurisdictions in Australia because of my problem gambling. I can not open a betting account even if I tried on any online gambling websites in Australia given the streamlined exclusion system here.

Unfortunately I got baited by Cloudbet’s illegal presence targeting the Australian market and gambled over $30,000 in a one month period.

I then lost access to their website and an official government message appears saying they are banned from Australia.

Upon further research, I’ve found that they have been banned in Australia by the ACMA since October last year and they were given an offical warning to stop operating in Australia.

They were also officially blacklisted as an illegal gambling operator breaching the Interactive Gambling Act 2001.

After reaching out to their support team, they continue to tell me they are fully licensed and lawfully providing gambling services in Australia.

Their negligence and illegal service of gambling in Australia is what caused me to relapse.

They are lying to me and I should not have had access to their website to begin with or had any wagers accepted given my location.

They stopped responding to me.

Dear Abzl,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your negative experience with Cloudbet Casino.

Unfortunately, we at Casino.Guru don’t deal with complaints related to licensing regulations and policies. I understand your point, but, sadly, we’re not in a position to help you to stop the casino from operating in Australia.

Regarding your self-exclusion, please allow me to ask you a few questions, so I can better understand the situation. 

Is your Cloudbet casino account currently accessible to you? Have you requested a self-exclusion in this casino due to your gambling issues?

Thank you very much in advance for your reply.

Best regards,

Tomas

Hi Tomas,

I’m not entirely sure why Casino Guru doesn’t look at licensing regulations and illegal activity.

Users participate on your website as a way to find out whether or not gambling operators are safe to use.

Opening up the discussion and giving negative scores to operators illegally targeting customers in banned jurisdictions is a must to protect users on your website.

Perhaps if they had something to lose, such as bad reviews - they would change the way they conduct themselves.

it’s important to note that they are emailing me lying to me saying that they are fully licensed and legally operating within my jurisdiction which is gross misconduct.

The website is inaccessible now because internet service providers have blocked access to the website in my country.

However I am able to access it using another URL which is cloudbet888.

Thanks for your comment.

We are an independent online casino database that acts as a mediator in resolving players’ disputes. We have no authority to enforce the legality of rules.

We inform any players from Australia about the casino in our review this way:

We are also not aware of a self-exclusion scheme regarding online casinos being available for residents in Australia you are describing.

If your Cloudbet casino account is currently accessible to you, kindly inform them about your gambling problems and request a self-exclusion.

https://www.cloudbet888.com/en/help/self-exclusion

Self Exclusion

By requesting a period of self-exclusion you agree to follow the below terms and conditions, which will be in effect from the time that CS implements the chosen period of self-exclusion.

Self-exclusion requests greater than 24 hours should be made via the Live Chat option on site.

You may self-exclude for the following periods of time:

24 hour cool off - To be completed on-site

1 week

1 month

6 months

1 year

Permanently

Once you have self-excluded you will not be able to access your account or withdraw during this period.

Please let me know about the result.

Hi Tomas,

Online casinos are illegal in Australia. So ofcourse your not aware of a online casino self exclusion scheme in Australia.

The only type of online Gambling that is legal in Australia is sports betting and racing ( cloudbet also offer these).

I am permanently excluded from the Australian regulators such as the VGCCC and the NTRC that ultimately also extends to all Australian bookmakers.

I never suggested you enforce legality of rules etc.

I am suggesting that as a trusted website that visitors use to check the trustworthiness of online casinos, you should be holding them accountable for breaching their legal requirements by providing negative scores.

Just as you do if a casino fails to pay someone out.

that’s the right thing to do and you know it however you seem to turn a blind eye to it which is quiet weird.

Thanks for your commentary. 

As I pointed out in my screenshot above, visitors from Australia are notified in our casino reviews that casinos offering their services in Australia might be doing so in contravention of the IGA.

I am sorry but what you are requesting is outside of the scope of our Complaint Resolution Center. 

Unless you self-exclude in casinos that are licensed outside Australian regulation reach, you won't be protected, and we can't argue in your favor to return your deposits.

We can't ask the casino to return your deposits based on the argument they operate illegally in your country, only based on a self-exclusion not applied properly.

Our recommendation is you request a self-exclusion from this online casino and take advantage of this tool since it's available.

Please let me know about the result.

Curacao have deemed this a "qualified complaint" and have given Cloudbet 7 days to respond as per their IP-Agreement.

I understand this is out of your scope and you can’t enforce the casino to stop operating in Australia, however you are doing very little to notify your users of Cloudbets conduct which has now been identified as a potentially serious breach by Curacao.

Why don’t you give Cloudbet the opportunity to make amends by returning my funds. Whether they pay or not is not even my main concern. I’m more concerned that you leave a negative score if they don’t pay so that your users are aware of what’s happened.

"casinos offering their services in Australia might be doing so in contravention of the IGA."

So basically your saying that you are entirely aware that Cloudbet operates illegally in Australia yet your happy to provide great scores and fantastic reviews for your Australian users to see and to gamble with them?

Thanks for your commentary.

You can read about how we review and assign ratings to casinos in our article here:

https://casino.guru/our-casino-reviews

You can find here what we believe a fair casino should bring about in relation to country restrictions and self-exclusion:

https://casino.guru/fair-gambling-codex-for-casinos#restricted-countries

https://casino.guru/fair-gambling-codex-for-casinos#self-exclusions

Self-exclusion mechanisms in the casino exist however, but from the information you shared, you didn't take advantage of them by requesting self-exclusion in the casino due to gambling problems after creating an account in the casino. As I explained previously we would consider your case further under the circumstances you informed the casino about your gambling problem and the casino would allow you to deposit and play despite this.

I believe you have fair points in the discussion, however, under current circumstances, our Complaint Resolution Center is unable to provide further assistance to you and your complaint will be rejected.

I genuinely wish the gambling authority will help you with your request further.

Best regards,

Tomas

Casino.Guru