Mzansibet Casino - Player’s account has been closed unlawfully.

FORMAL COMPLAINT –

MZANSIBET (SMS2BET BETTING SERVICES PTY LTD)

Unlawful Account Deactivation, Withheld Funds, Unfair Tournament Practices & Regulatory Non-Compliance

To Whom It May Concern,

I hereby submit a formal complaint against Mzansibet (SMS2Bet Betting Services Pty Ltd) for multiple incidents of unfair, unethical, and potentially unlawful conduct. This complaint concerns their refusal to release legitimate winnings, retaliatory account actions, unfair tournament handling, and violations of South African consumer and gambling regulations.

Summary of Current Incident

On 4 December 2025, I requested a withdrawal of R11,000 from my Mzansibet account. After waiting more than 24 hours without any processing or feedback, I contacted their support team. The agent I dealt with was arrogant, unprofessional, and refused to assist.

Shortly after sending a written complaint to Mzansibet regarding their conduct and the unreasonable delay, my account was suddenly and unlawfully deactivated, access was removed and my withdrawal blocked.

No explanation or justification was provided.

This appears to be retaliatory action following my complaint, which is unacceptable and unlawful.

Previous Incident – Unfair Tournament Practice

This is not the first time I have experienced misconduct from Mzansibet. Previously, my wife participated in one of their tournaments and finished in first place. Despite clear evidence of her ranking, Mzansibet, Refused to acknowledge her position, nDeclined to pay the prize, and attempted to dismiss her claim entirely.

This matter escalated to the National Gambling Board, who had to intervene in order for the issue to be resolved. This indicates a pattern of avoiding payouts and acting in bad faith.

Potential Legal and Regulatory Violations

Mzansibet’s conduct appears to be in violation of several South African laws and regulations, including:

A. Consumer Protection Act (CPA)

Section 40: Unconscionable, unfair, or intimidating conduct.

Section 48: Unfair, unreasonable, or unjust business practices.

Section 19: Failure to perform services (withdrawals) timeously.

Sections 29 & 41: Misleading or deceptive claims (e.g., advertising fast withdrawals).

B. Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA)

Failure to apply verification and account actions in a timely and reasonable manner.

No FICA justification was given for blocking the funds.

C. Provincial Gambling Board Regulations

As a licensed gambling operator, Mzansibet is required to:

Process winnings without unnecessary delay,

Provide clear notice and justification for account closures,

Avoid retaliatory actions following complaints,

Honour tournament outcomes and prize obligations.

Mzansibet has failed to comply with these obligations.

D. POPIA

Their handling of my account and personal information raises concerns regarding:

Transparency,

Lawful processing of personal data,

Possible misuse of customer information following a complaint.

Pattern of Non-Compliance

Mzansibet has repeatedly demonstrated:

Withholding of legitimate winnings;

Retaliatory account deactivation;

Unfair tournament practices;

Unprofessional conduct by support agents;

Lack of transparency;

Failure to comply with South African gambling and consumer regulations.

Requested Action

I respectfully request that the relevant authority or organisation:

Investigate Mzansibet’s conduct regarding withheld funds, account actions, and tournament fairness.

Compel Mzansibet to release my R11,000 withdrawal immediately.

Evaluate whether the operator is acting in accordance with consumer protection, gambling, and financial regulations.

Take enforcement or disciplinary action if violations are confirmed.

Provide support or guidance on how I may proceed legally if necessary.

I am willing to supply all supporting documentation, including:

Screenshots,

Tournament results,

Email correspondence,

Evidence of withdrawal requests,

Recordings,

Previous communication with the National Gambling Board.

Best regards

Johan P.

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Hello,

Thank you very much for submitting this complaint. I'm sorry to hear about the problem you're experiencing. Please allow me to ask you a few questions to clarify your situation.

• What types of games did you play to accumulate your winnings of R11,000?
• Have you passed the full KYC verification?
• Have you made any successful withdrawals from this casino before?
• Am I correct in understanding that both you and your wife have an account at this casino? Do you both use the same device, or do you both use the same payment method for depositing?

I hope we will be able to help you resolve this situation as soon as possible. Thank you in advance for your reply.

Best regards

Veronika

I played only slot games to accumulate my winnings of R11,000. Yes, I have completed and passed the full KYC verification process, which included submitting my ID, proof of address, bank statements, and even a photograph of myself holding my ID along with a handwritten note clearly marked "Mzansi", as specifically required by them.

I have made successful withdrawals from this casino in the past, although many of these were delayed, cancelled, or only processed after multiple follow-ups and escalations.

To clarify, my wife and I each have separate accounts, and we do not use the same device at all. All deposits and withdrawals are made strictly from our own individual personal bank accounts. MzansiBet has previously confirmed and allowed this arrangement, and I have email correspondence proving their acknowledgement of this.

After I escalated my unresolved withdrawal issue to the Western Cape Gambling Board, MzansiBet released my funds; however, my account is still blocked. Before the blocking, I was actively participating in a competition and ranked 7th place. Since being blocked, I have been unable to continue participating, which caused my ranking to drop to 34th place. I view this as a wrongful and prejudicial act, as it prevented me from participating further and competing on equal terms with other entrants. Legally, this constitutes unfair disadvantage and interference with a promotional competition under consumer protection standards and gambling regulatory requirements.

In previous competitions, I ranked 3rd, and my wife ranked 1st, which demonstrates that we take these competitions seriously. The blocking of my account has therefore caused both competitive and financial prejudice.

Thank you for the update.

Since the casino paid you the winnings you had in your account, does it mean that you currently have no real-money funds left in your closed account? Is your account empty?

Dear Casino Guru

I have issued a Final Letter of Demand to Mzansibet on 10 December 2025 regarding the unlawful and unjustified blocking of my MzansiBet account on 5 December 2025, during the active R100K Pragmatic Tournament – Week 7 (5–12 December 2025).

Mzansibet’s conduct constitutes a breach of contract, violation of statutory consumer rights, contravention of regulated gambling standards, and administrative unfairness, resulting in significant and measurable financial loss and loss of competitive opportunity.

I lawfully entered and participated in the R100K Pragmatic Tournament, which commenced on 5 December 2025 at 00:00. I joined shortly after midnight, accumulating 16,810 leaderboard points (equivalent to R16,810 wagered under the stated rule of R1 bet = 1 point) within approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes of fair, uninterrupted play.

At 02:46, following a lawful withdrawal request, MzansiBet blocked my account without prior warning, or procedural fairness, thereby preventing further participation. This conduct is arbitrary, unfair, and deceptive, and constitutes a violation of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA). MzansiBet failed to act in good faith, in breach of their legal duty to provide gambling services with reasonable care, skill, and fairness.

As a direct consequence, my leaderboard ranking—initially 7th, then 34th, now 52nd—declined solely because of this unlawful restriction.

It is material to note that I am not a casual participant. I previously achieved 3rd place in the Ayoba Tournament, demonstrating an established track record and legitimate competitive capability. Mzansibets actions directly interrupted my performance and deprived me of a fair, unbiased, and lawful result.

I calculated an estimate of the total points I would have earned had I played for the entire duration of the tournament.

16,810 points in 150 minutes → 6,724 points per hour.

Extrapolated over the full 192-hour tournament, I would likely have accumulated approximately 1,290,908 points, placing me in strong contention for a top position, given that 1st place on 10 December stood at 782,320 points.

These unlawful actions have therefore caused myself, Constructive financial loss, Loss of legitimate expectation and Loss of competitive potential. These losses are compensable under South African delict law.

Mazansibet’s promotional Terms and Conditions state:

"MzansiBet reserves the right, at its discretion, to exclude certain customers from this promotion."

"MzansiBet reserves the right to revoke any promotion/bonus received by the customer that does not adhere to these Promotion Terms and Conditions."

These clauses require preemptive action. Exclusion after participation and point accumulation is invalid. Since I violated none of the promotion terms, retroactive exclusion is unenforceable. Under the CPA this constitutes as arbitrary discrimination, and amounts to manipulating of tournament integrity.

Mzansibet’s Legal violations include:

Consumer Protection Act (CPA)Sections: 41, 48, 52, 54–56, 47¹²

National Gambling Act & Regulations: Statutory duty of transparency⁹, fair gambling without arbitrary interference¹⁰, failure to provide reasons for account intervention¹¹

POPIA Sections: 19–24, data access, correction, and explanation¹²

Delictual liability elements are met:

Conduct: Blocking without lawful grounds

Wrongfulness: Breach of statutory and contractual duties

Fault: Negligence or intention

Causation: Direct prevention of participation

Damages: Financial loss and loss of competitive prospects

MzansiBet’s actions are unlawful, unreasonable, procedurally unfair, and in breach of contractual and statutory duties.

Even though they paid out the R11 000, they are depriving me from the winning I would have won and still with my current position, I do have fund from the competition winnings, of which they will never pay out.

Hello Pottie996,

Thank you for the detailed explanation and for providing additional context regarding your situation.

Based on the information available, the casino has paid out the real-money balance of R11,000 that was present in your account. At this point, there are no remaining funds withheld by the casino that we could assist you with recovering.

We understand your concerns regarding the account closure and your inability to continue participating in the tournament. However, please note that Casino Guru is not able to intervene in cases involving hypothetical or potential winnings, estimated future tournament results, or compensation for missed opportunities. Tournament rankings and possible outcomes cannot be guaranteed, and such claims fall outside the scope of our complaint resolution process.

Additionally, decisions related to account closures and exclusion from promotions fall under the casino’s internal policies and terms and conditions. Due to these reasons, we will now proceed to reject this complaint. Thank you for your understanding. I am genuinely sorry that we were not able to assist you more effectively in this particular situation, as we always aim to help players resolve their issues whenever possible.

Please remember that you are welcome to contact us again if you run into any problems with this or any other casino in the future. Whether it is a question, a concern, or a new issue that needs to be looked into, our team is here and ready to support you.

Best regards,

Veronika

Casino.Guru Team