CoolCasino.io - Player misled about bonus terms and requests refund.

I have had a bad experience at CoolCasino.io where they gave an inferior first deposit bonus to what was advertised, and then lied to me about how the bonus works to trick me into playing anyway.

I registered at the casino and made a qualifying 20€ deposit for the first deposit bonus (20 x 1€ spins with a 20€ deposit, 40x wagering requirement for the winnings with max 5€ bet size). I did not get the spins with the deposit, so I complained to the live support, who told me that they can't add the spins manually, but they can add 20€ as bonus money instead. I took this to mean that it will be like I would have won 20€ with the free spins, so I accepted. The bonus was added and there was 40 x 20€ = 800€ in the wagering meter as expected.

I started wagering the bonus but was not able to make bets in any games due to an error about not enough money in my account. I complained about this, and eventually I got an email response saying that the bonus must be played with max 1€ bet size, since it's identical to the free spins that I should have received. I responded by explaining that it's not the same thing: the free spins would have been only twenty 1€ spins, after which I would have been able to wager the winnings (on average 800€) with a 5€ bet size, whereas what they gave me requires doing eight hundred 1€ spins (I want to play with a higher bet size, for more excitement and because it makes it more likely to win big enough that I can actually clear the wagering requirement). There were several messages exchanged with no additional information value, them claiming that the bonus is similar to the spins, so it must be played with 1€ bet size, and me explaining over and over that it does not work like that.

Finally someone responded that there has been a misunderstanding and I only need to wager the first 20€ of the bonus with the 1€ bet size, after which I can increase the stakes. I doubted that the bonus would be smart enough for that, but I decided to try it anyway. I did twenty 1€ spins, which returned only 4.4€. The wagering meter decreased by 20€ to 780€ as expected. I was still not able to make bets larger than 1€. I complained about that, and also asked them to adjust the remaining wagering requirement (if the first 20€ of the bonus actually simulates the free spins, then the remaining wagering requirement should be 40 x whatever I win in the first 20 spins, so 176€ in my case. They refused to adjust the wagering requirements, since suddenly the bonus was a different thing than the spins in their opinion, and they also said that I have wagered only 10€ and therefore the bet size limitation is still in place (even though I wagered 20€ and the wagering meter decreased by 20€).

At this point I feel that the casino has scammed me, and I can't trust them. I want a refund of my 20€ deposit, after which they are free to close my account. If I had known that they are lying when they said that after the first 20€ I can increase the bet size, I would not have played the spins, and would have cancelled the bonus and withdrawn my deposit instead. There's currently 24.4€ in my balance, half of which is in bonus money.

Dear theTJK,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about the difficulties you've encountered with CoolCasino.io regarding your first deposit bonus.

To assist you better and work towards resolving this issue, could you please provide some additional details?

• Can you forward any screenshots or email communications you’ve had with the live support and email support teams at CoolCasino.io regarding this issue?
• Could you clarify the exact dates and times when these interactions took place?
• Have you received any written explanation from the casino about the discrepancy between the bonus terms as advertised and the bonus you received?
• If you have any additional information or documents that could help clarify the situation, please forward them to petronela.k@casino.guru.

I hope we will be able to help you resolve this issue as soon as possible.

Thank you in advance for your reply.

Best regards,

Petronela

Hi, I sent screenshots of the email conversation to the email address provided by you. I don’t have screenshots of the live support, but those are not very relevant: that conversation ended when they started investigating why I’m unable to make bets. After that, I haven’t had any interactions with the casino except the email chain which I’ve shared in its entirety.

All interactions happened between 2024-08-01 and 2024-08-03.

Hi theTJK,

• Could you please forward the original promotional offer email to petronela.k@casino.guru?
• Is there a specific link to the bonus that was later credited to your account?
• Also, if possible, could you send us your game history as well?

Thank you.

Hi,

I sent a screenshot of the SMS I got about the welcome offer to your email, as well as screenshots of my game history.

In the game history you can see 20 bets made. There it looks like they would have been 0.5€ bets instead of 1€ bets like they actually were, probably because the bets use 50% real money and 50% bonus money, and the game history takes only one of the two into account. But in the previously shared screenshot of my wagering process you can see that the bonus is 2.5% wagered and there’s 780€ wagering left, from which you can calculate that 20€ has indeed been wagered so far.

As far as I know, they added me a manual bonus, so there’s no link to it, only their general bonus T&C

Thank you very much, theTJK, for providing all the necessary information. I will now transfer your complaint to my colleague Michal (michal.k@casino.guru) who will be at your assistance. I wish you the best of luck and hope to see your problem being resolved to your satisfaction in the near future.  

Hello theTJK,

I'm Michal, and I have taken over your complaint. I have reviewed your case including the evidence you have provided us and I will contact the casino to see if I can help.

We would like to invite CoolCasino.io to join the conversation.

Dear CoolCasino.io,

I appreciate your efforts in providing the player with an alternative bonus to enhance their experience. However, it appears that the player remains dissatisfied with this option. It may be prudent to consider canceling the bonus and refunding the player's deposit, as they seem to prefer not to pursue additional bonuses. Could you please arrange this?

They have refunded my deposit after I linked this complaint to my email chain with them. Thank you for the help, case closed

Great news, theTJK. I'm glad you received your deposit back.

With the complainant's confirmation, we consider this issue successfully addressed/resolved. We will now mark it as "resolved" in our system. I would like to thank both parties for their cooperation. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you encounter any problems with this or any other casino in the future. We are here to help you.

As you know, we do not charge for our services, nor do we accept any gratuities. However, we would appreciate it if you could take a moment to share your experience with our services on Trustpilot Rate Casino Guru (trustpilot.com). An honest review and any suggestions you may have to improve our complaint resolution and mediation process would be greatly appreciated. Your feedback could prove helpful to others who are considering contacting us about any online casino-related issues.

Thank you in advance for your time. 

Best regards,

Michal

Casino Guru