bwin Casino - Pelaajan voitot takavarikoidaan perusteettomasti.

Dear Casino Guru Complaints Team,

I am submitting this complaint regarding Bwin's refusal to pay the full balance from my account.

I requested a withdrawal of €1,161.00, which was the available balance in my account at the time. My withdrawal request was accepted by the system but was later cancelled without any prior warning or explanation.

Afterwards, Bwin processed only €520.00, which they claim represents my deposits, and refused to pay the remaining €641.00.

I was never informed in advance that my winnings would be confiscated. I did not receive any notification before submitting my withdrawal request, nor was I warned that my account balance would be reduced.

Only after I repeatedly contacted customer support did Bwin inform me that they had decided to invalidate all of my gameplay because my account was under self-exclusion. They refunded only my deposits and confiscated the remaining €641.00, which they classified as winnings.

I believe this decision is unfair and lacks transparency for several reasons:

My account allowed me to place bets normally.

My bets were accepted and settled by Bwin.

My account balance reached €1,161.00.

Bwin accepted my withdrawal request for the full amount.

The withdrawal was then cancelled without explanation.

I was not informed beforehand that my winnings would be confiscated.

Instead of paying the requested €1,161.00, Bwin unilaterally decided to pay only €520.00.

Despite several emails, Bwin has refused to return the remaining €641.00 and has provided only general statements that the winnings were confiscated under their Terms and Conditions, without giving a clear justification for why my bets were accepted and settled before making this decision.

I respectfully request that Casino Guru investigate this matter and assist me in recovering the remaining €641.00, as I believe I am entitled to receive the full amount of €1,161.00 that was available in my account when I submitted my withdrawal request.

I am attaching my correspondence with Bwin as evidence and am happy to provide any additional information if required.

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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.

• Have you ever requested to be self-excluded from this casino?
• Have you created another account at this casino in the past?
• Was your account fully verified before you submitted this withdrawal request?

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

Veronika

Dear Veronika,

Thank you for your email.

Please find my answers below:

No, I have never requested self-exclusion from this casino.

No, I have never had another account with this casino. I have only ever had one account.

Yes, my account was fully verified before I made my deposit. I completed the verification process, my account was verified, and only then did I deposit funds into my account.

After making my deposit, I placed bets and won. Following my winnings, Bwin imposed a betting limit on my account. I then decided to withdraw my balance.

I submitted a withdrawal request for €1,161.00, which was the full balance available in my account. Later, I checked my account and discovered that my withdrawal request had been cancelled without any explanation, and the money had been returned to my account.

I then submitted a second withdrawal request for the same amount of €1,161.00. When I logged into my account later, I was surprised to see that Bwin had approved only €520.00 for withdrawal instead of the full amount I had requested.

Naturally, I immediately contacted Bwin's live chat to ask what had happened to the remaining €641.00. However, the support agent avoided answering my question and simply told me that the €520.00 payment was being processed and that I should wait for the transfer.

Only after repeatedly contacting Bwin by email did they finally inform me that they had decided to refund only my deposits and confiscate the remaining €641.00, which they classified as winnings.

At no point before or during my withdrawal request was I informed that my winnings would be confiscated. My withdrawal request for €1,161.00 was accepted by their system, then cancelled, and only afterwards did Bwin decide to process €520.00 instead.

I believe this was unfair and lacked transparency. If Bwin considered my winnings invalid, they should not have accepted my bets, allowed them to be settled, permitted my balance to reach €1,161.00, and accepted my withdrawal request before later withholding part of my funds.

For these reasons, I respectfully ask Casino Guru to investigate this matter and assist me in recovering the remaining €641.00.

Dear Veronika,

Thank you for your continued assistance with my complaint.

I would like to provide you with an important update regarding Bwin's latest response.

Bwin maintains that they refunded only my deposits because I had an active self-exclusion on another account. They also state that shortly after I submitted my verification documents, they were able to link all of my accounts.

This statement raises a serious concern.

If Bwin had already identified that I had another account under self-exclusion after reviewing my verification documents, why did they not immediately inform me and block my account?

Instead, after my documents were verified, Bwin still allowed me to:

make a deposit,

use the account normally,

place bets,

have all of my bets accepted and settled,

accumulate a balance of approximately €1,161.00,

and even submit a withdrawal request for the full balance.

Only after I had won and requested a withdrawal did Bwin cancel my withdrawal and decide to refund only my deposits while withholding the remaining €641.00.

This is the part that I believe is fundamentally unfair.

If Bwin had already linked my accounts after reviewing my documents, then they were already aware of the active self-exclusion before I deposited and played. If that is true, they should have immediately prevented me from gambling in accordance with their own Responsible Gambling policy.

Instead, they continued to allow gambling activity and only enforced the self-exclusion after I had won.

I believe that Bwin is placing the entire responsibility on me while ignoring its own responsibility to enforce its Responsible Gambling procedures correctly.

The purpose of self-exclusion is to prevent gambling from taking place. Allowing a player to verify an account, deposit money, place bets, accept those bets, settle them, and only afterwards declare all winnings invalid is, in my opinion, inconsistent with the purpose of responsible gambling.

I respectfully ask Casino Guru to discuss this specific issue with Bwin and request clarification on the following points:

On what exact date did Bwin link my accounts?

If my accounts had already been linked after my documents were reviewed, why was I still allowed to deposit and gamble?

Why was my account not blocked immediately once they identified the active self-exclusion?

Why was I not informed before I deposited money that I was not permitted to use the account?

Why was my withdrawal accepted and only later cancelled after my winnings had been generated?

These questions have never been answered by Bwin. Instead, they continue to repeat that they refunded my deposits and withheld my winnings, without explaining why they allowed me to continue gambling after they claim they had already identified the issue.

I believe this point is essential to determining whether Bwin acted fairly and consistently with its own Responsible Gambling obligations.

Thank you for your update. Before we proceed further, I would like to clarify a few important details.

• Do you dispute Bwin's claim that you had another account that was self-excluded, or do you acknowledge that such an account existed?
• How many accounts have you registered with Bwin in total?
• When did you register your first Bwin account, and when was the self-exclusion requested on that account?
• When you registered the account involved in this complaint, did you use the same personal details (such as your name, date of birth, address, phone number, and email address) as those used on the self-excluded account?

Thank you for your message.

Please find my answers below:

I acknowledge that I may have had another Bwin account in the past. However, this was a long time ago, and I honestly do not remember the details of that account or the circumstances surrounding any self-exclusion. I do not remember when the account was created or when any self-exclusion may have been requested.

If Bwin's records show that another account existed under my personal details, then I have had two accounts in total. I have no recollection of any additional accounts beyond that.

I cannot provide the registration date or any further details regarding the previous account because it was created many years ago, and I no longer have access to or memory of that information.

I have always used my own genuine personal information when registering an account. I have never used false identities or someone else's details. My name, date of birth, and other personal information have always been my own.

However, I would like to raise an important point.

If Bwin already had my personal information in its system and believed that I had a previously self-excluded account, why was I allowed to register a new account in the first place?

Why was my registration accepted?

Why was I allowed to deposit money into the account?

Why was I allowed to place bets over a period of time?

Bwin has stated that my first name and surname may have been entered differently or in reverse order. However, this does not change the fact that all of the personal information belonged to me. My date of birth and the rest of my identity remained the same.

Furthermore, during the identity verification process, Bwin had access to my official identification documents. If the company genuinely believed that another account already existed under my identity, this should have been identified at that stage. I should have been informed immediately, and the account should not have remained active or continued accepting my deposits and bets.

It is difficult to understand why Bwin continued to accept my money and allow me to gamble, only to raise this issue after the fact. If there was a problem with my account, it should have been addressed before accepting my deposits, not after my funds became available for withdrawal.

For these reasons, I respectfully ask that this matter be considered carefully. I do not believe it is fair for Bwin to rely on this issue only after accepting my registration, deposits, and betting activity. I therefore request that my remaining balance be returned to me.

Please forward me all the communication between you and the casino's customer support regarding your self-excluded account and the issues with your duplicate account at veronika.f@casino.guru.

You also mentioned that you entered your first name and surname in reverse order when creating your casino account. Did you enter them this way by mistake during registration, or did the casino's registration system prevent you from registering when you entered your name and surname in the correct order?

Dear doogan643,

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 Ms. Veronika,

Thank you for your message.

I will send you the complete communication between myself and bwin customer service regarding my self-excluded account and the problems with the duplicate account. veronika.f@casino.guru forward.

Regarding your second question:

The reversal of my first and last names was an oversight on my part. I had no intention of concealing my identity or providing false information. I used my real personal details, and my account was subsequently successfully verified. bwin accepted my identification documents, allowed me to make deposits and place bets, and these were all properly settled.

The registration system did not prevent me from creating an account. I also did not attempt to circumvent the system. Had the account been invalid due to the name order or an existing self-exclusion, the system should have rejected the registration or, at the latest, the verification. Instead, my account was fully utilized, and only after I requested a withdrawal were the alleged violations brought to light.

Sehr geehrte Frau Veronika,

vielen Dank für Ihre Nachricht.

Ich werde Ihnen die vollständige Kommunikation zwischen mir und dem Kundenservice von bwin bezüglich meines selbstgesperrten Kontos sowie der Probleme mit dem Duplikatkonto an veronika.f@casino.guru weiterleiten.

Bezüglich Ihrer zweiten Frage:

Die Vertauschung von Vor- und Nachnamen war ein Versehen meinerseits. Ich hatte nicht die Absicht, meine Identität zu verbergen oder falsche Angaben zu machen. Ich habe meine echten persönlichen Daten verwendet, und mein Konto wurde anschließend erfolgreich verifiziert. bwin akzeptierte meine Ausweisdokumente, erlaubte mir Einzahlungen vorzunehmen, Wetten abzuschließen und diese wurden auch ordnungsgemäß ausgewertet.

Das Registrierungssystem hat mich nicht daran gehindert, ein Konto zu erstellen. Ich habe auch nicht versucht, das System zu umgehen. Wäre das Konto aufgrund der Namensreihenfolge oder der bestehenden Selbstsperre unzulässig gewesen, hätte das System die Registrierung oder spätestens die Verifizierung ablehnen müssen. Stattdessen wurde mein Konto vollständig genutzt, und erst nachdem ich eine Auszahlung beantragt hatte, wurden die angeblichen Verstöße geltend gemacht.

Dear doogan643,

Thank you for providing the additional information and for clarifying the circumstances surrounding the creation of your account. After reviewing the available evidence, we do not have sufficient grounds to require Bwin to pay the €641 in winnings.

You have confirmed that you had a previous Bwin account which had been self-excluded and that you subsequently created another account. You have also confirmed that, when registering the new account, you entered your first name and surname in reverse order. Although you state that this was an innocent mistake and that you did not intend to conceal your identity, this difference in the personal information entered during registration appears to have prevented Bwin from immediately linking the new account to your previously self-excluded account.

We therefore do not consider it appropriate to hold the casino responsible simply because its systems did not identify the connection immediately. The fact that the casino later successfully linked the accounts demonstrates that the discrepancy in the registration details affected the initial detection.

More importantly, once Bwin identified the connection between the accounts, it took action and returned the deposits you had made to the account. In our view, this is an appropriate resolution in circumstances where the account should not have been available for gambling due to the existing self-exclusion.

For these reasons, we are unable to require Bwin to pay the remaining €641, and we therefore have to reject your complaint.

Thank you for your understanding.

Best regards

Veronika

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