FreshSpins Casino - Player's account has been blocked.

I had played 2 deposit bonuses on 2 different sites, Freshspins and Luckydino. I won about 1800 euros on Freshspins and 3000 euros on Luckydino. I DID NOT BREAK THEIR TERMS AND CONDITIONS IN HOW I PLAYED THE BONUSES. They started stalling with my withdrawal and whenever I contacted them, they would say that their payment team is investigating my withdraw. Then, yesterday, they sent me an email saying that based on their terms and conditions, they have the right to close my account. They also wrote in the email that they will confiscate all of my balances, even though the terms and conditions say that they must pay me my money even if they choose to close my accounts. When I contacted them about this attempted robbery, and asked them how I have broken their terms and conditions in my play, they only answer me with an email saying that I can contact EADR and MGA. I have NOT broken any terms and conditions in how I played the bonuses, and they have not provided me with any reason for why they would have the right to not pay my winnings. I realize they have the right to close my accounts but their terms and conditions still say that they have to pay the winnings that belong to me. I am able to download an excel from their site showing that they have cancelled my 1800 euro withdraw. I am unable to log into Luckydino to get the same screenshot since they just closed my account and didn't pay my money. Here is the copy paste of what they sent me in the email:

Hi xxx,

We hope that you are well.

We are writing to inform you that we have taken the decision to close your account. 

Please find below the relevant paragraph from the terms and conditions in relation to the closure of your account:

4.2 Access to the Website is permitted on a temporary basis, and we reserve the right to withdraw or amend the Services we provide without notice. The Website is updated regularly, and may change at any time. You acknowledge and agree that the specific form and/or nature of the Website or Services may change from time to time without prior notice and we may cease providing the Services (or any specific features within the Services) to you at our sole discretion, without prior notice to you. If the need arises, we may suspend access to the Website, or close it indefinitely. We will not be liable if for any reason the Website is unavailable at any time or for any period but this shall not, of itself, preclude us from returning to you any money that is properly due to you. We will not be liable for any loss whatsoever arising from the cancellation of any Service.

4.3 We may terminate your Account, delete any Content and/or prohibit you from using or accessing the Website or Service (or any portion, aspect or feature of the Service) and return any money that is properly due to you at any time in our sole discretion if:

· you are in breach of any of these Terms or we have a reasonable suspicion that a breach may occur;

· you refuse or fail to comply with any reasonable request by us to provide further information in relation to you, including, but not limited to information regarding your identity or source of wealth;

· we consider or reasonably suspect that you have used, or intend to use, the Website or Services in a fraudulent, unfair or bad faith manner or for illegal and/or unlawful or improper purposes;

· we are required to do so in order to comply with our legal and/or regulatory obligations; or

· we consider that the continued use of our Website or Services by you will, or is reasonably likely to, cause us material financial risk, harm or loss.

All your accounts on sister casinos have been closed and the remaining balances have been confiscated.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us. 

Have a nice day!

Kind regards,

Sam

FreshSpins Customer Support

--

After this email I asked what the reason for taking my money is and they only answer me with a generic email that tells me to contact EADR or MGA. This is a robbery.

Dear ronteen,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your problem. I would like to emphasize that we can only solve issues about one casino per complaint. Please, submit another complaint about LuckyDino Casino, and this complaint will remain assigned to FreshSpins Casino.

You mentioned that you are not able to log into your LuckyDino account. Do I understand correctly that your FreshSpins Casino account was closed as well? Could you please advise when exactly you created your account and how long was it active? Which bonus did you play with?

Thank you very much in advance for your reply.

Best regards,

Kristina

I am unable to log into my LuckyDino account, but apparently I am able to log into my FreshSpins account even though they told me that they will close my account. I'm not sure if it is because on Luckydino you log in with username and password, but on FreshSpins it is done with online banking information. I created my FreshSpins account in March and have been playing ever since, I have made several withdraws without problems before this. On Luckydino I have been playing for many years and have never had any problems before, but I have always been losing overall on LuckyDino until now.

I played with a 100% reload bonus.

Thank you for your reply, ronteen. I would like to kindly ask you to post only information related to the FreshSpins Casino issue here in this thread to avoid any accidental mixing of important details. Thank you for your cooperation.

Could you please clarify if €1,800 is still in your casino account or if the casino has already confiscated the entire balance?

It is not on my balance, I can just see in the "balance history" excel that you can download that they have removed the amount from my balance.

Could you please forward me the Excel document? If there is any other important evidence or communication between you and the casino that could help us in this case, please forward it as well. My email is kristina.s@casino.guru.

Thank you very much, ronteen, for your cooperation. I will now transfer your complaint to my colleague Matej (matej@casino.guru) who will be at your service. I wish you the best of luck and hope the problem will be resolved to your satisfaction in the near future.  

Hello ronteen,

I am sorry to hear about your troubles.

Basically, we consider rule 8.8 as unfair, but so far, the casino didn't use this rule against the players.

I see a problem with rule 21.1:

This is a technique where the players use the bonus money to charge up game features and later activate them when bonus money is lost or wagering is completed so these game features' winnings count as real money.

Are you sure you didn't do anything like that? (this is prohibited in every casino)

Yes, I am 100% sure I have not charged the bonus meter with bonusmoney and then played it later on own money. I have only played the bonus meter with my own money, as usually this site doesn't offer any bonuses. They only offer freespins where the winnings of freespins are wager free. So I have deposited money and then played with my own money without any bonusmoney involved. I have never had any problems with withdrawals before by playing like this like there should not be any problem because I am not doing anything against their TOC.

Now, In the case of these deposit bonuses, it is impossible that I would have played the meter with bonus money and then later played it with own money because I changed the game to another game that does not have any meter for the rest of the wager. So the meter was at 0% and I then switched to another game for rest of the wager. They even say it their self that I changed game. If they were to provide game history you could see that I have not in any way stored the bonus games with bonus money and then gone back to play them with own money.

They are using this rule and I understand that it is forbidden but I have NOT done what is stated in the rule.

I would like to invite the casino representative into the case:

Dear casino representative, could you please check the case and explain to us what happened?

We would like to ask the casino to reply to this complaint. We are extending the timer by 7 days. If the casino fails to respond in the set time frame, we will close the complaint as ‘unresolved’ which may negatively affect its rating.

Dear ronteen,

I am sorry that it is taking so long. I am trying to contact the casino's representatives via Skype to get answers regarding your case. I am extending the timer for 7 days and hope the casino will answer.

Hi Ronteen and Matej,

First, we apologize for the delay in our response to this matter.

Your inquiry is important to us, and we are currently evaluating the entire case to formulate an appropriate response. Please allow us five additional days to complete the investigation, after which we will respond and, hopefully, resolve this matter.

Thank you for your continued patience and understanding.

Regards,

The FreshSpins Team

FreshSpins Casino is operated by Esports Entertainment Malta (EEM). EEM is licensed and regulated by the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA). This matter was handled in accord with the applicable Terms and Conditions. As stated in EEM’s Terms and Conditions, player complaints that are not resolved by EEM customer support can be submitted to the MGA at support.mga@mga.org.mt , or to European Alternative Dispute Resolution at www.eadr.org. Players are encouraged to visit the MGA Player Hub at https://www.mga.org.mt/player-hub/ for information regarding authorized gaming websites, responsible gaming, dispute resolution and self-exclusion options. 

After a month, we finally received a response stating that the complaint needs to be submitted to the regulator. It would have been great if we had received this information earlier.

Dear ronteen,

Please submit your complaint to MGA and be patient.

The good news is that the MGA decision is binding, and the casino is required to respond to the complaint submitted to MGA.

I apologize once again for the complexity and time-consuming nature of this process.

When you contact MGA, they direct you to contact EADR. I did this on the 20th of June and I have not heard back from EADR and there is no way to add to the complaint.

AFTER I filed the complaint to EADR, I got the following email from Freshspins support: 

Dear XXXX,

We received your complaint on the 20th June 2023 from the European Alternative Dispute

Resolution ('EADR Ltd') in relation to your gaming accounts with Esports Entertainment (Malta)

Limited.

Esports Entertainment (Malta) Limited is licensed and regulated in Malta by Malta Gaming Authority,

bearing license number MGA/B2C/522/2018.

We can confirm that you registered the below gaming accounts with Esports Entertainment (Malta)

Limited, whereby you agreed, and accepted the "Terms and Conditions."

▪ LuckyDino - 25-10-2021

▪ Fresh Spins - 03-03-2023

For this reason, we would like to draw your attention to sections 8.8, 8.9, 17.3 and 21.1 whereby you

agreed and accepted that:

"8.8 In the interests of fair gaming, equal, zero or low margin Bets or hedge betting, through

one or more Accounts, whether on this Website or any other of our Websites, shall all be

considered irregular playing patterns for bonus play-through requirement purposes. Irregular

play may also include, but is not limited to, placing larger Bets leading to a substantial gain

followed by a drop in bet size equal to or greater than 75% of the previous average bet size

in order to complete the wagering requirements for that bonus. Players deemed, at our sole

discretion, to be adopting a low risk betting strategy to clear wagering may have the bonus

along with any winnings removed. This includes, but is not limited to, betting on red or black.

.

8.9 If, in our reasonable discretion, we determine that a User has engaged in fraudulent, unlawful,

dishonest ... I cut this to save space.

17.3 Where we close your Account as a result of a breach of our Terms, all open Bets and bonuses

shall be voided and any real money balance of your Account will be non-refundable and deemed to be

forfeited by you to the extent of any claim that we may have against you as at the date of such

closure.

21.1 The following activities are considered unlawful and will be deemed as breach of the Terms:

● Achieving game features while wagering bonus money and clearing these features after

bonus money has been cleared or voided. In order to I cut this to save space"

When you registered your gaming account, you also understood the rules regarding fraudulent use of

your gaming account for illicit purposes.

It was confirmed by our Fraud Team that you were breaching our Terms & Conditions by abusing the

bonus scheme offered by the Operator - You directly betted 5 EUR, which is max bet with bonus

money, with Auto play function turned on, while carefully choosing a high volatility game to increase

chances of a larger win. Once hitting the win you switched the game to a low volatility game and

lowered the bet size 80% which is a breach of rule 8.8 (see above).

Further, we can see that you breached rule 21.2 when you stored game features in a way that

directly mirrors what is prohibited in the rules.

We can also see that you have displayed the same pattern before, and in line with other known

bonus abusers you only deposit to receive bonuses and you never play beyond the wager

requirement - for this reason the Operator finds reasonable suspicion that you are systematically

abusing the bonus scheme.

As a result of the above, on the 16th

June 2023, we can confirm that the operator has terminated

your gaming accounts and confiscated your remaining balances in the total amount of Four thousand

Eight hundred Twenty seven euros and One cent (4,827.01 EUR) made in relation the

above-mentioned breach of our Terms & Conditions.

Finally, we would also like to remind you that without limiting our other available remedies, the

operator may institute or seek any injunctive relief, civil and/or criminal proceedings against you

and/or any of your co-conspirators arising out of or related to your commission of abuse, including

without limitation, recovering all of our fees and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) in

connection with such efforts.

Sincerely,

Customer Support

Now, compare this to the FIRST email that they sent me in my original post.

This is ofcourse a genious move from the casino, as there is no way for me to add to the initial complaint to EADR and now they are referring to a totally different set of rules.

Is it not weird that AFTER I have filed a complaint they are suddenly referring to a totally different set of rules in their terms and conditions? 

Also, is it normal procedure from online casinos to start threatening their customers with legal actions if they demand that they should get the money that belongs to them? 

I have contacted EADR again about this change in the casino's behaviour and how they are changing which rules they are referring to and how I have not broken their rules even though they are trying to lie that I have.

In addition, here is my defence against their false accusations:

Pointing at the same terms that they are referring to:

"It was confirmed by our Fraud Team that you were breaching our Terms & Conditions by abusing the

bonus scheme offered by the Operator - You directly betted 5 EUR, which is max bet with bonus

money, with Auto play function turned on, while carefully choosing a high volatility game to increase

chances of a larger win."

• This is in no way forbidden in the terms and conditions. The maximum allowed bet is 5 euros, and I played a slot that was not on the list of prohibited slots. 

"Once hitting the win you switched the game to a low volatility game and

lowered the bet size 80% which is a breach of rule 8.8 (see above)."

• If I decide to play another slot than the one I started with or choose to alter the betsize, then how is this against terms and conditions? It is allowed to play any slots that are not on the prohibited slots list? The terms and conditions state "in order to complete the wagering requirements for that bonus", if my balance is bigger than the remaining wager then how is it possible to change games in order to complete the wager? The wager will be complete no matter what if you have more money than is the remaining wager. It is clearly allowed to play several different slots with several different betsizes. 

"Further, we can see that you breached rule 21.2 when you stored game features in a way that

directly mirrors what is prohibited in the rules."

• This is incorrect. I have played Book of 99, which is NOT prohibited in your bonus terms. In the case of the 100% reload bonus, I did not have any feature stored in game when I started playing the bonus, nor did I leave in any feature. 

• Here is what it says in their terms: "Achieving game features while wagering bonus money and clearing these features after

bonus money has been cleared or voided"

• Disregarding the 100% reload bonus I was playing with, normally the site offers freespin offers where you get wager free freespins if you deposit. When it comes to freespins offers, you never play with bonus money, the freespins are added as wager free and you have to wager your own deposit 5x so that you can withdraw money. Me wagering my own money on book of 99 and then continuing later with more of my own money(with NO BONUS MONEY INVOLVED AT ANY POINT) is not against the terms and conditions. There is no mention in terms and conditions that you are not allowed to leave features in a game and continues later when all of the playing is done with 100% my own money, no bonuses.

"We can also see that you have displayed the same pattern before, and in line with other known

bonus abusers you only deposit to receive bonuses and you never play beyond the wager

requirement - for this reason the Operator finds reasonable suspicion that you are systematically

abusing the bonus scheme"

• What is this? How do other players have anything to do with my situation? They can’t steal my money because other players break their rules. 

As stated, I would like them to provide me with proof of this:

• How I have stored features in a way that is against the terms and conditions

• How have I breached the terms and conditions in what games I choose to play with a bonus

Is the only thing that they are basing their whole case on that I lowered my bet amount by 80% when the rules say 75%? Does this seem fair to you, is this something that the legal entities seem fit and as a correct reason to take almost 5000 euros of my money? It seems to me that because they are referring to a different set of "violations" now that they have noticed themself too that there is no case here. The only time I have stored features on book of 99 is when I was playing with my own money and continued later with my own money, if they check their system they will notice it. 

This casino is trying to scam me.

Dear Ronteen.

The above-mentioned rule is the reason why we lowered the casino rating, and we show a big warning on our website:

We believe that rules like 8.8. are not fair because:

a) Players should not be burdened with the task of calculating how much they can reduce their bet size or memorizing the volatility of each game to avoid unintentionally violating this rule.

b) Bonus abusers continue playing without changing their bet size, as time is of utmost importance to them.

c) Adopting a less risky strategy after a big win gives players a better chance to retain some of their winnings, but it is unlikely that they will achieve major winnings again (as the house edge remains the same

from purely mathematical perspective low risk strategy means that the casino will have more winners but with lesser winnings).

Regarding rule 21.2, if a player abuses this rule by using bonus money for charge bonus features on slots and later activate them with the real money, it provides an unfair advantage. In such cases, the casino has the right to confiscate the winnings. However, we have not received any evidence from the casino to suggest that such an incident has occurred.

To the casino representative,

If your decision is solely based on rule 8.8., we respectfully disagree and firmly believe that Ronteen should be paid. However, if you possess evidence that Ronteen utilized bonus money to activate features with real money, then we acknowledge that your decision was justified. However we still didn't recieve any proof from you.

We would like to remind Casino Guru representatives that the aforementioned Terms and Conditions are fully in line with current regulations and have been acknowledged and approved by the regulatory body (Maltese Gaming Authority - MGA), hence Casino Guru should recognise that the Company operates within the regulatory framework, regardless of what arbitrary opinion Casino Guru representatives might have.

Further, Casino Guru is not authorised to act as an ADR in relation to MGA licensed companies, as per 2018 Player Protection Directive, part 10, point 39(3) and 2018 Alternative Dispute Resolution Directive, part 3, point 5 as presented below:

Directive 2 of 2018

Player Protection Directive

Part X – Complaints and Disputes

39.        (3) B2C licensees shall offer players the possibility of referring any dispute to a registered

ADR entity if the same player feels that the dispute was not resolved to their satisfaction.

The B2C licensee shall ensure that the procedure required by virtue of sub-article (2)

above, includes the details of the ADR entity or entities to whom disputes can normally

be referred and, where necessary, details of any limitation on the nature and subject

matter of disputes with which a particular ADR entity deals;

Provided that it is permissible for B2C licensees to have arrangements with more

than one ADR entity and for players to be directed to different ADR entities depending

on the nature and subject matter of the dispute.

Provided further that players shall first exhaust the B2C licensee’s complaint

procedure and such requirement shall be duly reflected in the B2C licensee’s terms and

conditions. 

Directive 5 of 2018

Alternative Dispute Resolution Directive

Part III – Engagement of ADR Entity 

5. For the purposes of regulations 13 and 14 of the Regulations and Article 39 of the Player Protection Directive (Directive 2 of 2018), an entity shall not be eligible to provide ADR services unless such entity is established in the European Union or the European Economic Area, and is listed in accordance with Article 20(2) of the ADR Directive.

Due to the above, the Company would once again like to inform of the appropriate way forward for this Customer or any Customer who wish to file a complaint;

As stated in EEM’s Terms and Conditions, player complaints that are not resolved by EEM customer support can be submitted to the MGA at support.mga@mga.org.mt , or to European Alternative Dispute Resolution at www.eadr.org. Players are encouraged to visit the MGA Player Hub at https://www.mga.org.mt/player-hub/ for information regarding authorized gaming websites, responsible gaming, dispute resolution and self-exclusion options.

Dear representative of FreshSpins Casino,

We acknowledge your statement that we are not authorized to act as an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). It would only restrict us from challenging your rules, which we consider to be unfair. If you wish to implement a rule prohibiting players from reducing their bet size, we suggest enforcing it through software rather than confiscating winnings based on this rule and count on rule that players should read your rules before playing.

We would like to raise a question: if your rules are indeed fair and approved, why do other casinos not have a similar rule?

On our website, we evaluate all casinos worldwide, and it is evident that some casinos employ rules like yours to confiscate winnings. However, it is worth noting that most of these casinos have received abysmal ratings and face numerous issues beyond this particular rule.

While we cannot provide a legally binding verdict in this case, we can offer a strong recommendation.

There are proactive casinos that make decisions based on fairness and approach each situation individually. On the other hand, there are those that strictly adhere to terms and conditions that are often poorly written. The industry is currently striving to establish a secure and ethical environment, and only those casinos that embrace this movement will thrive. Ultimately, your actions are at your discretion, and we can only advise you on what we believe is right and rate your casino based on your actions.

We would like to ask the casino to reply to this complaint. We are extending the timer by 7 days. If the casino fails to respond in the set time frame, we will close the complaint as ‘unresolved’ which may negatively affect its rating.

Dear Ronteen,

It appears that the casino is unwilling to respond. Since you have already filed a complaint with EADR, I am closing this complaint with the status "waiting for regulator's decision".

We will revisit this complaint once we receive a response from EADR or after the 3-month time frame expires.

I apologize for our inability to assist you further. At this point, all we can do is wait.

Dear ronteen,
We hope this finds you well. We would like to ask you to provide an update regarding this case, which was previously marked as "Waiting for Regulator" on our website. Your complaint has now been automatically reopened, and we are eager to know if there have been any recent developments or resolutions since our last communication.
If the ADR or the Licensing Authority has resolved things in your favor, please update the thread and send over the official statement to my email. Alternatively, if the ruling favored the casino, your insights are just as crucial.
We understand that some time has passed, but updating your complaint will allow us to take appropriate action, such as issuing black points to the casino in case the ruling is in your favor or warning other players and users about instances where the authority supports the operator.
We truly appreciate your cooperation, and your response would be of great assistance to us.
Thank you in advance for your reply.

Dear ronteen,

We are extending the timer by 7 days.

Unfortunately, the player has not responded to our messages and questions. Consequently, we are unable to investigate further and have no choice but to reject this complaint.

The player can reopen this complaint at any time.