Galactic Wins Casino - Player's winnings confiscated due to unclear bonus terms.

I was looking up some casino sites and came by this one. I had an account already and found out that I had 5€ of "real balance", which apparently was some "free cash" bonus or something. Keep in mind that there was no way to tell that, as there is separate "real money" section where my balance was showing, and "bonus" money also there is no "bonuses" section. This 5€ was showing in the "real money" section.

I played around a bit and got to 99€ which I know is pretty common max cashout for free money and such, which I had a suspicion this might be. I then made a withdrawal on 27/2/24 and got this email: 

"On review of your withdrawal request, we see that the free cash you received was not played and withdrawn within 7 days of receipt. According to the Bonus Terms and Conditions, The Free Cash Bonus, and any winnings derived therefrom, not withdrawn within 7 days of receipt are voided.

We have therefore cancelled your withdrawal request, and voided the winnings.

We do apologize for any inconvenience and disappointment, and we invite you to continue playing on our site.

Should you have any questions please reply to this email or contact our customer support via live chat on our site."

It's pretty clear to me that they are only voiding everything because I managed to win something. I don't understand how it could ever be my responsibility to know if my "real" balance is gonna get voided. There was no info about this being "free money/bonus(?)" anywhere, nor that it has "expired" and is gonna be voided. What I mean by this is why was it still there to be played with in the first place if it was "expired"? It just makes no sense. From my perspective I had REAL balance on my account, which I played with. I responded asking them to correct this, as this is clearly against fair gambling principles of the MGA. 

As I also mentioned on my email to them (sent 27.2.24, which they haven't answered to), that I think they should make the effort to remove "expired" "free cash" or bonuses from players, so this kind of thing would not happen in the future. I have used probably over hundred sites and that kind of practice is used by most if not all of them.  

It's not a big sum of money, but I feel like its my obligation as a player and casino enthusiast to try and fight for the fair gambling and transparency, so this kind of things wouldn't happen in the future. At least not under the MGA. I appreciate your help in this matter.

Dear osmaboi,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your problem. Please allow me to ask you a few questions, so I can understand the whole situation completely.

• Did you reach out to the casino's Customer Support team when you noticed an active balance remaining in your account?
• When was the most recent occasion you made a real money deposit into your Galactic Wins Casino account?

Additionally, upon reviewing the promotional offers on the website, it appears that the majority, if not all, bonuses expire after a period of 7 days.

If there’s any relevant communication, please forward it to petronela.k@casino.guru.

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

Best regards,

Petronela

As I said there was no way to tell that it was "free money" bonus as the 5€ balance was showing as "real money" on my account. I did not contact them regarding that. Last time I played with them was probably some time last year, since I can't seem to find anything on the transaction history.

I saw those terms as well I believe it states something like: "We reserve the right to expire this bonus 7 days after being awarded". But they clearly did not do that, since the "bonus" was still on my account and I was able to use it. They only used these terms when I already played the "bonus" and won something. As I stated in my original message, I don't think the way they handled this is fair practice.

Hi osmaboi,

Could you please forward any relevant communication between you and the casino along with a screenshot of your cashier and bonus histories?

My email address is petronela.k@casino.guru.

Thank you.

Forwarded you the withdrawal request and all communication, and to remind you, didn't deposit at the time.

Also they do not provide access to bonus history.

Thanks for looking into this!

Thank you very much, osmaboi, for providing all the necessary information. I will now transfer your complaint to my colleague Branislav (branislav.b@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, osmaboi,

I am sorry to hear about your unpleasant experience, and I apologize for the delay. I will contact the casino and try my best to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Now I would like to invite the casino representative to join this conversation and participate in the resolution of this complaint.

Dear Galactic Wins Casino team,

Could you please provide us with a detailed explanation of the player's situation?

How is the player supposed to know that such funds are bonus money, and why were those funds available to the player for play if it was supposed to be expired? Why have the winnings been confiscated if the casino left such bonus funds in the user's account/balance? How could he withdraw the disputed winnings, or what steps should he follow to withdraw them?

If we are talking about a breach of the casino's Terms and Conditions, is the casino able to substantiate its decision with relevant evidence?

Feel free to send the possible supporting evidence to my email address (branislav.b@casino.guru).

Thank you in advance for providing the information.

Hello all,

Thank you for reaching out and for your patience while we investigated player’s concern.

We have reviewed our records and can confirm the following:

• On 08-July-2023 the player received a Free Cash bonus of 5.00 EUR and was informed via email that the bonus was added to his account, which includes a link to the relevant bonus terms. They can be viewed here: https://www.galacticwins.com/en/tnc/free-cash-bonus
• The Free Cash Bonus has no wagering requirements, therefore is added to player’s balance as ‘real funds’.
• The bonus in question has the following clause in the terms: The Free Cash Bonus, and any winnings derived therefrom, not withdrawn within 7 days of receipt may be voided.
• The bonus in question was not automatically deducted by the system upon expiration, therefore the player was able to utilize the free cash bonus after the expiration period.

Based on the above, we can agree that the casino’s decision to void the winnings due to the bonus expiration clause was not fair to the player and we apologize for the inconvenience caused by this.

However, upon further review of the player’s transaction history, we can see that prior to playing with the Free Cash Bonus, on 26-Feb-2024 the player claimed free spins from an ongoing no-deposit promotion on our site, generating bonus winnings from free spins for the amount of 0.96 EUR with wagering requirement of x45 the bonus amount. The terms and conditions for this promotion can be found here: https://www.galacticwins.com/en/tnc/login-rewards

As per the terms and conditions for Free Spins, there are non-allowed wagering activities, which if performed will result in any relevant winnings to be voided. We specifically refer to the condition to not bet more than 10% of the received bonus amount, while wagering the bonus.

In the player’s transaction history we can see that player’s minimum bet value (while the bonus wager was active) was 0.20 EUR, which exceeds the max bet limit for the bonus they received, therefore we still find grounds to void the winnings.

A copy of player’s transaction history has been sent to branislav.b@casino.guru in reference to the above.

Nevertheless, as a gesture of goodwill from the casino, we consider reinstating player’s winnings for 99.00 EUR and process a payout, once he completes the required KYC procedure.

We hope the proposed complaint resolution is to the satisfaction of all parties involved.

Should anything further be required, please let us know.

Best regards,

GalacticWins Casino

Thank you for your extensive response and explanation, Galactic Wins Casino team, as well as for your email and the data provided. Great job!

Dear osmaboi,

The claims above were fully supported by the data from the casino.

Since the most important thing now is that your winnings should be or should have been restored, please, check your casino account, confirm the above-stated, and inform us once you complete the KYC/verification procedure and/or request a withdrawal.

Once everything is done, please let me know if you would like me to wait until the withdrawal is completely processed and credited to your payment method or I can consider the case closed.

If you need help with the KYC - please ask, and we can request instructions from the casino.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Hello Galactic Wins Casino team and Branislav!

Just to make it clear that I understand this correctly, If one receives free spin winnings on your site like this 0.96 EUR, one should then make bets of 0.09 EUR maximum? Not sure if that is even possible. Many sites just automatically deactivate bonuses if balance reaches certain point to avoid this, or just put the max bet to 5 EUR with bonuses, like is the industry standard. Just does not seem fair to claim that 0.20snt bet is somehow bonus abuse... I'm sure you can all agree with me on this.

Also, I just logged into my account. My balance has not been reinstated, instead I have 40 EUR "bonus" on my account now.

I have uploaded documents for the KYC. Do you need something else than driver's license and proof of address?

Thank you for the update, osmaboi.

I understand and I agree with you, partially. However, we accept that casinos can set up maximum bet amounts as they see fit, it is not an industry standard that online casinos would enforce maxbet rules by their systems. Then - each player should read the Terms and Conditions completely before acceptance/registration; in some casinos, players are allowed to bet less than 0.10€ (even 0.01€ is possible to bet); you made bets also higher than 0.20€ bets (I saw 0.40€ bets there); we are talking about free money given by the casino, therefore, we accept they are subject to some rules. If you get something for free, it is understandable it is limited somehow.

That is the reason why I mentioned that the most important thing is the casino's decision and that your winnings should be restored and we should focus on that - not to dig deeper and unnecessarily drag the process out.

For now, I recommend you not to touch the funds on your balance or bonus balance until everything is sorted out.

Dear Galactic Wins Casino team,

Can you please inform us once the user's balance is reinstated according to your previous post, and if there is anything else that is needed from the player to complete the KYC?

What steps should he take to complete the KYC and withdraw the disputed 99€?

Dear all,

Please be informed that we had received the player's KYC documents for verification, we have reinstated his winnings for 99.00 EUR and processed the payout earlier today.

Should you require anything further, please just let us know.

Kind regards,

GalacticWins Casino

Hello,

I have received the payout. Thank you Casino Guru & Galactic wins casino for your cooperation!

Thank you, osmaboi, for confirmation and for using the Casino Guru complaint resolution centre. As the issue has been successfully resolved, I will now mark your complaint as 'resolved' in our system. Although I sincerely hope it will not happen, please do not hesitate to contact us in the future if you run into any issues with this or any other casino. We are here to help.

Thank you too, Galactic Wins Casino team, for your help and cooperation.

Best regards,

Branislav, Casino.guru