Godbunny Casino - Player’s attempt to self-exclude from the casino has been overlooked.

The subject of the complaint is in reference to a lack of responsible gambling towards the player being carried out by Godbunny after being notified several times through several emails/their site requesting a self exclusion/blocking/blacklisting of accounts/information contained within the original emails sent. This was completed first through their website where they self excluded me. I requested permanently be self excluded.

The information/account was self excluded/blocked/blacklisted and then allowed to reopen as they have stated so in the emails after I specifically stated I had a Gambling addiction.

The request was for the system, all information and relevant data to be passed along the system so that responsible gambling towards the player could be followed and to help stop a Gambling addiction in this case nothing was done.

I would request please if you could look into this matter as I believe responsible Gambling towards the player was not followed and after mentioning a Gambling addiction the account was self excluded then allowed to reopen. There was no circumventing the system due to the same account that was self excluded was allowed to be reopened. Godbunny allowed the account to be opened back up with no questions asked.

I have attached all relevant information in regards to the self exclusion requests via email.

The total sum of money is equal to: €2,969.77

If you require any further information please don't hesitate to contact me,

Kind regards,

Shandy37

Dear Shandy37,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint and forwarding the relevant communication. I’m sorry to hear about your problem. Before we’ll contact the casino and ask for their standpoint, could you please forward emails or screenshots showing that you have sent a request for the self-exclusion? I received the casino's emails but I haven't found your initial request. My email address is petronela.k@casino.guru. Did you specify in that request for how long you wish your account to be suspended and the reason why?

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

Hello Petronela

I have sent an email with the requested information to you. Please let me know if you have received it or require any further information.

Kind regards,

Shandy37

Thank you, Shandy37, for your email.

Could you please confirm the following:

• Your request to block the account was accepted on the 14th of August 2022
• The account was blocked for six months

It means that the account was reopened in February 2023. I'm sorry but since we didn't receive any supporting evidence that you mentioned the gambling problem and requested permanent self-exclusion it seems that the casino acted according to its terms and conditions.

Could you please advise when was your account reopened and when you were able to place deposits again?

Dear Shandy37,

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.

Hello Petronela,

I am so sorry for the delayed response as I've been away with work.

My account was reopened on 20/03/2023

Immediately I was able to place deposits back into the account.

There was no accountability for setting up limits/asking what the situation was in relation to why I was opening back up my account etc.

There was no responsible Gambling towards the player. The reason I cannot provide to you those emails which state a Gambling addiction is because they were sent via their site.

I requested that information to be sent to me via email under EU GDPR but they have refused to send it. They have stated I requested a self exclusion. They only offer max on self exclusion 6 months regardless of a Gambling addiction or not as per their terms and conditions, yet under CEG Code of Conduct they should have been able to offer more. CEG's (their master license) terms and conditions should reflect that of the site yet they do not in this case. Is that not a breach of their "contract" with CEG as their Master License Holder? They follow their own rules and regulations (terms and conditions) and disregard CEG's?

If you requested all relevant emails that have been sent via that site link and also via email from Godbunny you would be able to see those emails for yourself. I can no longer make contact with them as they have stated they will not be responding to my emails at all anymore.

If you require any further information please don't hesitate to contact me,

Shandy37

Thank you very much, Shandy37, for providing all the necessary information. I will now transfer your complaint to my colleague Jozef (jozef.k@casino.guru) who will be at your assistance. I want to make it clear that while I empathize with your situation, I cannot make any guarantees regarding a positive outcome for your complaint. This is because we do not possess any evidence to support your claim that you mentioned your gambling problem when requesting self-exclusion. Please understand that we take issues related to responsible gambling seriously and strive to assist players who are experiencing difficulties with gambling. However, without any evidence to back up your statement, it becomes challenging for us to take action on your complaint. Nevertheless, we will try to help you by contacting the casino.

Dear Shandy37,

I absolutely appreciate that you shared your experiences with the Casino Guru team. We will now try to get in touch with the casino.

Hello,

In that case we would like to say the things from our point of view. We believe that we followed all the legal procedures according to our Terms and Conditions, with faithful and respect to the player.

The mention player he did his registration to our casino at 19/07/2022. At 13/08/2022 he send an email to support@godbunny.com and he claimed that he send us some mails threw the contact form on the casino. After investigation we found an email where he was asking a Cashback bonus and what about our "Store".

We answer to him the same day, offering to him some Free Spins and we informed him that we was in processing to add some rewards in our "Store" section.

Furthermore he still insist that he send us some mails, which we couldn't find them and we informed him that we didn't received something else. He never send us any proof for that mails, he only said that was for "Self - Exclusion". We informed him immediately that according to our policies, if he want to self exclude his self he will not be able to reactivate his account before a minimum period of 6 months.

At 14/08/2022 we proceed with deactivation of his account, and we informed him. At 16/08/2022 he send us again an email asking for the mails which he claimed that he send threw the site form, where we already informed him that in our database we didn't found something, we mention to him again that his account is deactivated.

At 13/10/2022 the mention player he contact us, with the bellow message:

"Hello, i would like to be able to get into my account to use my points that i've accumulated through deposits thank you"

The same day we informed him that according to our Terms and Conditions we cant reactivate his account in less period of 6 months.

Furthermore on 13/03/2023 he asked again for re open sending the bellow message:

"Hello, my account should be reactivated/open but it's currently not, its been over the 6month period since i closed it on 14/08/2022"

On 14/03/2023 and 15/03/2023 he continue to send us mails with request to reopen the account and at 17/03/2023 we received one more mail with request to reopening the account.

According to our checks and because he never mention to us at the past any gambling addiction or something special reason for the Self Exclude, we answer to him at 20/03/2023 that his account is open again, after the passing period of 7 months.

The next days we was having communication, he was asking for Bonus, for Cashbacks etc but he never mention a Gambling Addiction issue, till the 31/03/2023 where he send an email to our Complaints Department, where for first time he was informing about Gambling Addiction, mention that he didn't withdrawal any funds even if he win big up towards 6,000 euros.

On that email he was asking to return him the amount of 2,969.77 euro.

We answered back to him, informed him that his message was forwarded to our legal department and we ask him to confirm that he agree to disable his account. Once he confirm that we closed his account.

At 04/04/2023 with the confirmation he write also to us "In regards to the legal department is there any update from them in relation to this? I would like to settle them between us but if not i will have to take the CEG route and lodge an official complaint through their license".

We informed him that his account is permanently closed and we would not accept him anymore as a player, we mention to him that we follow all the legal procedures and that he never said about any addiction before, in addition he was asking us self-exclude because he didn't manage to win. Furthermore we informed him, we was believing that he was trying to blackmail us because we refuse his last request for Cashback bonus.

At the same day he answer back, saying that he was agree that one of the reason for account closure was because of Cashback bonus. He insist also that he mention before for Gambling Addiction, but we never received any mail in the past and he never provide us with evidence that he send us that mails.

At 04/04/2023 we answer to him back, mention again the closure of account and that in according to help him with gambling addiction we will not answer to him again.

We strictly believed that we react and we follow all the legal procedures. We wouldn't have any problem to return the funds if we was doing something wrong from our site, but we strictly believed that the behavior of this player and that complain is just a method to take back the funds where with his responsibility he was playing.

We are ready to provide you with all the conversations with that player from his registration day till 04/04/2023 where we stop to answer to him.

P.S. His last deposit was made at 31/03/2023, before to ask Self-exclusion.

Dear Shandy37,

may I kindly ask you to react? I believe the reaction from the casino team is quite clear. Do you have any relevant evidence proving that the casino team was informed about your addiction before 31/03/2023? I am aware that you mentioned their form, but since they are not aware of receiving, it, any evidence sustaining your claims would certainly help with the resolution. Otherwise, I have only the option to redirect you to the authority.

Dear Shandy37,

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.

Hello Jozef,

Thank you for the responses and apologies for the delay in responding to you. I'm currently working shift work and trying to gather the evidence at the min is slightly hard.

I'll respond on Tues/Wed with all evidence to this case if you can extend this case by a further 7 days please?

Kind regards,

Shandy37

Hi,

of course. I am extending the timer by 7 days.

Dear Shandy37,

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.

Hello Jozef,

Apologies for the delayed response.

In relation to the information that you have requested:

I have sought all information through GDPR means and given the 28 days notice as per the regulations received nothing from the operator (Godbunny) I contacted them again and again and again over and over requesting all relevant information that you have looked for. The reason I have looked for all this information is due to the type of form they have on their site.

I requested self exclusion permanently forever due to a Gambling addiction through their online form connected to their site (as attached in this mail)

This entails that the message is submitted with no way of receiving a copy of said messages delivered. I have logged into my account and on their page it even has a "messages" page dedicated to such thing and have never once received a copy or a response from Godbunny.

The screenshots of the emails from me to Godbunny with no response will show that they have not supplied any and all information I have requested. They failed to acknowledge any of the emails bar stating the fact that I self excluded (NOT CLOSED) and I state again self excluded myself due to a Gambling problem.

I initially self excluded my account after depositing €2,000. There was no verification of my identity after such an amount was deposited.

I requested self exclusion for life due to a Gambling problem and was only given 6 months.

The account was reopened after 7 months and allowed a further €2,500+ deposit into the account with no limit set on the account, no background checks to see if Gambling addiction was a part of my life, just an email and reopen. This is another complete lack of responsible Gambling towards the player.

I notified Godbunny about the Gambling addiction and they only self excluded my account for 6 months and they allowed it reopen. I notified CEG Compliance department about my Gambling addiction over and over again and again through email and still nothing was done.

How is it that this has happened again and again? How many times do I need to notify the master license/site to state I have a Gambling addiction and nothing being done about it. How many times do I have to tell a site that I have a Gambling addiction and they do nothing about it. They won't provide any of the information I requested either to show of this evidence. I can however how you that I contacted CEG every year between 2020 and now to notify you of such an addiction. I can show you also that Godbunny have provided no information whatsoever in regards to my requests for personal information. As per their statement above:

"Furthermore he still insist that he send us some mails, which we couldn't find them and we informed him that we didn't received something else" please note you can see from the screenshots of the emails previous that they did not in anyway contact me with regards to information about any emails I contacted again and again requesting ALL information for none of it to be sent. They even asked why I was looking for my own information which has never been done before. I found it highly suspicious that they wouldn't give me my information.

"At 14/08/2022 we proceed with deactivation of his account, and we informed him." Please note, they did not deactivate my account they self excluded. If my account was closed solely due to Cashback bonus being bad or the store or customer service etc being bad then I would have just asked them to put a limit or close my account with the hopes of reopening it again at a later stage. If I had closed my account (not self excluded) I should have by right been able to open it again at a later stage under no restrictions. The fact that I self excluded means something else entirely. Self excluding would be used if there was too much time Gambling, as they have worded as such in their own terms and conditions. Why were no security checks done or no questions asked when the account was reopened? Why was there no limit set? It was just a case of, and evidence to which they have provided, they reopened the account no questions asked. Allowed further deposits of up to nearly 3000euro with no questions asked. Nearly €5,000 in total with no questions as to what was going on? And it was deposit after deposit after deposit. Is their site, as they have also claimed in their terms and conditions, supposed to spot compulsive Gambling behavior and limit the account.

I am requesting now that Godbunny supply the evidence to both myself and Casinoguru of ALL information that I requested from last year when my account was self excluded due to a Gambling problem a stated in the emails. All emails regardless of the content.

Please be advised I'm running out of space here so I will continue this in the next paragraph in relation to their statements.

"Furthermore we informed him, we was believing that he was trying to blackmail us because we refuse his last request for Cashback bonus." To be told that a man is blackmailing a company after stating that he has a Gambling addiction is absolutely disgraceful carry on, in my own opinion, of your support. You were notified about my problem and then you use that statement against me. I find it highly disrespectful from your support team to try and lower my self esteem and character stating that I was blackmailing you after admitting a Gambling addiction to you again.

"At 04/04/2023 we answer to him back, mention again the closure of account and that in according to help him with gambling addiction we will not answer to him again." They did reply with this email and again both before this and after I have asked for my information in regards to any and all emails both sent through their site and through here to be included. They have still failed to provide the information I requested under GDPR regulations. Jozef is there anything you can do about this issue?

"We wouldn't have any problem to return the funds if we was doing something wrong from our site, but we strictly believed that the behavior of this player and that complain is just a method to take back the funds where with his responsibility he was playing." Yet I provided you with emails to CEG your master license holder in relation to a Gambling addiction throughout the years and you failed to acknowledge them even though it states through both your site and theirs (within CEGs terms and conditions) to contact them in reference to self exclusion. I contacted them with any and all relevant information in regards to myself including a copy of my ID as requested via their terms for self exclusion and nothing was done.

Jozef this is currently all the information I have at this moment and time in regards to this matter.

If you do require any further information please don't hesitate to contact me,

Kind regards,

Shandy37

Dear Shandy37,

I do need to see reasonable evidence to support your claims before I can force the casino to proceed with the refund. While I trust you fully, without evidence, I am unable to move forward.

Also contacting the licensing authority and informing them about your gambling problem would help in most cases, but as far as I know, Curacao regulatory does not offer this option. Therefore, It is always better to inform directly the casino support and save the evidence.  

Unfortunately, I have no other option than to reject this case.

You have the right to disagree with my decision. If you wish to file an official complaint with the casino's licensing authority, I'm happy to assist you with it. Please contact me via the email address provided below if you have any further questions or require additional assistance.

Best regards, Jozef

jozef.k@casino.guru