Goldwin Casino - Player’s Deposit bonus winnings have been voided.

Hello! Please accept my complaint against GOLDWIN Casino. I strongly disagree with the casino's decision to withhold my $366 winnings.

When registering on the site, I indicated in good faith that I live in Ukraine by filling in the address of residence and indicating the Ukrainian phone number. Thus, the casino knew that I was from Ukraine even before the game started.

However, the casino gave me the opportunity to use the bonus. That is, the casino has taken a win-win position: if I lose, then the casino takes my money for itself; if I win, the casino cancels my winnings. The casino benefits in any case.

The casino only reported the error to me after I requested a withdrawal. If I had lost, I would not have received the error message. This is a popular trick among many casinos, I know about it. This gives additional income to the casino, but misleads the player.

I am absolutely convinced that the casino should have prevented me, a player from Ukraine, from receiving a bonus, providing this with their system. However, the casino decided to take advantage of me, which is contrary to the law and morality.

A month ago, on 07/22/2022, I sent a claim to the casino, but the casino refuses to pay out my funds in the amount of $366.

Please help in resolving the dispute with the casino.

Dear liubovL126,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your problem. I have checked the terms and conditions, and this is what I found (here):

"Unless otherwise explicitly stated, players located in the following countries are not eligible to claim any type of bonus: Belarus, Brazil, Belgia, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Thailand, India, Russia, Poland, Serbia, Peru, Ukraine, Bangladesh and Tunisia. We reserve the right to limit players from other jurisdictions from being eligible to any type of bonus or to a subset of bonuses based on our sole discretion."

However, I would like to emphasize that in case the restricted countries are not mentioned in terms and conditions or hidden somewhere, the casino should pay the player. Especially, if the bonus has been offered to the player by the casino and not redeemed by the player. Our position is closely explained in Fair Gambling Codex."

To summarize: Casinos should only give bonuses to players who are allowed to get them according to the Bonus T&Cs. And if the casino makes the mistake of granting a bonus to a player who shouldn't have received it, the casino shouldn't take it away from them. Instead, the casino should accept that it was their mistake and pay out the winnings to the player.

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

Best regards,

Petronela 

Hello! The casino knew that I live in Ukraine, I did not hide it. When registering, I indicated the country of residence - Ukraine, Ukrainian phone number. However, knowing all this, the casino gave me the opportunity to use the bonus.

I also sent a selfie with a passport and a selfie with a bank statement indicating the address of my residence.

In view of the foregoing, I am convinced that if the casino gave me the opportunity to use the bonus, it should pay out the funds that were won by me - 366 US dollars.

Thank you very much, liubovL126, for providing all the necessary information. I will now transfer your complaint to my colleague Matej (matej@casino.guru) who will be at your assistance. I wish you best of luck and hope to see your problem being resolved to your satisfaction in the near future.  

Hello liubovL126.

I am sorry to hear about your troubles.

As Petronela wrote, we believe the casinos should be responsible and not allow players from restricted countries to take the bonuses.

I would like to invite the casino representative into the case: Please explain to us if the liubovL126 was able to activate the bonus from a restricted country without some countermeasure.

Hello Matej & Liubov,

Hope all is well with you!

I have checked the player's complaint and indeed for the player's jurisdiction our casino doesn't offer any type of bonuses. This is clearly mentioned in the terms and conditions of ths site, which the player has accepted and acknowledged upon registration:

7.1. Unless otherwise explicitly stated, players located in the following countries are not eligible to claim any type of bonus: Belarus, Brazil, Belgia, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Thailand, India, Russia, Poland, Serbia, Peru, Ukraine, Bangladesh and Tunisia. We reserve the right to limit players from other jurisdictions from being eligible to any type of bonus or to a subset of bonuses based on our sole discretion.

The terms and conditions are available on our website and can be checked at any time at this link: https://goldwin.com/terms-and-conditions .

As a casino we do our best to ensure that we don't allow players from the above mentioned countries to claim any bonus. The system is set such that when a player from one of these countries registers on the site they don't have any bonuses available to claim in their cashier and they aren't able to claim one by other channels as well, such as Live Chat or email.

Having said this there are cases in which players manage to go around these limitations and they redeem a bonus offer - as was the case for Liubov.

During the verification process it was discovered that the player redeemed a bonus, even though he was registered from a jurisdiction in which we don't offer any type of bonus. As such his account was brought to the same state prior to him claiming the bonus - his deposit amount of USD 100 was returned to the players account and any winnings generated using the bonus were voided.

The player then chose to withdraw his deposit amount, withdrawal which was honored by the casino accordingly.

I hope this clarifies things!

With regards,

Eugenié Lacroix

Hello Eugenié.

Thanks for the clarification. 

Based on our fair gambling codex, it is the correct approach when the casino enforces the restriction.

Dear liubovL126, can we close the complaint? Are you satisfied with the solution?

Good day! I registered an account in the casino, specifying personal data, which included my residential address. I did not circumvent the rules of the casino, as was reported to Eugenie Lacroix. It was the casino that provided the opportunity to use the bonus. If the bonus hadn't been given to me, I wouldn't have been able to use it! As I already stated earlier, the actions of the casino regarding granting the bonus were deliberate - the casino expected that I would go into the red and lose the bonus and deposit. But luck was on my side. When the casino realized that their plan did not work, the casino decided to confiscate the bonus.

I believe that the casino's actions against me are illegal. The casino should have refused the bonus, knowing that I am from Ukraine. But, if the casino provided a bonus, it must be paid out.

Dear Eugenié.

Could you please explain how liubovL126 bypassed the enforcement you have on the website?

Good day,

Hope all is well with you.

We have reviewed the player’s account and the followings have been concluded:

 1) The player has claimed the offer automatically from the Cashier Page

2) The player was able to claim the bonus in question because at the moment of the claim the website was being updated and maintained, and during this time, unfortunately the restrictions have been bypassed. Based on the initial investigation we have discovered that this can be bypassed by using an active VPN, however, for the case in question we are unable to provide any proof that this would be the case, due to system limitations.

 3) The bonus was not removed from the player’s account at the moment of the claim, since such verifications are conducted only when the user is requesting his first withdrawal. As such, when the withdrawal has been verified it has been discovered that the bonus claimed for this account was incorrectly awarded.

The above statements are clearly supported by our Terms and Conditions as follows:

"7.1. Unless otherwise explicitly stated, players located in the following countries are not eligible to claim any type of bonus: Belarus, Brazil, Belgia, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Thailand, India, Russia, Poland, Serbia, Peru, Ukraine, Bangladesh and Tunisia. We reserve the right to limit players from other jurisdictions from being eligible to any type of bonus or to a subset of bonuses based on our sole discretion."

16.1 A number of circumstances may arise where a bet is accepted, or a payment is made, by us in Error. Reasonable efforts are undertaken to prevent errors or omissions; however system problems or human error may lead to such circumstances.

Such circumstances may include, without being limited to, the hereunder situations, which may be related to sports only:

 a) Acceptance of a bet at a price which is significantly different from those available in the market at the time the bet was placed;

b) Miscalculation (including due to human error) of bonuses, winnings or returns paid to you;

c) Information on odds or terms of a bet may have been entered incorrectly as a consequence of human error or computer malfunction; 

d) Errors or omissions resulting from Prohibited Activities e) Errors or omissions which result in winnings being flagrantly incorrect or different from those on the market; f) Continued acceptance of bets on a market or event that has already been closed or suspended ("late bets").

Since the player has fully agreed and acknowledged our Terms and conditions upon registration, where it is clearly stipulated that his country is ineligible for bonuses, the fact that he still claimed a bonus knowing that

and continued playing with it, lead us to the decision to remove the bonus that was incorrectly awarded and revert the user’s balance back to his initial deposit 100 USD.

Our best interest is to make sure that we offer a pleasant player experience, however, we must also stand by our terms and conditions in order to ensure that they are correctly applied in order to offer a fair gambling experience.

I hope this clarifies things!

All the best,

Eugenié Lacroix

Dear Eugenié.

I understand that the casino can decide not to pay liubovL126's winnings by the rules.

But please consider this:

When liubovL126 took that bonus, she was in a situation where she was unable to win. If she looses all the money, the casino will not give her the money back but also not pay any winnings from the bonus. So maximum that she could gain is getting her deposits back (what happened) or losing all the money. 

She didn't put herself into this situation. This situation happened because the casino's fault.

Therefore it would be fair to pay her winnings, and I know many casinos which would do that without hesitation.

But the world isn't ideal, and I also understand the casino's position.

Because of that, we have a category of complaints - Against fair gambling codex. This category is for complaints where the casino has technically right, but these complaints are unfair and should be ended in favour of the player in an ideal world.

I will close the complaint with this classification if your position still stands. The penalization for the casino because of this complaint is reduced significantly, but the complaint will be visible.

Hello Matej,

Thank you for your reply!

As much as we would like to we don't agree with your reasoning on this, considering all the provided information:

• As a casino we don't offer any type of bonuses for the player's jurisdiction. This is clearly stated in the terms and conditions of the site, which the player accepted and acknowledged that he read and understood;
• We don't advertise any bonuses for the player's jurisdiction;
• Our system is set as such that no bonuses are shown as being available to claim on the deposit page for players from this jurisdiction;
• Players from this jurisdiction are not able to claim any bonus from our support team.

As such we believe that we have taken all the steps to prevent such cases, as also outlined in your Fair Gambling Codex.

In this case the player has actually put himself in this situation by bypassing the limits we have set in place to prevent him from claiming any bonus.

By saying that it's the casino's fault in this case is like saying that it's a stores fault if a customer manages to steal and item and walk out of the store.

All the best,

Eugenié Lacroix

Pardon me, but this is what you wrote:

2) The player was able to claim the bonus in question because at the moment of the claim the website was being updated and maintained, and during this time, unfortunately the restrictions have been bypassed. Based on the initial investigation we have discovered that this can be bypassed by using an active VPN, however, for the case in question we are unable to provide any proof that this would be the case, due to system limitations.

And player confirmed that the bonus was available for him, which was why she took it.

So I am very sorry, but I stand by what I wrote and believe you can't blame a player in this case.

Hello Matej,

Thank you for your input.

However, the text you quoted was the answer to your query regarding how the player was able to bypass the enforcement and claim the bonus.

This doesn't mean that the offer was available to him. As mentioned earlier, we don't make any bonuses available for players from his jurisdiction.

To clarify the matter, I have registered a new account with the player’s jurisdiction, and I have attached two screenshots where it can be clearly seen that there are no bonuses available. Should you wish, I can provide in private, the log-in details to confirm the above mentioned. Alternatively, you can register an account on our website choosing the player's jurisdiction to check for yourself.

This alone, should have been enough for the player to understand that no bonuses are available to him, as agreed with our terms & conditions upon registration.

Should you consult the provided screenshot, you will notice that players also have the option to claim a bonus using a code (each bonus campaign has a specific bonus code). These codes are often shared by players on gambling forums. While each specific campaign is also restricted for certain jurisdictions, in this case the enforcement was bypassed as explained before.

I hope this clarifies things,

Eugenié Lacroix

Hello liubovL126.

Could you please clarify how you activated the bonus? Did you use some code for activation, and if yes, from where you got this code?

Good day! I didn't use any codes. During the deposit, the casino offered to use the bonus, which I did. There were no illegal actions on my part.

Dear Eugenié and liubovL126.

We did some of our tests, and here are the results:

The system the casino introduced is set wrongly. It prevents players from taking bonuses based on their IP. However, it does not consider the country from the registration form. I see another problem with the fact that using VPN is not prohibited in the casino.

Based on that, we believe that liubovL126 took the bonus in good faith and should be paid. 

We are very happy that the casino has a system that enforces the rules; however, this system must be set up correctly, and a clear intention of avoiding such enforcement must be proved for us to consider cases like these in favour of the casino.

Hello Matej,

Thank you for your reply!

I have checked and can see that you indeed tested this, however you have used a completely different jurisdiction from the player's. For that jurisdiction from what I see there are bonuses shown on the promotions and deposit page after registration.

The bonuses shown as available on the deposit page and the promotions page on the site are strictly shown based on the country input by the player upon registration, and are not influenced by the IP used at a given time.

The IP is only relevant for claims made using a code, as it is set so, in order to prevent players from abusing the no deposit bonus given upon registration - bonus which is only claimable using a code.

In liubovL126's case he didn't see any bonuses on our site being available to him, either on the deposit page or in the promotions page. To bypass this he had to take multiple steps, to get a code for the promotion and mask his IP in order to be able to claim it - and as such we don't believe this is acting in good faith but a clear sign that the player knew that he wasn't allowed to claim it.

For us player satisfaction is a key factor and we would of loved to do an exception for the case at hand, however, taking into consideration the above mentioned, we will stand by the decision taken regarding his case.

With regards,

Eugenié Lacroix

Good day! I repeat that I did not enter ANY CODES! Goldwin casino allowed me to take this bonus. Only after I managed to win a little, and I bet on the conclusion, the casino indicated "bonus abuse" and withheld $366!

The casino's behavior towards me is offensive: the casino accuses me of something I did not do.

The casino itself took a deliberately win-win position:

if I win, the casino keeps the funds;

if I lose, the casino wins.

Is it legitimate?

Dear Eugenié.

A Group of people were testing the bonus restriction. The results are from multiple accounts created in about a week.

No bonuses were available when the account was created from Ukrainian IP with country settings Ukraine.

However, bonuses were available if different IP was used for account creation, but the country setting was set to Ukraine.

BTW: the bonus offer via email also received players from restricted countries.

But none of this is important.

In this case, I believe that presumption of innocence should be applied.

Dear Eugenié, we heard about how great your casino system is; however you didn't present a single piece of evidence about how liubovL126 tricked your system. You told us the assumptions, but this isn't enough in modern society. Either prove that liubovL126 cheated, or the casino should pay her winnings.

Hello Matej,

Thank you for your reply!

For our casino, fairness towards the player is one of the foundation stones. As a business practice we always apply the presumption of innocence to all cases, however in this case, as justified above, this has not been the actual situation.

It can be clearly confirmed, from the test completed on your side, that when a player from the user’s jurisdiction, registers an account, they will not see any bonuses available in their profile nor on the deposit page. 

It is clearly stated on our website that we offer no bonuses for the user’s jurisdiction and the player acknowledged the terms and conditions upon registration.

While there are ways to go over this limitation, as your testing has also revealed, in the case at hand we are unable to confirm the user’s innocence as the bonus was obtained deliberately and knowingly, despite that the Terms & Conditions clearly forbid this.

In terms of evidence, we have provided everything you have asked for, including an explanation on how the player was able to bypass the system. Also, considering the above, for the investigation to be truly concluded, we would appreciate if the same level of analysis would be applied on the customer’s claims.

Drawing a line on all of this, the fact remains - the player has breached the terms and conditions of our casino, terms which he accepted upon registration, and our decision was taken fully in line with this.

With regards,

Eugenié Lacroix

Dear Eugenié.

It can be clearly confirmed, from the test completed on your side, that when a player from the user’s jurisdiction, registers an account, they will not see any bonuses available in their profile nor on the deposit page. 

Sorry, but how did you come to that? As I wrote, if the country and IP match, you are correct, but if only the country match, you can claim the bonus - which is wrong, especially when VPN is allowed. Also, players from restricted countries receive bonus promo emails, which is also wrong. The player from a restricted country could visit somebody in another country and receive such promotion and discover that it is possible to activate it, and then what? Casino void the winnings? That is not fair.

All you repeat repeatedly is that the player breached the terms. Yes, we agree, but from the player's perspective, she only activated the available bonus in her account. Did you consider the terrible user experience that she has now with the casino? Did you, for a second, consider that she is just an average player with no bad intentions and all that happened was just a coincidence of the timing of the system update? If you can show me that she logged in from another country or the bonus code that she applied, I have no problem accepting that you are right, but if you can't, then I am sorry, but I am standing on the player side.

Hello Matej,

Thank you for your reply!

I have checked and player session data from when the player claimed the bonus is no longer available as 3 months passed since. This is only stored for a limited amount of time.

However, we can work with the information we have both confirmed so far:

1. Your testing has established the following:

a) if a player registers using an Ukrainian IP address and correctly selects the country as Ukraine, then no bonuses will be shown available;

b) if the same player then changes his IP address by any means, then no bonuses will be shown available;

c) if a player registers using an IP address from a country where we offer bonuses and selects the country as Ukraine, then bonuses will be shown as available.

The only way in which it would have been possible for liubovL126 to see the bonuses available for her on our website would have been situation c). I can provide evidence to you that she doesn't fall in this case, as the account was registered with an Ukrainian IP - the registration IP is recorded.

This means that the player didn't see any bonuses available on her account to claim.

2. The email you are referring to is the welcome email all players receive upon registration, regardless of the jurisdiction, in an informative note, regarding our welcome package which can also be seen on the website. However, this does not mean that our Terms and Conditions do not apply in such conditions, as the terms are also stated at the bottom of the email. If a player clicks the Click-to-Action-Button they are simply redirected to the deposit page, where, if any, they will see the available bonuses. In our case, if a player from Ukraine would have clicked the button they would have seen no bonuses available in the cashier.

Moreover, I would like to re-enforce the fact that in the email received, no codes are provided for any of the promotions. 

3. This means that the only way the player could have claimed the bonus is by using a code. Again here I can provide proof that the promotion which was claimed is linked to a code.

4. While we don't penalise players from using VPN in normal circumstances, there are a couple of cases where we forbid the use of VPN:

- using a VPN to register an account from a prohibited jurisdiction (article 4.3 of the terms and conditions);

- using VPN for the sole purpose of creating multiple accounts and/or claiming bonuses and promotions (article 7.33 of the terms and conditions).

I understand this is not an ideal situation and we always try to analyse each decision made from the player's perspective as well. 

This is one of the reasons why in this case our Finance team returned to the player her deposit amount, which the player chose to withdraw from the casino.

With regards,

Eugenié Lacroix

Dear Eugenié.

Regarding this:

3. This means that the only way the player could have claimed the bonus is by using a code. Again here I can provide proof that the promotion which was claimed is linked to a code.

As I wrote two days ago:

Could you please provide me with the evidence that the code was used to claim this bonus?

Hello Matej,

I have sent the information related to the bonus the player claimed to you directly.

With regards,

Eugenié Lacroix

Dear liubovL126.

The casino representative provided me with the evidence. This evidence clearly shows that code **** was used to activate the bonus. 

Are you still sure that you didn't use any code to claim your bonus?

Hello! I am convinced that I did not use any codes. The casino is misleading. Please give me the opportunity to review the evidence provided by the casino. I assume the evidence is falsified.

After considering all the facts, it is true that technically liubovL126 breached the terms and conditions in this case.

However, she chose Ukraine in her profile, and it doesn't matter if the code was used or not. It is super simple to check in a player's profile if they are from a restricted country or not.

So it looks like the casino's software enforcement failed in this case.

Therefore we decided close the complaint as unresolved with classification against the fair gambling codex.

The penalization for this is minimal because liubovL126 breached the terms and conditions. However, the casino's system should be better to avoid such situations.

Good afternoon! In accordance with the decision of the casino dispute regulator The GURU, the complaints are closed not in your favor.

I think you, as a casino, should recognize the authority and impartiality of The GURU.

Based on the above, I ask you to credit 366 USD to my payment wallet.

Hello Matej,

Thank you for your feedback!

Based on your previous statement:

"If you can show me that she logged in from another country or the bonus code that she applied, I have no problem accepting that you are right, but if you can't, then I am sorry, but I am standing on the player side."

your initial standing was that you will agree with the casino’s decision, if we are able to provide proof.

Moreover, we have explained and provided proof that the customer could have only claimed the bonus by deliberately bypassing the restrictions, thus, breaching our terms and conditions.

As you have acknowledged, indeed the customer breached the terms and conditions, therefore, by classifying this as "against fair gambling", we are sorry to say it, but we consider this decision inequitable.

Once this is closed, I kindly ask that you remove the code for the promotion, stated in the previous messages, as well as any explicit information on how the player avoided the restrictions and claimed the bonus - this is not and should not be public information.

Hello liubovL126,

While we would of preferred to be able to provide a better resolution in your case, the fact remains - the casino's accepted terms and conditions have been breached, and, therefore the decision which was taken, to void the funds, will remain final.

With regards,

Eugenié Lacroix

Dear Eugenié.

Classification Against Fair Gambling Codex is the classification which we use when technically a casino has the right. However, the situation could be handled better. 

You wrote:

Once this is closed, I kindly ask that you remove the code for the promotion, stated in the previous messages, as well as any explicit information on how the player avoided the restrictions and claimed the bonus - this is not and should not be public information.

This proves that I am right - you are afraid that other players may use the code, but if your system works well, this wouldn't be possible at all. (you have a country from the player profile, and a list of restricted countries; what else do you need, even with a code, it is super simple to check if the player who redeemed the code is on the list or not)

You also wrote:

2) The player was able to claim the bonus in question because at the moment of the claim the website was being updated and maintained, and during this time, unfortunately the restrictions have been bypassed. Based on the initial investigation we have discovered that this can be bypassed by using an active VPN, however, for the case in question we are unable to provide any proof that this would be the case, due to system limitations.

So all this might be possible because of the update on your website. And the player disagrees with all that you wrote.

Because of that, we decided to close this complaint as unresolved with status: Against Fair Gambling Codex. Our decision is final, and any further discussion is possible only via email. (matej@casino.guru)

This was a group decision, so I already took the case higher to be sure about the decision.

Dear liubovL126, I am sorry about the whole situation. The casino provided us with solid evidence; however, their system should be better. 

We’ve reopened this complaint at the request of Goldwin Casino. We would like to allow this case one more chance to be resolved and help both parties involved to reach a satisfactory conclusion.

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.

Hello Matej,

Thank you for re-opening the complaint!

We are discussing this internally and we will offer you a response shortly.

With regards,

Eugenié Lacroix

Hello Matej and Liubov,

Following the discussion with the Casino Guru team, we have decided to extend an exception in this case and credit the confiscated amount to the player's account.

If the player agrees, we will go ahead and add the funds accordingly.

Regards,

Eugenié Lacroix

Hello liubovL126,

Could you please confirm if you agree with the casino's proposal?

Deal All! I thank the casino for the decision. I agree with the casino's proposal. Please credit the confiscated amount to my Skrill payment wallet. The casino has my wallet details - a deposit was made from it.

Hello Liubov,

Your account has been re-opened, you can log-in and initiate the withdrawal from your casino account.

Once your withdrawal is initiated, the finance team will approve it.

Regards,

Eugenié Lacroix

Dear liubovL126,

Once the withdrawal is completed, please update the complaint, and we will close it.

Hello Matej and Liubov,

The withdrawal was processed successfully from our side and the player should receive the winnings shortly.

Thank you for your help!

Regards,

Eugenié Lacroix

Good day! Thank you casino for depositing funds. The complaint may be closed.

I would like to thank both sides for reaching a compromise and resolving this issue.

I will now mark this case as resolved in our system.