The player from Austria requested self-exclusion due to gambling addiction, however, he was able to reopen his account soon after. The player didn't provide proof that he requested self-exclusion, therefore we were forced to reject this complaint.
Hello
I'm addicted to gambling and that's why I've messaged as many casinos as possible to let them know so I can't gamble anymore.
I did the same thing at iWildCasino a few days ago. I was already blocked there and asked for the reason again in the chat. I wrote several times about gambling addiction and the support person kept saying that I could open my account again at any time.
I then wrote again, No, I want to be banned for gambling addiction.
A few days later I got addicted and asked if I could unlock my account. I then had to write an email that I would take responsibility and within a few minutes I was able to fully use my account again.
I lost €850 and I want it back. I didn't write to the chat just for fun that I'm blocked because of gambling addiction. Perhaps there was a communication problem because of the English language, but normally a support agent would need to be sensitively trained when a player writes about a gambling ban.
I would be very grateful if you could help me with that. iWildCasino doesn't take player protection one bit seriously.
LG
Dear Malaga,
Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your problem.
Could you please forward all the emails or screenshots showing that you have sent requests for your account’s closure? My email address is kristina.s@casino.guru. Did you specify in those requests for how long you wish your account to be closed and clearly stated the reason why?
Have you contacted customer support regarding this situation Do you currently have access to your casino account?
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,
Kristina
Hello
I have sent you an email.
iWildCasino support vehemently denies that there was any chat where I mentioned "Gambling Addicted". That's a lie, unfortunately I can't describe it any other way. This chat was the main reason why I reopened my account, because the support mentioned several times that I can open my account again at any time and he said Gambling Addicted statements were simply ignored.
It can't be that you have to take screenshots of every single conversation with casinos because they are so dishonest and just lie.
There is, however, a second circumstance that proves me right. I was previously banned from casino spinsbro for gambling addiction and this casino belongs to the same group as iWildCasino (Altacore NV). The support there confirmed to me that a ban for gambling addiction affects all casinos in the group. I have sent you screenshots of the ban at spinsbro.
I really hope that the case will be resolved in my favor. I have been struggling with my gambling addiction for a long time and have specifically contacted several casinos to let them know that I have a gambling addiction. And then iWildCasino lures me into such a trap.
Thank you for your reply, Malaga. I chcecked the Responisble Gambling section and I found this:
"... If you think you might be one of those players and gambling has negative impact on your life or life of your family and friends, we can suggest you one of the following things: You can always contact our support department at support@iwildcasino.com and ask to terminate your iWildCasino account for a certain period of time. After that we will take necessary measures to completely block you from our site and block any promotional e-mails that you might have been receiving from our casino before. Please contact customer support team if you want to set a personal cooling-off period. You can also seek for help from professionals who deal with gambling problems:
Gamblers Anonymous, GamCare, Gambling Therapy.
Complaints Resolution Procedure
You may contact our customer Support Service Team by email: support@iwildcasino.com"
Unfortunately, there’s not written that all your accounts in other casinos of the same owner will be blocked or self-excluded automatically. Please understand that if you self-exclude yourself from one casino it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are protected on all the other associated websites.
Furthermore, if you do not have a proof that you requested self-exclusion due to gamlbing addiction, I am afraid that we are not able to proceed with this complaint and ask for a deposit refund. We would really like to help, but it is impossible for us without this crutial evidence.
Could you please advise if you currently have access to your casino account?
I already thought that you would stick to the casino, since Casino Guru is not about player protection either.
What exactly did it take you 5 days to do? To pick out a ridiculous part of the terms and conditions. Are you serious?
I really thought you contacted the casino and demanded the chat log or that you actually have contacts with the management and are asking them for a good solution.
By the way, it is very ridiculous that they dismiss my complaint about this passage, as it is perfectly normal that when you are banned from one company for gambling addiction, they are banned from ALL of those casinos.
Otherwise, player protection would be a sham as there are over thousands of unique casinos and hundreds of new casinos are added every week and month. In the last 6 months alone, Casino Guru has listed over 300 new casinos on the site. How can someone who is addicted to gambling get banned from 5,000 casinos? Are you serious? Should a gambling addict spend all day just blocking out casinos?
It's very clear. Spinsbro and iWildCasino belong to Altacore NV and a ban for gambling addiction must always affect the entire group. Otherwise there is no real player protection and Casino Guru supports that people who are addicted to gambling are not protected.
Spinsbro support confirmed to me that a ban applies to the entire group, which makes perfect sense. If you are actually on the side of the casino in this case, then I will hire a lawyer who will not only take action against the casino, but also against Casino Guru. They pretend to want to help players but are actually on the side of the casinos. By the way, I hope you know that it is illegal to make your site accessible to Austrian and German residents and to show non-German-licensed providers.
Furthermore, all chat logs must be saved and there you will also find my chat with iWildCasino, where I write from Gambling Addicted.
In any case, I find your answer to be an absolute impertinence. Make me wait 5 days and then send me a meaningless excerpt from the terms and conditions. What an impertinence.
What did you do the 5 days? Have you contacted management, have you asked for an amicable solution, have you had any contact with anyone there? Or did you simply copy a section from the terms and conditions in a 1-minute "research"?
I really hope that an amicable solution can be found here. I would also accept a certain % amount to be paid back to me. But I'm concerned here with the principle and I will follow this case 100% to the end and will not give up and call in a lawyer in the next few days if a solution is not found quickly.
Firstly, please note that this is not a live chat, but a complaint thread. We currently have hundreds of active complaints and even though we try our best, it is not possible for us to reply immediately to all messages. We have 7 days (players and casinos have 14 days) to respond and we always get back to each complaint as soon as possible.
Secondly, the term clearly says that you should send an email if you want to permanently close your account due to gambling addiction, which you didn't do. If you did so, you could easily have proof of such action and our approach to this case would be completely different. You must understand that if the casino shares simple and clear instructions on how to request self-exclusion and you didn't follow them, and on top of that you don't have any proof the casino has been informed about your gambling problem, our options are very limited. I assure you that whenever a player provided valid evidence confirming they requested self-exclusion due to gambling addiction, we did everything we could do to help.
Furthermore, we do not solve complaints about self-exclusion from the whole group of casinos. Unless the casino has the MGA or UK license, or this fact is stated in the T&Cs, there is nothing we can do. The Curacao authority does not legally bind casinos with the same owner to enforce self-exclusion in all of them. If Curacao-licensed casinos decide to do it voluntarily, that is great, but we do not and cannot insist on it.
I am sorry, but I don't see anything that can be done here and I don't see any valid reason to request a deposit refund or other compensation. If you do not agree with our decision, you can always contact the licensing authority. They have more options and tools to help players.
Due to the aforementioned reasons, this complaint will now be rejected. Thank you for your understanding, I am sorry we could not be of more help on this occasion. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you run into any issues with this or any other casino in the future.