iWild Casino - Player's withdrawal request is delayed and winnings are deducted.

Had a great win off the welcome bonus on a $30 deposit, was up to >$2000 before being knocked down to $250 maximum from win off of bonus + free spins from promo. That’s fine. Talked to live chat and made a withdrawl request for $150 as to ‘protect’ the winnings from the free spins. Won more off of the $100 remaining. Awesome. So now I have been trying for 5 days to withdraw the $750 cleared from any wagering requirements. They first denied me for proof of address (success through auto verification), then for not showing all 4 corners of the document, and the last 3 requests were cancelled for no reason… my account verification still said success afterwards. But now they emailed me to tell me they deducted $600 claiming it was won off of free spins win credit. Live chat assured me the finance department would know that the amounts were separated… if anything they should have put my balance back at $250? But that would still not be acceptable as I have followed the terms and conditions, had all of my $750 withdrawal for many days and haven’t touched it or activated any new bonuses… I have screenshots of everything that I just sent to them but they always take 24 hours or more to get a reply from the finance department. So this is a long process. They keep sending me no deposit free spin emails, but I know if I accept any of them, my winnings would no longer be withdrawable… something to look out for and I am hoping casino guru or someone can help me with this if they don’t consider my last email with the ‘evidence’….

I have 2 more screenshots I could upload where I ask "okay… so the system will just know $150/$250 I withdraw is from the bonus… or do I need to do some sort of special selection?" Replied by "financial department considers all requests for withdrawal separately, they will definitely see that it is a withdrawal from the bonus, there should be no problems."

I’ve got a problem and it sucks because this was one of the highest rated casinos.

Dear Snowberry,

Thank you very much for submitting this complaint. I'm sorry to hear about your problem. Please allow me to ask a few questions to better understand your situation:

• Did you successfully fulfill the wagering requirements for the 250% match bonus, and if so, how much did you win from it?
• After completing the wagering requirements for the deposit bonus, did you proceed to play with the free spins? How much exactly did you win from the free spins?
• When were your winnings capped at $250? Was it after you completed wagering the deposit bonus or after playing with the free spins?

I hope we can assist you in resolving this matter promptly. Thank you in advance for your reply.

Best regards,

Veronika

Hi Veronika, thank you for your reply! 

I have tried to view the history on my profile that shows all bets & balances (displayed ‘real balance: $ / Bonus balance: $’ with games and bet amounts) on Nov 21, there are 1,355 results, which I scrolled through to the end… but there were definitely more bets made that do not appear. I just checked on desktop and it still only displays 1,355 results. 

I started with real balance: $30 / bonus balance: $75 (250%) and played all of my free spins first on Gates of Olympus, adding $33.71 to the bonus balance from those free spins. Then I made bets from that bonus balance and the last bet on Nov 21 that it shows has a real balance of $0 / bonus balance: $300.07. [**] The first bet on the 22nd shows a real balance of $629.44 / bonus balance $0. 

Obviously there is history which is not being shown in between those (naming ‘[**]’), and my ‘biggest win’ which is displayed on my account in a featured section was $1,158.21. This was from my bonus balance while my real balance was still $0. The only deposit I ever made was the initial $30. 

During [**], I was checking on my wager requirement % frequently to see if I met the wager requirements on my bonus. My bonus balance was >$2,000 when I met the requirement. At this point I noticed my ‘total’ in game drop to around $250… (I had been placing higher bets with a high available in game total, so I believe it was deducted to $300… I just noticed this change $50 of bets later)

When I noticed the smaller ‘total’ in game, I began my inquiry with iWild live chat support as seen in my screenshots submitted with my initial complaint filing. This is when I was told "you have successfully wagered your bonus and released the maximum amount: 150 CAD for free spins and five times the initial amount for the cash bonus. After the wager requirement for a bonus is complete, bonus money is transferred to real balance for players to register a withdrawal request". 

$30 initial x 5 = $150 & $150 from free spins. 

I wanted to ensure my balance would not be deducted again, so I asked "if I end up winning more off of the $250 that’s in my account, that will not have restrictions ?"

I was then told of further restrictions on the free spins bonus, such that if I continued to play on the 150 from free spins, any winnings would be cut down to 150. This seemed odd to me… but I was told the 150 from free spins could be withdrawn so I further asked "If I take $150 out and continue to play with the $100 I would have left… then everything would be unrestricted on bets with that $100?" And was told "…. you can now just withdraw [150 free spin max] and then play further. The 100 remaining will not be affected in any way." 

Wanting to be even more sure, I replied "okay… so the system will just know that the $150/$250 I withdraw is from the bonus… or do I need some sort of special selection?" And was told financial dept. considers withdrawals separately, that "they will definitely see that it is a withdrawal from the bonus, there should be no problems." 

okay great - I then went straight to wallet to make a withdrawl of $150 CAD. This process involves an identity/account verification. I submitted forms to get my account successfully auto-verified, at which point I was able to access the withdraw section of the website. My total real balance of $250 was available at this point to withdraw, but I did want to continue to play, so I made a request for the $150 as discussed with live chat. This became a pending withdraw, made at 09:10:49 GMT+3, Nov 21. This $150 left my available balance as soon as I made the request and while it was pending.

(Missing history [**] creates a lack of evidence, but if I am not believed in my recount of events, we can see by the real balance total in my history on Nov 22, that during the missing history [**], I had met my requirement through the transfer of any balance from bonus balance to real balance, as this is the process previously outlined) 

I don’t see how there can be an argument made that I played on my $150 free spins, except for the $50 of bets that I made at the moment my in game total changed from maxing out the bonus and meeting the requirements, prior to my recorded conversations with live chat. If that is the argument iWild is making then I don’t know how I could have made the withdrawal request and continued to win more off of the $100 remaining in my real balance (the amount I was told was unrestricted). 

Yes I was on a lucky streak I suppose. I have no way to view my balance or calculate it from [**] but I made a second withdraw request for $300 CAD at 09:51:31, Nov 21. I am not sure, but believe I had won an additional $150 by 10:22:11, Nov 21 as I made my third request for $30 CAD, accidentally hitting next without customizing my amount. but I remember having at least $600 between pending withdraws and real balance. There is a maximum of 3 withdraw requests / 24 hours. 

Continued in part 2…

Part 2…

All time stamps previously stated are from the iwild website, as they are shown there in GMT +3 time. 

I received an email at 4:22am PST on Nov 21 which equates to ~ 15:22:00 GMT +3 Nov 21. This was from the finance department to inform me that the identity verification was not successful because "All corners of the document must be visible." 

Now the date is Nov 22 when I log onto my account. 

This may be where I made a mistake. 

I saw the email, logged on and resubmitted new documentation and was auto-verified with success (again). I wanted to make a new withdraw request at this point but was unable to because I had still reached the maximum withdrawal requests for 24 hours and could not make a new one. 

I was receiving no deposit free spin promos through email that I had to let expire because I was not going to activate any new bonuses and sacrifice my withdrawal amount of $630.04 (as seen in my history for Nov 22 as the first bet real balance total before bet). 

It should be noted that I did not activate or accept any new bonuses/promotions since the welcome bonus package with my first and only deposit. 

At this point, I started playing (04:53:23 GMT+3). I honestly completely forgot about the free spin restrictions - I had won an additional $480.04 without the $150 in my account and the $630.04 that was in my real account balance (after pending withdraws were denied) was available for withdrawal, only that I got a maximum daily request notice when I attempted and had to wait to ‘take it out’. 

This is where I am not sure how it could be possible for me to have made a mistake, and where iwild has failed to explain themselves fully in their actions. 

The history is not missing any information for Nov.22. Within the 400 transactions (bets & wins) on Nov 22, I did the math and wagered a total of $225.90, however, my real account balance never dropped more than $29.00 as my wins during this time were instantly added to my balance and my balance adjusted as I made bets. 

I ended up adding an additional $120.59 to my real account balance before I made my last bet with iwild at 05:16:47 GMT +3 on Nov 22, showing a real balance of $750.03. 

I received an email from the iwild finance department at ~14:44:00 GMT+3 Nov 22 saying "we would like to inform you that the automatic verification is complete." 

This new total was available in my account for withdraw. I waited until my daily withdraw requests limit were available again and made a withdrawal request of $500.00 at 18:22:23 GMT+3 and a second of $250.00 at 18:57:23 GMT+3. 

I was excited because I had finally submitted an acceptable valid proof of address and was checking my email for the transactions, as well as my account to see if they were still pending. 

These transactions were pending for more than 24 hours, despite live chat letting me know they are processed by the finance department within a 24 hour window. 

Then they were cancelled by iwild without informing me of why. 

I sent them an email when I saw they were cancelled and that the $750 was returned to my withdrawable & total balance, asking if they could explain and that I was getting frustrated since it had been longer than usual, after being denied previously, and recently sent an email confirmation of my successful verification status. 

I made a new, single withdraw request of $500 at 23:48:44 GMT+3, Nov 24.

I may have made another potential mistake by saying in that email that if the new withdrawl was pending for more than 24 hours or denied again without any reasoning, that I would consider iwild a scam and file a complaint with Casino Guru. 

I gave them the benefit of the doubt up to this point.

I did not really have a serious problem with iwild until they sent me an email at ~ 13:51:00 GMT+3 Nov 26. This email said "we inform you that your payout of 500 CAD has been canceled by the finance department. We inform you that the amount of 600.03 CAD has been deducted from your gaming account in accordance with the bonus rules: The amount available from the release of the Freerounds Trophy Bonus is: 150 CAD." 

At this point, and where it remains today, my real account balance is $150. I have not made any new withdraw requests on this new deducted total. 

Continued in part 3…

Part 3

I understand that there are restrictions on the free spins bonus, even after it is cleared to the real account balance. I don’t really understand how or why it works… I think it is a bit misleading; if the free spins winning is capped, but you can supposedly withdrawl it, and then re-deposit the same amount, what is the point of continuing to cap it? 

Why is it grouped and labelled in such a way that doesn’t hint at all at its secondary restriction ?

However, I mainly don’t understand how they calculated these actions of subtracting $600.03 from my account. 

I don’t understand how they could touch the $480.04 that I had won while my first ever withdrawl of the bonus amount of $150 was sitting outside my account as a pending transaction. I don’t see how those totals could be connected, and I was assured the $480.04 was unrestricted, and that the $150 would be recognized as the free spins bonus.

I don’t understand how they could take $600.03 when, even if I did make bets while the bonus $150 had been returned to my account (with my balance in surplus of $150), I only wagered $225.90, and I only added a net winnings of $120 to my account. 

They are not clear on how they stack these restricted and unrestricted bonuses inside of the real account balance. I think that any explanation would have to consider the initial redaction period of the welcome bonus to $300, where I unknowingly spent ~$50 from my real account balance while not affecting the total $150 from free spins bonus. My bets in that scenario were coming off the top of my balance, and would have affected the free spins bonus amount by -$50 if it was also at the top. At no point did my account drop close to or below $150, except when I first had moved exactly $150 to withdraw, which was assured by iwild live chat to be recognized as the free spins bonus amount by the finance department. My real account balance was >$400 by the time the first withdraw was cancelled and returned to my real account balance… and again, the total never came close to dipping to $150. 

The initial deduction from my welcome bonus was absolutely instant when I cleared the wagering requirement - it seems unfair that this deduction was not made by iwild with the same speed or system automization. It happened days later, after I felt more than confident in my balance. 

I don’t think it’s fair that they cancelled my transactions without reason prior to this, or that they did not alter my balance in a different way, with a more clear explanation.

What I need from iwild is transparency and explanation on how they arrived at their calculation and action to remove $600.03 from my account. 

To avoid a similar situation in the future, I would recommend to iwild that they remove the automatic verification process and just make people wait to have their documents officially verified before being able to make withdraw requests. They could offer a clear example of acceptable documents or a checklist of necessary information. This would remove the issue I experienced in reaching my max daily requests limit - it was an issue for me because I was auto verified and then denied multiple times. Then I had to wait to make new requests and I didn’t want to play with my maxed out bonuses before removing them. If I had been able to take out my first $150 withdraw easily, I probably would have gambled until I lost, and I probably would have made another deposit. I have looked at other sites and prefer the design & selection of iwild. I do see why it is ranked well. I can completely understand if this case was not looked at closely enough iwild and if we can resolve it then I can easily forgive. However, considering the lengths I have had to go to in order to write this up properly, and the frustration I felt with withdrawl denials with no explanation, iwild website stresses me out more than it excites me now. I am only sharing so that they may improve their business. 

Veronika, 

This is obviously a detailed complaint, but I see no other way of answering your questions fully without this. 

Thank you very much. This was my first online casino experience, and I chose it from Casino Gurus top casino list. 

At the point where I had $750 pending in withdraws and a recent confirmation email from the finance department regarding my successful verification, I was confident enough to make a purchase on my credit card that I am not sure how to pay back now… lesson learned but maybe they didn’t expect me to spend 4 hours gathering information, making calculations, and writing this all up. It is a lot of groundwork that can hopefully help iwild see why it doesn’t make sense, or seem at all fair, to me. 

I would love to know if this sounds like a genuine mistake by iwild or if you can see where I might have misunderstood.

Snowberry 

Thank you very much, Snowberry, for providing all the necessary information. I will now transfer your complaint to my colleague Kubo (jakub.m@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.

Thanks,

I think the issue has evolved more-so into iwild not providing me with a complete bet history. I'm unable to view all of my bets, which would include the timeframe where my bonus balance transferred to real balance. I've emailed their support and included screenshots showing the incomplete history... despite my multiple requests, they have told me they cannot send me the history, and continue to claim I can view it on my account.

The reason I really need to see this is because iwild is now claiming that I was never paid out for the welcome bonus match %, only the free spins.

As a first time casino user, it was obviously silly to use my free spins immediately. However, iwild has not been clear on how those bonuses would be 'stacked' in the balance... or which would be used up first.

A live chat agent told me that the most recent would be at the bottom of the balance, so the bonus that is there the longest gets used first. They claimed that I used my welcome bonus match % of $75 completely as my bonus balance did dip below this before having bigger wins and clearing the bonuses.

So the issue is that this agent is telling me I was never 'paid'/cleared my casino welcome bonus of a max 5x initial deposit = $150. Only that I was cleared for the 150 freerounds.

But I have already attached the screenshots where a different live agent confirmed the clearing of both bonuses for me at that time.

But I can't confirm this unless I can access that bet history which would show my first real balance at $300. There is maybe a 5% chance that I did only get paid $150 for the freespins and then won >$100 on my real balance in that moment, and that the original chat agent was wrong.

But I can't check this because they won't share the history with me...

So if I did get paid out for both balances, and I withdrew the freerounds limited 150, then won more on my unlimited match bonus while that 150 was pending outside my balance.... are those winnings not valid, contrary to what was suggested by the original chat agent?

I did make the mistake of making bets about a day later when the freerounds 150 was canceled and returned to my real balance.

But now I've been told that the $ that's been in a balance longest, is played upon first... so in that case I would not have used any of the 150 freerounds at 'the bottom' of my real balance, since it entered the balance most recently from the denied transaction.

If it was played upon at that time, with the freerounds 150 at the top, I would think it should have just cut my total down from 750 back to around 600.

It just seems that the more I think about and calculate this the more it doesn't make sense on iwild's part.

I think they have my account flagged, so that whenever I speak to a live agent they are aware of my situation/complaint...

Mainly I need to know the full bet history. I took a 15 minute screen recording scrolling through all of it to show that there is missing data, and I have screenshots as well that are clear to see the problem.

In their T&C, under 18. IT Failure, they state "If there are problems with the software or hardware, which we use for providing the Services, we will take all reasonable measures to remedy the problem as soon as reasonably practicable. If the technical issue causes the interruption of the game process (in the case, when you lost your progress and the game cannot be restarted from exactly the same position), we will treat each case individually and in a fair manner (including possibility of reinstating the balance on users account, recovering of the last bet or game, etc.)."

I believe the missing bets history to be a sort of failure with the website (and I can't find anywhere else in the T&C it could be referenced), and I don't believe it is fair not to make available this data to me.

Dear Snowberry,

I'm Kubo, and I will be taking care of your complaint from now on. If there have been any new updates regarding this case since the last information provided, please let me know.

I would like to invite the iWild Casino's representatives to join this discussion and provide any available information to help resolve this issue.

Dear iWild Casino,

Could you please provide a detailed explanation of this case, including the reasons for the initial denial of the player’s withdrawal request and the subsequent deduction from the player’s balance?

Thank you in advance for your response!

Best Regards,

Kubo

Dear Snowberry and Kubo,

We will check this information on this situation and as soon as we receive a decision we will immediately provide you with an answer and solution. Please wait and thank you for your patience.

Best regards,

iwildcasino representative.

Dear Kubo and Snowberry,

After detailed consideration, our team has decided to change the decision.

At this moment, the funds have been returned to the player's account.

We thank the Casino Guru team for their attentive approach, your work, and your contribution to improving the process.

Best regards,

iwildcasino representative.

Dear iWild Casino,

Thank you for your message and for reconsidering your decision in the spirit of fairness and a pro-player approach.

Dear Snowberry,

Could you kindly confirm whether the casino has returned the funds in question to your account and if you were able to successfully withdraw them?

Thank you for your response.

Hi,

Thank you Casino Guru and Iwild Casino. The funds ($750) are now available for withdraw. I need to wait until ~Jan 5 to receive a bank statement for December that includes my address in order to verify my account for withdraw. My chequing account statement preferences needed to be changed through my bank to meet iwild’s requirements. If casino guru can reply to reset the timer I will confirm at that point.

thanks again!

Dear Snowberry,

I'm glad to hear that your funds have been returned to your account. Since the casino has reconsidered its decision and credited the funds in question back to your balance, I trust that, upon the successful completion of your verification, you will be able to withdraw this amount without any issues.

To allow sufficient time, I will now extend the timer by an additional 7 days. Please keep me updated on any developments, including when you submit your bank statement and, ultimately, when you successfully withdraw your funds.

Looking forward to your confirmation.