MadSlots Casino - Player's winnings were confiscated, account was closed.

TIMELINE OF COMMUNICATION

26 October 23. Started play at MadSlots Casino deposited £200 

28 October 23 Requested a withdrawal of £250 

28 October 23 Request from Casino for mobile bills for both numbers registered on my account

30 October 23 Request from casino for Picture I.D for my daughter and an itemised bill for no 1128

31 October 23 Request for my picture I.D : I explained that my passport had expired in 2014 and my drivers licence expired in Jan 2023 but I could provide a number of documents e.g Letters from HMRC , Gov.uk and local authorities.

7 November 23 informed by email account closed.

7 November 23 Further email informing me of concerns regarding comments made in Live Chat. Reiterating closure of account but stated would not affect any pending withdrawals.

They state they tried to contact me regarding said concerns but were unable to.

20 November 23 casino informed me that an attempt was made to process withdrawal to debit card registered on account ( this card had expired and had been superseded by my new one) but had been rejected by my bank. However , if I provided my bank details and statement they could arrange for a bank transfer.

23 November 23 I provided details and bank statement.

26 November 23 Received email stating unable to identify IBAN no or BIC/SWIFT details so unable to process.

28 November 23 Responded with details provided by my bank in order to facilitate an international bank payment. 

29 November 23 Lodged a formal complaint to the casino of the handling of my withdrawal, all the unnecessary delays , and of my intentions to inform the Gambling Commission.

5 December 23 Informed by casino that "after careful review it has been decided to permanently suspend your account and void all winnings".

In their final letter they did not offer A.D.R or any other medium.

Do I have any recourse ?

Hello clairek100,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint and I'm really sorry to hear about your issue with MadSlots Casino. Please allow me to ask you a few more question before we would move forward.

Could you please advise why did the casino request your daughter's ID? Did you use any details or payment of your daughter? When was the last time you spoke to the casino and what was it about?

Looking forward to your answer.

Regards,

Nick

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

To Nick,

I had tried to include this information when submitting my complaint but some some reason was unable to upload it.

In addition to the timeline of communication I had over 40interactions with live help which, I am told by the Gambling Commission , MadSlots should have kept a record of.

To clarify, I had three methods of deposit registered on my account.

• A debit card

• Mobile phone (on a P.A.Y.G)

• Mobile phone ( on a monthly contract )

I made one deposit of £10 via the P.A.Y.G account. The rest of the deposits (approx £230)were charged via the number on contract. The bill is paid for by my daughter under her contract. She gifted me an iPad and a SIM card with said number

I received the first email on the 28 October requesting copies of said mobile bills. I contacted live help with full transparency and asked if this could be problematic. I was assured that it wouldn’t be a problem.I provided a copy of said bills via the upload document section on the site. These were subsequently rejected. 

Next, came the request for my daughter’s I.D and full itemised phone bills showing said deposits and full postal addresses for both mobile bills. All of which were provided. 

Then came the request for my I.D (see 31st Oct timeline). 

I followed up in live help and during the chat I commented on the fact that I was extremely frustrated with the whole process. The constant requests for more information andunnecessary lengthy delays when responding to myqueries. Furthermore, the whole experience with MadSlots "done nothing to aid one’s mental health".

On the Saturday 4th November in the evening an ambulance pulled up outside and two paramedics knocked on my door. They asked for me by name and said they had had an anonymous call to 999 stating my full name and addressand that I had mental health problems and was "in crisis" and "on the edge". I was embarrassed at first and then I felt really angry because it felt somewhat sinister that someone completely unbeknownst to me had placed a call to emergency services reporting a "mental health crisis". For the record, I have no mental health issues. After demanding more information from the emergency services it transpired that the call was made by MadSlots Casino. This is a gross misuse of all my privacy protections surely ?

When I logged in on the following Monday 6th November the account was locked. So, to answer your question the account was locked sometime between the 2nd Nov – 6thNov. I went through to Live help(again) and asked why my account was locked and was told the relevant department would be in touch.

As you will see from my timeline of communication that was on the 7th Nov I received the email confirming account closure and referring to "comments I made" in live help.They had tried to contact me but was unsuccessful (liars) and therefore had taken the decision to close my account. They stated however, that it would not affect anywithdrawals being processed.

The rest of the information is contained in the Timeline of communication

Kind regards

CKennedy 

Hello clairek100,

Can you please forward the communication between you and the casino to nikolas.b@casino.guru?

Dear clairek100,

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.

To Nick

I'm confused - I’ve sent you all the correspondence by email. You haven’t replied ??

Can you please confirm receipt of the email of 7th January 2024 containing a copy of all the correspondence between me and MadSlots casino.

Regards, Claire

I’m not sure what the hold up is - but I feel this has taken far too long. Do I need to take my complaint elsewhere?

Dear clairek100,

After reviewing all the information you provided, I regret to inform you that there is basically nobody that could resolve this issue. Using any 3rd party detail/bill/information is strictly against every online casino rule.

Please keep in mind that you can always only use your own payments, bills, registration details all under your name otherwise you will be blocked and the balance will be voided.

Is there anything else we could assist you with?

Dear clairek100,

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.

I don’t understand why you requested all the documentation as, at that point you were clearly aware that I had made said deposits through that method.

But help, if you can, explain why/how a casino can confiscate winnings on the basis of the deposits being made through 3rd party but do not repay those deposits back to the 3rd party method. So the bill for the mobile number in question was paid by me (a bill approx £270) in the beginning of December 2023. Probably just a coincidence that it was after the bill was paid that I received the email informing me of the " confiscation of winnings".

Dear clairek100,

We are not the casino and we did not request any documents. You have to use your own funds and payment methods as it is illegal to use someone else's money or identity in casinos. The complaint will be now rejected for the above explained reason.