Prive Casino - Player's account registration leads to significant losses.

I am from the UK and have a strong history of problem gambling. I have taken measure to protect myself in the form of Gamstop, credit card and debit card gambling blocks, I have had councelling and a psychologist help me through these steps. It has been going well, until 26/10/2024 and in a vulnerable moment I signed up to Prive Casino.

The issue at hand is that I should not have been able to register from the UK in the first place as UK players are not allowed. I did not use any form of VPN to bypass restrictions and believe they have the responsibility to prevent UK residents from registering based on geographical locations and IP addresses, and I trust they well aware of this. My ID was fully verified on Oct 29th 2024. Even though their terms and condition state:

Legal Requirements:

3.1.2. You are not allowed to register on the Website and use our services if you are a resident of, or accessing the Website from, USA, Netherlands, France, United Kingdom, Australia, Cyprus, Spain, Austria, Comoros, Germany, Dutch West Indies (Aruba, Bonaire, Saba, Statia, St Martin and Curacao), all FATF Blacklisted countries (such as Iran, North Korea etc.) and sanctioned countries, any other jurisdiction that the Central Government of Curaçao.

I was able to deposit over 25,000 Euros in a matter of days, created extreme financial problems for myself, putting my personal and business accounts in overdrawn, and my credit cards nearly maxed out. The transactions were disguised as 'books' or 'courier services' etc so were miscoded and not stopped by my gambling blocks.

No checks were my on my location or my funding. Which I could not afford. I have increased a personal loan to try and help but still financially at a problematic place.

Depositing €20,000 within such a short time frame is a valid reason to request proof of income or source of wealth, which they not do.

I have asked the casino to consider refunding the deposits based on breaking their own terms and conditions or even a gesture of goodwill but to no avail.

I have suggested sending a medical certificate/paper to prove my gambling disorder and opt for a reasonable refund of my net deposits.

I feel it is unfair as a UK citizen to be allowed to sign up to a casino, be verified and allowed to lose this amount of money when mental health issues have taken a dive and in a vulnerable moment lost money and chased those losses. ESPECIALLY when their casino DOES NOT accept UK Players they should not have verified me, they should not even have allowed my geo-location to join up, and they should have certainly check my proof of income or funds.

The casino made me a VIP and stated if I deposit more they would reward me with more bonuses which I did because I was desperate to win money back.

I am at a very low point and feel life almost isn't worth it I am asking please for some help in this situation.

Regards

Dear Materialgirl84,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint I'm truly sorry to hear about your issue with Prive Casino.

Please note the casino appears not to be licensed, therefore your gamstop registration might not be effective.

I'd like to inform you that we accept the situation when the casino allows players from restricted countries to open an account as long as they don't use this as an opportunity to later cancel the player's legitimate winnings. 

In other words, if the casino allows players from restricted countries to deposit and play, they should pay out their winnings as well. Therefore, I would like to emphasize, that we investigate further and help only those players, whose funds (or winnings) have been confiscated due to being from a restricted country. 

Please allow me to ask you a few questions so I better understand the situation.

• When did you inform the casino about your gambling problems?
• Has the casino blocked your account as a result?
• Could you please advise how much currently is your withdrawable balance? 
• Could you please share the response you received from the casino regarding your request? My email is tomas@casino.guru

Thank you very much in advance for your reply.

Best regards,

Tomas

Hello I have sent the reply