Royal Fortune Casino - Player’s refund request is delayed and ignored.

Royal Fortune agreed to refund me 50% of deposits on 24th May 24 - this was agreed in writing (email) by Gabriel Monsero in Finance to be processed at the beginning of June. The refunds never arrived and I tried to make contact them frequently throughout June and July but they did not respond - they literally ignore all communication.

The refunds were to be made on the basis I had raised with Royal Fortune that they have no UK licence so should geoblock UK, their Curacao licence is fake, games may be pirated and all transactions were miscoded/transaction laundered to various retailers/business service companies.

I had already posted a negative review of this casino on Casinoguru. On 17/09/24 Casinoguru Community rep contacted me to confirm Royal Fortune had approached them and asked for my negative review to be removed. Royal Fortune at this point were accusing me of fraud and having received all funds via chargebacks which was not the case at all. Completely unacceptable to accuse me of fraud with the number of licencing and financial breaches made by this casino. Bank evidence provided to Gabriel and Royal Fortune to confirm funds not received. Casinoguru were happy with evidence I provided and left review in place. Now raising as a complaint as refunds still not received despite an email being a written contract in law and Gabriel is still not corresponding with me. The whole issue has caused me immense distress and clearly Royal Fortune are not a reputable nor professional business if they behave in this manner. I can provide copies of all emails with Royal Fortune as well as the ones that were copied into Casinoguru community and plenty of banking evidence to show no chargebacks were received into my account for these deposits.

Dear Lottie48,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your negative experience with Royal Fortune Casino.

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

• Could you present a timeline of key events?
• When did you join the casino? When were you making deposits?
• When did you request the refund and when was it promised to you?

I hope we will be able to help you to resolve this issue as soon as possible. Thank you very much in advance for your reply.

Best regards,

Tomas

Hi Tomas

Account was created and deposits made in April and deposits made then.

Refund request approved on 24th May by Gabriel Monsero at Royal Fortune. This was to be 50% of the deposits and to be processed at the beginning of June.

At this point I also flagged to Gabriel that my card data had been breached as a number of fraudulent transactions from an unknown party were attempted on my bank account as card purchases. Gabriel did not comment on this and certainly did not care.

I have email evidence of all of the above as well as evidence that come the 3rd June no refunds were in my bank account. I was contacting Royal Fortune almost daily from 3rd June to 13th September so over 3 months and not once did they respond to be which is unbelievable - no reputable business would behave like this.

On 16th September Gabriel had the sheer audacity to call me a liar and said I had received the funds back via chargebacks. This was utterly untrue. The only funds I have ever had back total £435.61 which had been sent to a company named 22 Management who accepted they were miscoded and responsibly refunded me. Confirmed by bank Fraud Dept and by emails of my bank statements I have sent to Gabriel and which were copied to Casinoguru Community that I have only ever received £435.61. I contacted 22 Management at the beginning of July and they refunded me towards the end of July. I reasonably waited for the whole of June with no promised refunds arriving from Royal Fortune and no responses to my emails before starting my own recovery action as this was not acceptable.

I have deposited over £4,000 in this scam casino so if 50% of my deposits are to be refunded I am still owed over £1,500 by Royal Fortune.

As expected they are still ignoring my messages even though I have persevered in trying to resolve the matter amicably. Limited response I have received is aggressive, accusing me of being a scammer etc etc even though I have sent them a lot of evidence to confirm otherwise. Pretty offensive really considering they are breaching gambling and financial regulations to prey on vulnerable UK players and deliberately miscoding the transactions to override bank gambling blocks.

I am now left in the position where I will need to take legal action if this is not resolved as a lawyer has clearly advised an email is considered as a written contract in law. I don’t want to do this, the whole matter has caused me considerable and unnecessary stress over the past few months and I think the attitude of Royal Fortune towards me speaks volumes about the manner in which this business is operating and they would have very limited if any defence if it progresses to court particularly with various recent online articles regarding offshore illegal casinos aggressively targeting Gamstop registered vulnerable UK players including a report by Betting and Gaming Council just last week.

Please let me know if you require additional information.

To be honest it very much feels like Gabriel is digging his heels in out of some misguided principle that he is 100% right in his assumptions despite the clear evidence (bank statements, articles on miscoding and unlicenced casinos operating in UK, key dates etc) I have sent him and have been seen by Radka of Casinoguru Community.

I had previously reviewed Royal Fortune on Casinoguru and Gabriel asked for this review to be removed last week. Thankfully on seeing the facts Casinoguru chose the course of action that my negative review can remain on your website as it is valid. I am happy to ask for it to be deleted if this matter is properly settled and I have clearly communicated this to Gabriel.

It is frustrating he will not back down, accept Royal Fortune are at least 50% responsible for this matter (hence his offer to refund 50% of my deposits) and is now forcing actions such as raising a public complaint with Casinoguru and the possibility of legal proceedings. It is a frustrating waste of time, energy and money for all parties to take this route.

As in all disputes especially when there a written agreement in place the sensible course of action is to resolve amicably and with professional integrity without the need for aggression and animosity.

I just hope this matter can be resolved in this manner and we can all move on after months of stress.

Could you please share your communication with the casino, in which the casino agreed to refund 50% of your overall deposits?

Please send it to my email at tomas@casino.guru

Will do

Tomas I have sent you 3 emails from Gabriel at Royal Fortune which are evidence they agreed to refund 50% of deposits

Thank you very much, Lottie48, for providing the necessary information. I will now transfer your complaint to my colleague Jozef (jozef.k@casino.guru)  who will be at your service. I wish you the best of luck and hope the problem will be resolved to your satisfaction in the near future.  

Just to confirm Gabriel is still ignoring emails and not responding to me. He is also try to get my review of Royal Fortune taken down from Trustpilot as apparently defamatory. Trustpilot have agreed that most of the contact is factual and relevant and I have just removed a couple of lines at the end and the review has remained in place along with a number of negative reviews from other players. One can only hope that these casinos soon get blocked in the UK as they take zero accountability for there lack of licence and miscoding activities and still advertise profusely and illegally on UK websites.

Still no response from Gabriel - just totally ignorant and unprofessional

Dear Lottie48,

I truly appreciate you sharing your experiences with the Casino Guru team. We will now proceed to reach out to the casino.

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.

HI,

We said will refund 50% if she did not do chargebacks and not disturb any of your providers She did exactly what we asked not to do. She did chargebacks on all deposits and communicate all providers. She has done the same in many casinos.

She goes deposit, if she wins everything is good. if she looses she ask refund all deposits without a reason and blackmail the casinos, She is professional fraudster.

Dear Lottie48,

can you please confirm doing chargebacks?

Dear Lottie48,

Apologies for asking again; I just needed to be certain, as this statement sometimes changes during the course of a complaint. I will now evaluate all the possibilities and get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.

Hi Josef - that is fine. Thanks.

In community department she admitted and i also provided evidence

I did not admit and Casinoguru have copies of all the emails which they were included in so this is ridiculous accusation.

Dear Lottie48,

I can confirm that I’ve received some compelling evidence from the casino team. It appears their payment provider informed them about chargebacks linked to your account, and based on the messages I’ve seen, there were indications that you at least planned to initiate chargebacks. While I trust you, I need strong proof to clear any doubts about your involvement in these chargebacks.

Would it be possible for you to record a video showing your online banking, including your transaction history from the date of your deposit up until today? You can forward it to my email address jozef.k@casino.guru.

Yes of course and it will clearly prove that only refunds received were from 22 Management and these were not chargebacks via the bank but resulted from me contacted this merchant direct.

Josef - I have sent a detailed summary by email to Community@Casinoguru and copied in Gabriel at Royal Fortune so he is kept fully in the loop. Videos have been done and I am just reducing the size and will email separately asap. All can be backed up by both banks if required that I made no chargeback claims or received any chargeback funds throughout May/June 2024. It just did not happen so hopefully this misunderstanding can now be amicably resolved.

Videos have been compressed and sent. 5 videos all in seperate emails as Casinoguru rejected them all on one email due to overall attachments size. At both my bank credits to the account show in green with a + sign before the figure and you will clearly note this only applies to the 22 Management transactions

Jozef videos and timelines transaction details were sent to Casinoguru Community email. I now have your direct email and have forwarded accordingly. Thanks.

Dear Lottie48,&

Thank you for providing all the evidence. I will review it and get back to you shortly.

Dear Lottie48,

I’m sorry, but the videos you provided don’t meet the necessary quality standards; they don't clearly show the information I requested. To proceed, I would need a complete, high-quality video of your transaction history, covering the period from your deposit date to today.

I can confirm that the casino has provided me with strong evidence indicating that you initiated these chargebacks. The payment provider has clearly confirmed this, and the timing of their statement strongly supports the casino’s position. It would require very strong evidence. Can you by any chance forward me something better?

I did not initiate any chargebacks after 23rd May until July. If payment provider is giving evidence surely they can provide evidence that I have received zero apart from the transactions refunded by 22 Management in July. Surely a payment provider knows what has been refunded and can bring it up on their system incredibly quickly and I can then send that I formatin to my bank?Aside from this when chargebacks are referred to theses would always involve a bank. Both banks can confirm no chargebacks raised at all (Starling) chargebacks raised against Eduntage in July but not processed (Eduntage). Banks are deeply concerned about this matter and the fact I am providing this evidence and still no resolution. It is incredibly difficult on my phone or laptop to send high quality videos as they get blocked by Casinoguru server if over 5MB. I have done them again with me speaking about the transactions so please ensure audio is on. I have also sent bank transactions records again. If this is still not clear enough then all I can suggest is a Teams/Zoom call during which I bring account details up on screen?

Jozef - I have now been able to provide you a video showing all transactions on Natwest account from 18th April to today. There are too many transactions on my Starling account to send in one video so I have obtained a certified bank statement showing all transactions for the same period. An official bank document which is certified as accurate and tamper proof by the bank. Thanks.

I have also just emailed Royal Fortune again and copied you in as if they believe other refunds (aside from the 22 Management transactions) have been processed then they definitely have not come to me so on this basis they need to urgently provide ARNs/payment processor records as this is potentially a fraudulent criminal matter which needs to be reported asap.

Dear Lottie48,

Thank you for providing all the information. I am very sorry about this, but it is not standard procedure. Your case would normally be rejected, as we do not focus on such cases. If you legitimately lost in such a casino, it is a matter for your local authorities. However, since the casino offered you a refund of 50%, we wanted to at least investigate.

I would like to focus on a few keywords from one of your emails. I kindly ask you to respond solely to points A and B below.

A) You mention that "NatWest Bank chargebacks were raised in July" and "No other chargebacks [were] raised with NatWest or Starling banks." Can you confirm that you raised any chargebacks?

B) "Only refunds ever received for transactions to Royal Fortune were from 22 Management." Were these refunds chargebacks, or is there another explanation behind these refunds?

Thank you for your response.

Yes I raised the chargeback with Natwest against Eduntage in July as the refunds were not sent during June as promised by Royal Fortune. This chargeback did not go through as Natwest asked me to report Eduntage to Action Fraud UK as they are aware Eduntage are involved in fraudulent activity. No other chargebacks were raised by me with either of my banks.

22 Management were contacted directly by me around 15th July and refunded the transactions laundered to them on 25th July. This was not a bank chargeback.

As you will see from all the banking evidence provided no other refunds were received - I am clearly not lying. As per agreement from Royal Fortune to refund 50% of my deposits I am still owed £2,242 by them. I have been battling for months with them and sending them evidence but they either refuse to respond or treat me rudely. It is incredibly frustrating and stressful.

I appreciate you investigating as I do not understand why Royal Fortune is doing this to me. If they are a professional business they should honour their agreement. This will obviously make them look reputable via this Casinoguru complaint and I would also remove my negative Trustpilot review. Willing to put this in a signed disclaimer which will also confirm no further recovery action or reports will occur once the £2422 is received - I have sent a draft copy of this disclaimer to Royal Fortune as endorsed by a lawyer.

Dear Lottie48,

We will discuss your case internally with our entire team, evaluate all the information, and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you very much for your patience and for the information provided.

Dear Lottie48,

After thorough internal discussions and careful evaluation of your case, we have reached a final decision. I am very sorry about the outcome, but we are not in a position to ask the casino to issue a refund. As I mentioned during our prior communications, your case would have usually been declined initially. Since you legitimately lost your funds at this casino, there is no justification for refunding your losses.

The fact that the casino operates without a UK license does not automatically entitle you to a refund. If you had won, they would have been obliged to honor your winnings, at least from our perspective, as they permitted you to play on their platform. What matters to us is that the casino allowed you to play, regardless of their licensing status. Operating without a local license is a matter between the casino and the relevant regulatory authorities.

Additionally, as a UK player, it is relatively straightforward to check whether a casino holds a local license. Therefore, you also bear some responsibility for choosing to play on an unlicensed platform. The only reason we did not decline your complaint outright was due to the casino’s initial promise of a refund. We aimed to investigate further when they backed from this offer.

Based on the casino’s statements and evidence, it appears that you initiated chargebacks. Your own evidence suggests that these chargebacks were not processed, but what is most critical here is that you confirmed attempting to make them. Please note that even the attempt to initiate a chargeback in the context of gambling is generally regarded as fraudulent behavior. Therefore, I believe the casino was within its rights to withdraw their goodwill offer, regardless of whether the chargeback was successfully processed or not.

Given all of the above, I regret to inform you that I must close this case.

Thank you for your understanding.

Best regards, Jozef