Stake Casino - Player has succeeded in opening an account from a restricted country.

Dear Mr / Mrs

I am writing to file a complaint against Stake Casino (Stake.com).

The reasons for my complaint are that Stake's Customer Due Diligence (CDD), Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) processes are insufficient and violate licensing requirements and curacao law, specifically the NOIS (Attached) and regulations specified by the Curaçao Gaming Control Board. With the insufficient processes in place.

I was able to create an account from a banned jurisdiction (Italy)- My account is fully verified KYC using my Canadian documents (I am from Toronto, Ontario). In October 2022, stake banned players from Ontario due to the new Canadian laws, however, stake casino continued to allow me to access my account from ITALY WITHOUT a VPN because they knew that I am a degenerate whale and they would just take my money day after day, week after week and month after month.

I was able to deposit a significant amount of money over the course of just under 3 years. In total, my deposits would have to be tens of millions.

my overall loss on stake casino is just over $2,000,000 USD.

my losses since Ontario customers were banned in October 2022 are roughly $400,000 USD.

stake casino representatives and management have all been racist and extremely rude to be for the past two years but they have left my account active because they know that I will continue to lose money and lots of money.

I also have a video where the owner Eddie Craven and a support member Dusan both defamed me in front of thousands of customers watching the live stream back in 2022. I will also be pursuing legal action for this.

4.5 Stake will not accept registration from individuals:

a) Under 18 years old or under the legal age of majority or gambling in their jurisdiction;

b) Residing in jurisdictions from where it is illegal or gambling is not permitted. Stake is not able to verify the legality of the Service in each jurisdiction and it is the User's responsibility to ensure that their use of the Service is lawful;

JURISDICTIONS

14.3 Persons located in or reside in Afghanistan, Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, Curaçao, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania, Netherlands, North Korea, Ontario, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, South Sudan, Spain, Sudan, Syria, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Zimbabwe (the "Prohibited Jurisdictions") are not permitted make use of the Service. For the avoidance of doubt, the foregoing restrictions on engaging in real-money play from Prohibited Jurisdictions applies equally to residents and citizens of other nations while located in a Prohibited Jurisdiction. Any attempt to circumvent the restrictions on play by any persons located in a Prohibited Jurisdiction or Restricted Jurisdiction, is a breach of this Agreement. An attempt at circumvention includes, but is not limited to, manipulating the information used by Stake to identify your location and providing Stake with false or misleading information regarding your location or place of residence.

PROPOSED RESOLUTION:

I am looking to work out a refund of my net losses, thus leaving myself in the same position I have been in before I signed up with stake.com. due to the fact that stake.com has knowingly allowed a customer to play from a banned jurisdiction (Italy) and continued to let me play after October 2022 when Ontario customers were banned completely. even though my ID was verified as a Canadian from Ontario) they have broken many laws and also went against their license. I will also be reaching out to a lawyer and curaçao gaming.

I have attached a few photos of my total wager amounts and net losses in crypto.

I will also be contacting stake casino to get history or my sessions to prove that I was playing and accessing the site from Italy (I have been living in Italy since I opened my stake account)

I will provide more information as needed. Let’s start with this.

Thank you!

Dear GoLeafsGo89,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your problem.

Could you please confirm that you haven’t used a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to alter your location when opening the account? Your confirmation is essential for this case and I’m not asking this to get you in trouble, I’m just trying to understand how the casino handles its own rules.

Could you please advise where do you live since you provided Canadian documents to verify your account? Are there any funds being held by the casino or does the disputed amount correspond purely to your lost funds? 

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,

Petronela

Good morning Petronela,

My account was created in June 2020 without any use of a VPN.

I immediately completed my KYC using my Canadian documents from Toronto Ontario.

I currently live in Italy and stake is very well aware of that as they see my log ins primarily from Italy. At times, I use a VPN from Montreal Canada to access my account depending on if my wifi is working or not.

The reality of the situation here is very simple: stake knows I am a degenerate whale and they have kept my account opened so that I continue to feed them all of my money.

I can confirm I am still currently in Italy and able to access my account and play with no issues.

Also, in October 2022, stake was BANNED from allowing players from ONTARIO to play on their website, once again, my documents used for KYC were from Toronto, Ontario and they allowed me to continue to feed money to their website.

lastly, Italy is 100% a restricted jurisdiction.

I have attached my overall stats below. I have also attached proof that I am currently logged into my stake account while in Italy using an Italian IP with NO VPN.

I have also contacted stake support to ask them for proof of all my log in sessions and they refuse to give me them.

Stake is not withholding any funds from me but the last straw is when they just scammed me for a $4000.00 sports bet when their sports provider offered wrong score and wrong odds and they refused to refund me.

You can view that complaint below

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5453029.0

can you please make the photo with the IP address private. Thanks!

I wanted to add that up to October 2022, players from Ontario WERE allowed to play on stake casino. However, I was living in Italy and using both Italian IP addresses and Canadian IP addresses with NordVPN.

I can also confirm that the owner of the site Eddie C***** advised players on a LIVE STREAM that using a VPN was ok- I am sure I can find that video recording if needed.

I have many friends who used stake casino from Ontario and once the new law kicked in on October 2022, they were no longer able to access stake casino especially if they had completed KYC with Ontario documents.

I would like to reiterate that the reason stake allowed me to continue to use their website was because I am a degenerate whale to them who never wins and my money would always end up in their pockets.

Although I should have been restricted from accessing stake from the first day, they continued to allow me to play even after they KNEW for a FACT I was playing from Italy.

At the very least, they should have not allowed me to deposit and play AFTER October 2022 when the new Ontario law was put in place.

from October 2022 to May 2023 I would say my net losses are about $400,000-$500,000 USD. However, stake refuses to give me this information.

there were also times I had lost access to my account due to losing access to my 2fa and or email and stake requires a very thorough questionare and procedure to regain access- one of their steps is to send my physical IP address and also an identity document.

My ip address was in Italy and my document was my Ontario drivers license. This is just proof they don’t take laws seriously or their licensing seriously and that’s a huge problem.

Here is some information you may find useful😅

this is literally seconds ago.

Dear GoLeafsGo89,

Thank you for the update. However, 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. Simply said – 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 let me know if there is any additional information that I have overlooked, but I’m afraid I will be forced to reject your complaint as unjustified. I wish I could be of more help. Thank you in advance for your reply and understanding.

Dear GoLeafsGo89,

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 apologize for not being able to provide more assistance in resolving this case. Please feel free to reach out to us if you encounter any problems with other casinos in the future. However, due to the reasons mentioned above, I must reject this complaint. Thank you for your understanding.