Stake Casino - Player’s attempt to self-exclude from the casino has been overlooked.

I have a serious problem with gambling, and I am excluded from all gaming within Denmark since August 2020. As I recently again fell back into gaming I found that I was able to register on stake.com and deposit and play without any restrictions.

I requested the 29th of July to have my account Closed, see email below. As the reason for closing the account specifically stated gambling problem it should immediately have been reacted upon, instead of suggesting reading about how to do a self exclusion routine including cool-down for 24 hours , which was the response I got from support the same day. (see screenshot)

Due to this I managed to deposit the amount of $189.25 after the request to be closed.

I then yesterday (5th of August) initiated a self exclusion myself as they failed to protect me and close it. I contacted the support for aknowledgement of this problem and asking for a refund, but they do not recognise themselves have failed in protecting me as a player witihin responsible gaming terms. Instead they suggest it was my own fault, as I "should have insisted on having the account closed"

I request the following transactions to be returned.

PM 8/3/2021$39.60

PM 8/3/2021$37.34

PM 8/3/2021$38.61

PM 8/3/2021$38.61

PM 8/3/2021$35.09

Thank you for helping me.

Dear ChrisG,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your problem. Before we’ll contact the casino and ask for their standpoint, could you please forward the original emails showing that you have sent request for a self-exclusion? My email address is petronela.k@casino.guru. Did you specify in that request for how long you wish your account to be suspended and the reason why?

I have checked the Responsible Gambling section on the website, and this is what I found

https://stake.com/policies/self-exclusion:

„Self-Exclusion Policy

If you feel you are no longer able to control your gambling or gamble safely, we offer you the option to self-exclude from betting with us. To begin the cooling off period as outlined below, please visit your account preferences."

„To self-exclude means to stop betting or gambling for a set time. Self-exclusion can be temporary or permanent.

By requesting one of our self-exclusion time periods on offer you agree to the following terms and conditions, which will be effective from the minute you receive a confirmation email of your chosen self-exclusion, this email will be sent to the email address used to register your account only and will display the date of self-exclusion completion.

Requests made via our Chat function will not be actioned. However, a customer support agent will direct you to our customer support email service."

I have created an account to verify if the possibility to set the self-exclusion inside the account is possible and I can confirm that once a player has a verified account, they can opt for a self-exclusion directly inside the account.

Could you please advise if you have tried this option?

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

Dear Petronela, thanks for looking into this. I have forwarded the original email.

The problem is not that they have a section for self exclusion. It is that they was asked to close my account due to my gambling problem, and I was referred to this process.

If you verify your account you can see how complicated it is. I quote from their "how to" section.

You can initiate Self Exclusion via the form under Settings > Preferences.

The process can be completed in two steps. First, you must initiate the 24 hour cool-down period, which can be confirmed via email once Self Exclusion is requested.

Once your cool-down period is concluded, you will be emailed once more to set a duration period for your self exclusion. You have 24 hours to set your desired exclusion period using the link in the email. If you fail to do so, you will be required to start the process again.

Can you see how this conflicts with how an addict want to have the account closed, and that you have to do 2-3 steps over 24 hours. You, as an addict, should not have the option to "cool down" and then be able to play as normal. Hope you understand the problem with this.

I did then do this self exclusion routine and self excluded myself 2 days ago. But that was after have played (the $189) without thinking about the consequences, and so Stake.com failed to protect me (from myself), when asked to do so.

Hi Petronela,

That is the problem. I did not ask for a cool down period (like you did above) , I asked for my account to be closed due to gambling problem - do you understand what I mean?

As the account was not closed, I could log back in after 24 hours and deposit and play without any limits. That is not being a responsible casino.

Regarding the email you are reading it wrong. That is the casino support replying to my original email. I emailed it to support@stake.com if you read the original email further down.

Let le know if you need more clarification and sorry if I was unclear 🙂

I understand that you have sent an email to casino (there is no visible email address where the email has been sent) on the 29th of July requesting your account closure due to a gambling problem. The same day you have been advised how to make it inside your account.

Please understand that not every casino department can close your account. I absolutely understand your point of view and struggle associated with admitting your gambling problem however, if you expect the casino to follow the rules and apply a self-exclusion, you should follow theirs too. We always try to help players, but we are able to do so only if they have followed the casino's instructions first. Sadly, this is not the case. 

Please let me know if there is any additional information that I have overlooked otherwise, I will be forced to reject your complaint. I really wish I were of more help. Thank you.

Dear Petronela,

let's go through the facts again, as I think you misunderstand me, or I have not been clear.

1. I asked the 29th of July to have my account closed (not asking for self exclusion) due to a gambling problem. (original email forwarded without their reply)
2. I was advised to a link on "how to close..." .
3. I DID follow the instructions do the activate the self-exclusion on the 29th. (stake.com can verify that)
4. I DID NOT receive an activate exclusion email after the cool-down period of 24 hours (that they insist of having.)
5. After a few days I logged in and saw that I could play and deposited (i.e. addiction)
6. I then contacted Stake again as per my original post.
7. The response I got was "You should've insisted that you want manual Self-Exclusion due to gambling addiction, and in that case, we would be able to do it manually. "
8. No where it states that if you want your account permanently closed due to gambling problem, you have to insist of having it closed.
9. I then went back into the self-exclusion part in the Settings menu and was able to self-exclude permanently.

Note , it seems like other have the problem that they don't receive the automatic self exclusion email after 24 hours https://forum.stake.com/topic/44766-i-never-receive-the-auto-exclusion-mail/

In whatever way the casino decides to implement responsible gaming , this have obviously failed for stake.com.

Thank you very much, ChrisG, for providing all the necessary information. I will now transfer your complaint to my colleague Jozef who will be at your assistance. I wish you best of luck and hope to see your problem being resolved to your satisfaction in the near future.

Hello Chris.

I absolutely appreciate that you shared your experiences with the Casino Guru team. We will now try to get in touch with the casino

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’.

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Dear Stake.com ,

Thank you for your reply and your view on what happened.

As you know, I requested to have my account closed due to gambling problem the 29th of July.

I did not request a self-exclusion , I wanted my account to be closed.

Let's just make that clear , I did not request a 24 hour ban with the choice of setting a period / cancel the "self-exclusion".

However, as I did want to follow your so called "self-exclusion procedure" I followed the instructions from the 29th. When looking at your email log (or "picture of sent emails") you have provided, I did not (after 24 hours) receive an email "set your self-exclusion period". (It makes sense it says 0 on "opens" and "clicks"). I am searching on the email server and it's just not there.

It should be considered as not responsible of stake.com , to ignore a request of having my account closed when asked to do so.

I have not come across ANY other casino, that after a request of having an account closed due to gambling problems , then points to a 24 hour ban , and that the player itself should take more actions after that period of time.

Dear Stake Casino team.

Thank you very much for your cooperation in this case. Unfortunately, we consider your protection for self-excluded players (because of the gambling problem) as insufficient. Of course, if Chris would request a deposit refund without informing you about the gambling problem, he would not be obligated to receive anything because of the T&C you have mentioned. However, you were clearly informed you about his addiction, so his account should have been closed without chance to reopen.

Please, could you reevaluate your position, or is this your final decision?

I am not surprised that Stake.com choose not to reply. I am though a bit surprised about their "good reputation" rating on casino.guru...

Thanks for your effort to help, Jozef

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’.

Since we haven’t received a further response from the casino regarding the issue, we consider their decision is final, and we are forced to close the complaint as ‘unresolved’.

The casino can reopen this complaint anytime.

Dear ChrisG.

I am very sorry about the outcome of this situation. Another option is to file an official complaint at licensing authority of the casino. I will gladly help you with it.

Please, be aware that this complaint will affect their reputation on our website. Let me know if you have any questions or require further assistance. 

Best regards, Jozef

jozef.k@casino.guru

We’ve reopened this complaint as per the casino's request. We would like to give this case one more chance to get resolved and help both involved parties to reach to a satisfactory conclusion.

Please close this complaint and mark it as solved. Thanks for your assistance

Thank you Jozef for reopening the complaint and thank you Chris for asking to close the complaint as solved.

What we wanted to share is that Chris reached out to us once again and we did our best to explain everything. He realized that we have certain procedures that we must follow.

We are sorry that you went through that and we hope that you'll deal with your gambling addiction Chris.

We will also be looking to improve our policies in case the players are confused.

Hello there,

Chris has confirmed the casino statement and just informed us (through email communication) that his issue was resolved. I am now closing the case.

Best regards, Jozef