Stake Casino - Player’s attempts to close their account have been overlooked.

Stake casino has operated in an extremely predatory manner. I had requested self exclusion and they willingly neglected account closure despite raising a issue about problem gambling.

Knowing that i had gambling issues the site let me further deposit for a span of a week. When confronting them again via Live chat, my account was instantly placed on Withdrawal Only mode.

If this action was taken immediately as soon as i had raised concerns and asked to close my account then this would not have occurred.

This is not the only problem I’ve experienced with Stake.

Firstly, there is no KYC procedure conducted, allowing me to deposit in excess of €14,933. How they are able to operate or even hold a license at this point is beyond belief.

Secondly, after repeatedly asked for account closure due to problems. The casino simply referred me to an internal account closure procedure. Which includes a 24 hour cool-off period, after-which a re-confirmation of account closure is required. Anyone thats raises concerns with their gambling should be prevented from further placing bets. However Stake has knowingly exploited me.

After numerous emails, they have no stopped replying to me and responded saying that account closure can only be done through the internal process. However, when asked for a reimbursement for a complete lack of due diligence, my account was immediately placed on withdrawal only mode. Which is strange because this simple action would have prevented myself from further deposits.

In summary, im seeking a reimbursement of €7,856.87. The calculations of deposits and withdrawals have been attached below.

I kindly ask Casino Guru to assist me in this complaint as the casino has knowingly put me at risk and are now not replying to my messages.

Thank You

Dear kazolarzo22,

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

Could you please forward all the emails or screenshots showing that you have sent requests for your account’s closure? My email address is petronela.k@casino.guru. Did you specify in those requests for how long you wish your account to be closed and clearly stated the reason why?

I have checked the general terms and conditions on the website, and this is what I found (here):

„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.

...

9. Conditions and Processes

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.

On receipt of an email request for account closure, the requested account and any linked accounts will be placed on our first stage, 24-hr cooling off period which will disable your account or accounts, allowing no gambling activity. Once this time has passed; while your account or accounts remain closed, a customer support agent will inform you of the 1-week, 1-month, 6- months and permanent self-exclusions available. There will be no variation of these time periods. To proceed with this process, we will require an email response. If we do not receive a response within a further 24 - hrs, your account will be reopened and confirmed by email.

If after reviewing our self-exclusion options you decide you would like to proceed with a permanent self-exclusion, you will be required to set an exclusion period when prompted. On occasion, we might decide to place an account on a short self-exclusion period if we believe it to be needed and or beneficial to the customer. This will be communicated by email; the above terms and conditions will apply.

When you request, or we deem it necessary, to add a self-exclusion, all remaining funds left in your account will be returned to you manually."

Could you please advise if you have set the self-exclusion inside your account as described in the article?

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

Hi,

I have emailed everything over. Just dropping a message due to the time frame to reply. Thanks

Dear Casinoguru,

Following the user Kazolarzo22 complaint, we would like to provide some clarification in regards to the same in order to help your evaluation since we already answered this player complaint in the past.

As a quick overview, the player has opened multiple accounts at www.stake.com and has provided wrong identification information multiple times in order to try to slip between our net of control procedures. This made us block the player accounts due to multiple breaches of our Terms of Service.

a) bbq*****

The user has opened his first account at www.stake.com on 31/03/2021 under the username "bbq*****". On the "bbq*****" account the player has completed the first level of KYC by identifying himself and saying that he was living in Poland.

It happens that during the time the player had his account at www.stake.com it came to admit that he was a player from a restricted area, which made us block his account on 18/10/2021. The block of the player account was justified by the breach of Clauses 5 and 11 of our Terms of Service and due to the fact that the customer provided wrong information on its KYC.

b) kaz***

After having his account blocked, the player decided to open a new account on 04/02/2022 under the username "kaz***". It happens that when the player registered his new account at www.stake.com, he provided, again, wrong information about his identification, providing a different name, date of birth, and identifying himself as living in India.

Due to the "fake" identification information provided by the player, it was not possible for us to detect that the player had already opened an account at www.stake.com and that he was blocked due to a breach of the Terms of Service.

It happens that only on 23/03/2022, we were able to link the player account "kaz***" to the "bbq*****" account, when the player submitted a request to change his identification information and where he asked to change his name and date of birth to the same that he provided on the "bbq*****" account.

Accordingly, the player has tried multiple times to open accounts at www.stake.com and had always provided different KYC information in order to go around our internal controls. All of this constitutes a breach of our Terms of Service clauses 5 and 11, which is why we understand that the same is not entitled to any reimbursement.

Now the player mentions the self-exclusion procedure to try to hide the fact that he breached our Terms of Services, and has provided "fake" information on his KYC procedures. In case you need any additional information on this case please let us know. We can share the evidence of all the above mention facts.

Best regards,

Stake

Firstly, this is false im not sure why a "legitimate" casino such as stake is using such a tactic maybe to cover up its misconduct. But this is my first account with stake.

Secondly, Stake has acknowledged that I’m from a restricted area and has allowed me to deposit. The claims of Circumventing KYC is false, they have not requested a single piece of Identification. Upon looking at Curacao Antillephone N.V (the Curacao License that Stake hold) at least one document of ID is required, further checks include proof of address and proof of funds but not even the bare minimum was requested from stake. Secondly based on Curacao Antillephone N.V’s fairness to players is being breached as in this scenario, i can deposit and lose or if i were to withdraw at any point stake could require the KYC identification and thus denying paying out for withdrawal. Stake must be well aware of this, but simply chose to carry on in order to exploit users such as myself despite failing their regulatory requirements.

With this being said I don’t understand how they can possibly keep the deposits as profits as they have now accepted my deposits from a restricted area outside of their license. All of this would have been avoided if stake simply applied ID verification to all users, which time and time again they are neglecting to do due to their exploitation of users such as myself.

Even with the fact that they have no right to take my deposits, even when I raised concerns about my problem gambling issues they failed to place my account in withdrawal only mode and referred me to the internal self exclusion page which in itself is designed to keep problem gamblers gambling due to its cool off period and resubmission of request to self exclude.

To concluded, despite the numerous damages stake has caused to me, I’m simply asking for a reimbursement of deposits. Which they are denying. Moreover, its crazy to think that stake has replied immediately when i’ve raised their misconduct to casino guru, however when explaining all of this to them directly, they have repeatedly ignored my emails.

I kindly ask stake to reimbursement the net deposits of €7,856. Im happy for stake to confirm the total amount as my calculations may have been wrong and to simply do the right thing to make up for their lack of due diligence.

Thank you very much, Stake Casino team, for your assistance and clarification.

Dear kazolarzo22,

Could you please advise when exactly you have informed the casino about your gambling problem?

I first informed stake regarding my problem on the 19th of March 2022.

You have requested the self-exclusion due to a gambling problem on the 19th of March 2022. Subsequently, 5 days later, your account was deactivated, is that correct?

Could you please confirm that your account remained blocked after this date?

That’s correct, however the casino did not close the account because i raised concerns about my gambling problem. They decided to put the account in withdrawal only mode (essentially blocking me from the casino) when i asked to speak to a manager in regards to reimbursement

Dear kazolarzo22,

If your account has been blocked a few days after requesting the self-exclusion, we considered it absolutely fair.

If you claim that you should be refunded all your placed deposits because you were allowed to deposit funds into your account from a restricted country, I'm afraid we won't be able to help you. 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. Nevertheless, it doesn’t seem that this is the case here.

To conclude, after analyzing this case, we don't see a legitimate reason for a refund. 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 Petronela,

In the previous response the casino stated,

"As a quick overview, the player has opened multiple accounts at www.stake.com and has provided wrong identification information multiple times in order to try to slip between our net of control procedures. This made us block the player accounts due to multiple breaches of our Terms of Service."

They had blocked by account because it was wrongly linked to another account. The blocking of the account and the self-exclusion were not connected.

The casino blocked my account due to "multiple accounts" around 5-6 days after i had asked for self exclusion, they had instantly placed my account in Withdrawal Only mode which prevents further re-depositing. My claim here is that when i had requested for self exclusion and raised problem gambling issues to Stake staff via live support, they could have instantly placed my account on withdrawal only mode. However instead, i was allowed to deposit close to €2,000 (included in the deposits attachment) within that period and hence Stake has failed its regulatory duty. The main point being that the blocking of the account and self-exclusion is not linked.

In regards to the full refund of deposits, I realise that from a restricted country I shouldn’t have had access to the casino in the first instance. However if the Casino is sticking to their version of the story then my account shouldn’t have been able to deposit anyway as I was apparently previously blocked therefore at any point my winnings could have been froze and my account deleted meaning that there isn’t fairness to the player. Therefore seeking a full settlement from the casino.

hope this clarifies the situation

Dear Petronela/Stake,

https://casino.guru/stake-casino-the-player-s-self-exclusion-was-ignored

The above is another complaint by a user in very similar circumstances to myself.

To confirm,

1. Self-exclusion was ignored.
2. The casino claims that i was previously blocked from the site. therefore this account should not have been allowed to deposit.
3. Stake did not collect the required relevant CDD, KYC and AML. If this was done then I simply would not have been able to play on the site

I would like casino gurus to understand that i am not simply trying to get back winnings deposits from this site for restricted area, there has been multiple breeches of regulatory requirements on stakes behalf and stake has even quoted that i should have been blocked from the site. Therefore i am still seeking a reimbursement.

I kindly ask stake,

In the instance the first account was blocked, was there any settlements/agreements reached and if so what did stake do to ensure the blocking?

Secondly, if this was the case, then surely My account with stake should have been blocked and deposits to the site should have been blocked. This has not been done, therefore clearly showing that stake has not performed the sufficient regulatory checks needed.

From casino gurus point of view I understand your response Mr Petronela. However, i think there is a slight misunderstanding here.

1. The self exclusion and the closure of the account are not connected.
2. I understand that being from a restricted region is not valid for reimbursement as casino has taken both deposits and withdrawals.
3. The issue being contested, is that account was closed due to Stake’s understanding of multiple accounts and myself being previously banned from the casino.
4. My whole dispute here is that the casino has not performed valid regulatory checks to ensure my account being blocked. Therefore deposits must be made null.

I am kindly asking Casino Gurus to justify that i have a valid complaint and to reach a settlement with the casino to ensure that both parties rectify the situation with a reimbursement of net zero for myself and an agreement with the casino to ensure that this issue does not happen again through a signed agreement.

Thank you very much, kazolarzo22, for providing all the necessary information. I will now transfer your complaint to my colleague Jozef (jozef.k@casino.guru) 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.  

Dear Casino Guru,

This is Sophia, i have sent and email to Mr Jozef and stake this morning and I hope that it explains everything in more detail and i hope you can get back to me as soon as possible.

Dear Stake,

I have also forwarded the email to all the contact emails i have for the site and i hope to hear a response.

Thank You

Dear kazolarzo22.

I am very sorry about the whole situation, unfortunately, we believe you are not entitled to receive the refund. Since you have provided incorrect information in order to bypass the casino system, there is nothing much the casino team could have done. They were not able to protect you or themselves. I fully understand that it may be a part of addiction that you wanted to play no matter what, but there are certain policies in the matter of responsible gambling that should be obliged.

Concluding all the facts above, I am forced to reject your case.

If you do not agree with our decision, you may file an official complaint at the licensing authority of the casino. I will gladly help you with it, although I am convinced that their opinion would be the same. Let me know if you have any questions or require further assistance. 

Best regards, Jozef

jozef.k@casino.guru