Star Sports Casino - Player’s winnings have been withheld.

I opened an account in Feb and deposited 100, the account was closed within 10 minutes with a remaining balance of 110. The operator advised due a self-exclusion 3 years they would not paid the balance of the account or return the 100 deposit, as it states this in their terms and conditions. Is this even legal?

Dear Karen1,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your problem. Please allow me to ask you a few questions, so I can understand the whole situation completely. Have you ever requested your account to be closed or suggested a gambling problem when communicating with the casino? Could you please advise if you have self-excluded from this casino in the past? Have you completed the account verification successfully or your account was blocked right after the registration.

If there’s any relevant communication, please forward it to petronela.k@casino.guru.

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

Yes I self-excluded from the StarSports in 2018 and opened an account with StarSportsCasino. The account was opened for 10 minutes in total. I deposited £100 and the account was blocked I has only played a few games and balance of the account when it was closed was 110. StarSportsCasino has advised it states in their terms and conditions that deposits will be forfeited by players who have a self-exclusion in place regardless if the deposit has been played or not. I am not sure if this is legal and if I should attempt to recall the payment via my bank. Surely it is of benefit to the casino if self-excluded players are allowed to open accounts deposit without ID checks being completed and then the account closed in minutes with gambling business keeping the deposits - I have never come across this before. Normally, when I relapse I accept that I have lost the money and move on - but in this case and a couple of other cases during this recent relapse I feel the Gambling Business is wrong and should challenged.

Dear Karen1,

Could you please forward any relevant communication between you and the casino to petronela.k@casino.guru? Thank you very much in advance.

Hi I have forwarded email communication. I do not expect to get my money back as the casino is a failing casino and clearly has this in their terms and conditions to profit from Gambling Harm. I understand how the account can be approved, allow a deposit and closed within 10 minutes due to a previous self-exclusion unless it is a deliberate attempt to profit from gambling harm. The ARD has rules as it states in their terms and conditions they can not force the operator to return the deposits as that would be for a court to decide - it is not something I have ever come across and wanted to raise awareness of and to find it if it is legal- I have also reported the issue to the UKGC.

Thank you very much, Karen1, for forwarding all the relevant communication. Could you please advise if any of your personal details have changed since your previously requested self-exclusion in 2018? In other words, have you registered your new account using the same personal information? Looking forward to hearing from you.

The details were all the same as those registered with Gamstop, however the first had a u at the end. StarSports closed the account within 10 minutes and the deposit was still in the account. Details from the SAR show they removed the deposit from the account the day after - they are claiming the deposit was given to charity - but will not provide evidence of this.

Many Thanks

Thank you very much, Karen1, 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.  

Hello Karen1.

Thank you very much for sharing your negative experience. We are now going to reach the casino team.

Hello Karen.

I have just received a reply from the casino team. Unfortunately, they are unable to provide us with any information about your case, but you should reach their official ADR directly. I would highly recommend you to do it and I will gladly help you with it. Are you interested? 

Thank you for your response. The ARD has advised they can not force the casino to pay back the money as it does state this in their terms and conditions and it is not in their remit to decide if their terms and conditions are legal or not. I have also reported the gambling business to the UKGC and received confirmation they will investigation, however, this is unlikely to result in my £100 being returned. Hopefully the complaint can raise awareness of the issue and if anything force a change to the terms and conditions. Many Thanks for looking into the matter.

Dear Karen.

Since your case is being handled by the UKGC we do not want to interfere, and we are forced to close the case as 'Waiting for decision of regulator'. Please, inform us about the outcome of their investigation, so we can update this case accordingly.

Best regards, Jozef

jozef.k@casino.guru

Dear Karen1,

We hope this message finds you well. We wanted to follow up on your case, which was marked as "Waiting for Regulator" on our website some time ago. We were wondering if there have been any updates or resolutions since our last conversation.

If your case has been resolved by the Licensing Authority, we kindly request you to forward us their official statement at jozef.k@casino.guru. On the other hand, if the ruling was in favor of the casino, it would still be incredibly helpful for us to know. We understand that it has been a while, but updating your complaint will allow us to either issue black points to the casino (if the ruling was in your favor) or warn other players and users about cases where the Authority supports the operator.

We truly appreciate your cooperation, and your response would be of great assistance to us. Thank you in advance for your reply.

Best regards,Jozef

Dear Karen1,

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.

Unfortunately, we’re forced to reject this case because the player hasn’t responded to our messages and questions. Therefore, we’re not able to proceed with further investigation or suggest possible solutions.

The player can reopen this complaint anytime.