SuperNopea Casino - Player wasn't prevented from opening a casino account.

Hi. As at 17.11.2021 I sent following email to several casinos including Bethard Group casinos (email attached), where I told about my gambling problem: "I kindly ask you to block my access to your site because of my gambling problem. If I have an account on your site, please close it permanently and stop all marketing. If I haven’t registered yet, please make your best effort to prevent me doing so. I hope this ban also applies to any of your "sister casinos" and possible future casinos".

As you can see, I requested self-exclusion if I have account, if not, please prevent opening one. Also I asked this request to apply all sister casinos.

Despite the self-exclusion email, I was able to register Supernopea as at 30.11.2021 and continued gambling in Supernopea until March 2022. I used the same email address in both sending the self-exclusion email and registering Supernopea.

Bethard Group and Supernopea have both admitted that they have received the email, but they say that they are not able to block me if I'm not registered already. It is not possible to register Supernopea without depositing money. Basically they claim that there is no way I can self-exclude without depositing money. For problem gambler this is absurd and wrong. According to MGA directive 2 of 2018:

"B2C licensees shall ensure that individuals not previously registered as players, but who have contacted the B2C licensee requesting to be excluded from any future gaming activity, are not allowed to make use of the B2C licensee’s gaming service, unless and until the B2C licensee has received a notice in written or electronic format from the same individual asking for their previous request to be ignored."

I have requested my net losses 4346€ to be refunded back to me, but they are refusing and saying: "we cant block someone who is not already registered". This is clearly against MGA directive and they must block me if I'm requesting it and apply the block to sister casinos if Im requesting it.

Please help me to get my net losses back. I have stopped gambling 5 months ago and received medical help to my disease. All money refunded would go directly to gambling related debt payments. There are two large Maltese casinos that have admitted their mistake and refunded me due to their misconduct (cases were exactly similar as this).

If you need anything else documentation, Im happy to provide them.

Dear naikou92,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your problem. I checked the SuperNopea casino’s terms and conditions and I found this:

https://www.supernopea.com/en/terms-and-conditions

"10.4 Self-exclusion We provide a self-exclusion facility which allows you to close your Account for a specified period of time (minimum six months). At your request, we will prevent you from using your Account for a specific period, as determined by you. By opting to self-exclude, we will close your Account, remove you from all active marketing communications and return any positive balance of funds to you. In order to withdraw any pending funds during your period of self-exclusion, please contact support on support@SuperNopea.com to request a withdrawal. During the period of self-exclusion, it will not be possible to reopen your Account for any reason. To request self-exclusion, please contact us at support@SuperNopea.com.

10.5 Although we will use our reasonable endeavours to enforce our responsible gambling policy, we do not accept any responsibility or liability if you nevertheless continue gambling and/or seek to use the Service with the intention of deliberately avoiding the relevant measures in place.

10.6 Should you opt to self-exclude, we strongly recommend that you seek exclusion from all other sites where you also play. We also recommend that, during any period of self-exclusion, you seek additional support and advice from a support organisation such as http://www.gamcare.org.uk."

When did the Bethard casino reply to your initial request for self-exclusion? Did you request a self-exclusion in SuperNopea casino in a way other than sending a mass email?

Thanks in advance for your reply.

Best regards,

Tomas

First of all, I never sent any "mass-email". I sent the email to myself and all casinos were as hidden copies. All hidden copy recipients receive individual email and the chain is not linked to each other and recipients do not see each other. Basically it is the same thing if I sent individual email to a lots of casinos separately. However, this is more effective way to send same email to a lot of recipients and ensuring recipients dont see each other and possible responses will form their own email chain. Im sure you know what "hidden copy" means when sending emails.

Not a single casino from Bethard Group ever answered to my self-exclusion email. They have admitted that they received the email. However, several other casinos responded and blocked my access. I was able to open Supernopea account and gamble until I self-excluded myself by using tool in their website when Im logged in.

Timeframe: 17.11.2021 I asked block for Bethard Group casinos for my Hotmail email address. 30.11.2021 I opened Supernopea account with the same Hotmail I requested block. In March 2022 I self-excluded myself by using their tool when I had gambled all my money and loan money too.

As you can see in the hidden copy list, there are several Bethard Group casinos. I requested block to each casino and also asked block for their sister casinos to make sure Im self-excluding all Bethard Group casinos.

My complaint is based on the fact that according to MGA "directive 2 of 2018" I shouldnt have been able to open Supernopea account with my Hotmail email as it is part of Bethard Group, where I requested block and please apply it to your sister casinos. The whole Bethard Group should have blocked me when I requested it on 17.11.2021.

Supernopea’s latest explanation today was "unfortunately we are not able to refund you because directive 2 of 2018 was introduced in Jan 2023". This is clearly not true, directive was introduced in 2018 and amended in January 2023. However, the amendment did not impact the part im referring to. From page 11:

"B2C licensees shall ensure that individuals not previously registered as players, but who have contacted the B2C licensee requesting to be excluded from any future gaming activity, are not allowed to make use of the B2C licensee’s gaming service, unless and until the B2C licensee has received a notice in written or electronic format from the same individual asking for their previous request to be ignored.".

Supernopea has several times said "we are not able to block unregistered players". Even if their system does not allow it, it does not mean they do not breach the directive.

I hope this helps you to understand better my case. I see clear breach in directive 2 of 2018.

Now one of the Bethard Group casinos (Cashmio) opened ticket due to my self-exclusion request on 17.11.2021. I got email "Ticket opened" and my self-exclusion email from 17.11.2021 was attached.

Apparently they are doing something there.

You referred Supernopea T&C in your previous message. What about that? It does not change the fact they will not block gamblers access to their services if player is not registered. Its clearly against MGA directive 2 of 2018, which says: B2C licensee shall ENSURE that unregistered players are excluded if its requested.

They do not have any intention to block problem gamblers if they are not registered. In order to register you have to deposit money. How that works for problem gamblers? It does not. They take advantage of it by systematically collecting problem gamblers money.

Summa summarum, if they truly are not able to prevent unregistered players to register, they are breaching directive 2 of 2018.

If they are able to, but still did not prevent me registering when I requested it 17.11.2021, they are still breaching the directive 2 of 2018.

Thanks a lot.

I understand your point, naikou92. Thanks for the detailed explanation.

I mentioned the SuperNopea terms because we do look at what responsible gambling policies the casinos have in order to reach conclusions about what the casino should do.

Unfortunately, self-exclusion in advance is not something the casino does, which we find a reasonable explanation for why the creation of your account wasn't prevented.

According to our standards, the casino didn't act unfairly or wrong in the matter, as we believe the justification for why the creation of your account was not prevented is valid.

Unfortunately, you didn't receive a confirmation about the self-exclusion being active and therefore weren't protected.

If you feel the directive of the MGA wasn't followed, I believe you should contact the MGA authority directly, as they might have a different opinion on the situation from ours.

Unfortunately, we do not deal with issues related to licensing regulations and policies. I understand your views, but sadly, we’re not in a position to be able to help you as we have no authority to enforce legal rules. 

Please let me know if there is any additional information that I have overlooked, otherwise, 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.

As far as I read the terms, there is not mentioned anything about self-excluding unregistered players. However, they still should be able to do that.

Last week I made up an email address and name, requested for block to register. I just wanted to know if they are speaking the truth. Now they answered "please give me your personal details so we can set up block for you".

So they are clearly able to block unregistered players, so they have lied to me (to my other, registered email).

You are not able to help me with my case?

Dear naikou92,

The casino mentions the self-exclusion of players' accounts and the prevention of accessing accounts in its responsible gambling policy.

If the casino didn't tell you they will self-exclude you 'preventively', unfortunately, we have to conclude the self-exclusion process in the casino to block your details wasn't completed.

If you do not agree with our decision, I'd recommend contacting the Malta authority, regarding requesting back the return of your net losses.

Due to the aforementioned reasons, this complaint will now be rejected. Thank you for your understanding, I am sorry we could not be of more help on this occasion.