Turbo Vegas Casino - Player's withdrawal is delayed due to misleading bonus terms.

TurboVegas is offering misleading bonuses that look like non-sticky, when they are actually sticky (with unfavourable wagering conditions).

I made a 20€ deposit to TurboVegas to get some free spins from their recent offer. However, there was also a 100% deposit offer that I was unaware of, so after the deposit my balance was 40€. Had this been a sticky bonus, I would have cancelled it right away, because I remember from when I previously played there that their wagering conditions are so bad that any money tied to a bonus wagering requirement is pretty much as good as lost (high wagering requirement and lots of games banned). However, this looked like a non-sticky bonus, so there was no point in cancelling it. The user interface showed Balance 40€, and Bonus Balance 20€. Also, when navigating to the withdrawal page, that one showed Balance 20€. All of this indicates that I have 20€ in real money and 20€ in bonus balance, i.e. a non-sticky bonus. To confirm, I tried to do a test bet (with a non-sticky bonus, the wagering meter should not progress before losing the entire real money balance). After checking some games and discovering that they were either unavailable or banned for bonus wagering, I settled on La Fiesta. I did a text search for "La Fiesta" in their T&C (containing the list of banned games) and got no results, which I took to mean that the game is not banned. I did a 0.5€ bet, which I lost. Sure enough, my real money balance dropped to 19.5€, bonus balance remained at 20€, and bonus wagering meter remained at 0.00%.

At this point, anyone would surely be convinced that they are playing a non-sticky bonus. I did a 19.5€ bet in roulette, trying to gamble my real money balance higher. I won 79.2€ with the bet, and as expected, now my real money balance (shown on the withdrawal page) was 79.2€ and my bonus balance was 20€. I tried to withdraw the 79.2€, forfeiting the 20€ bonus money, but the withdrawal did not succeed because of an active bonus. I contacted live support, asking them to cancel my bonus balance so I can withdraw my real money balance. The support told me that the bonus cannot be cancelled since I have already started playing with it, and that I’m actually playing a sticky bonus.

So, how is it possible that after confirming in multiple ways that I’m playing a non-sticky bonus, it’s actually sticky? As for why my balance is split into real and bonus money, there was no proper explanation. They only said that the real money balance displays how much I originally deposited (as if anyone would do anything with that information). My 0.5€ bet in La Fiesta did not progress the wagering because the T&C also categorically bans all games with a bonus buy feature. So the game was banned even though the software did not prevent me from playing it and doing a text search on the long list of banned games did not find the game.

So, as a result, my deposit and 59€ of winnings are locked behind a large wagering requirement. I don’t know how much it exactly is, but another test bet of 0.2€ progressed the wagering by 0.01%, so it’s apparently around 2000€, and for sure more than 1000€.

I think that this bonus looks so much like a non-sticky bonus that it should be considered as intentionally misleading. If a bonus is sticky, the full balance should be shown as bonus money. Also, I should be able to find out if a game is banned either by the software preventing playing it or by doing a text search on the list of banned games. If the UI had shown the bonus as sticky, I could have cancelled the bonus, then done the same bets as I did now, and I would now have 79.2€ in real money balance that I could withdraw. Also, their T&C clause 18.14 says:

"If you choose to withdrawal your real money while having an active bonus, any bonus funds on the account will be forfeited, unless stated otherwise in the offer"

This is exactly what I’m trying to do. So, I want TurboVegas to follow clause 18.14 and common sense, and allow me to withdraw my real money balance, which is currently 79€.

Dear theTJK,

Thank you very much for submitting this complaint. I'm sorry to hear about your problem. Please allow me to ask you a few questions to clarify the situation.

Could you please send me a screenshot or a link showing the bonus you received and played with? Ideally, send me the Terms and Conditions of this particular bonus as well.

I have checked the general Terms and Conditions and this is what I found:

18.4 Player cannot make a withdrawal while having an active bonus on account before all wagering requirements have been met.

18.5 Before a withdrawal can be made, players must complete the wagering requirements within the agreed timeframe upon activation of the said bonus. Failure to wager the bonus within this time will cancel the bonus, and the bonus, together with any winnings, will be lost.

18.9 If you wish to remove any bonus credited to you, please contact customer service before starting to play and/or wager.

In addition, if you have placed a bet on Live Roulette, it may not count towards fulfilling the wagering requirements as stated in the general terms and conditions.

I hope we will be able to help you resolve this issue as soon as possible. Thank you in advance for your reply.

Best regards

Veronika

Hi,

I do not have any link to a specific page about this promotion, since I did not even know that it existed before depositing. I made the deposit for another promotion (free spins), and this one was also added automatically. I can’t find the bonus on the casino’s promotions page.

My comments to the points raised in your response:

18.4 Player cannot make a withdrawal while having an active bonus on account before all wagering requirements have been met.

I am not trying to make a withdrawal while having an active bonus. I want them to cancel my bonus first, and withdraw my real money balance afterwards.

18.5 Before a withdrawal can be made, players must complete the wagering requirements within the agreed timeframe upon activation of the said bonus. Failure to wager the bonus within this time will cancel the bonus, and the bonus, together with any winnings, will be lost.

I am fine with losing the bonus and any winnings gained with the bonus, i.e. my bonus balance (20€).

18.9 If you wish to remove any bonus credited to you, please contact customer service before starting to play and/or wager.

I have not played with the bonus money, only with my real money balance. If this clause also refers to playing with the real money balance, then it contradicts clause 18.14:

If you choose to withdrawal your real money while having an active bonus, any bonus funds on the account will be forfeited, unless stated otherwise in the offer

This clause implies that one can withdraw the real money balance at any time by forfeiting the bonus balance. If the T&C contradicts itself, the interpretation more favourable to the player should be respected, since it’s the casino’s responsibility to get the T&C right, and they are in fact the only party able to affect its contents.

In addition, if you have placed a bet on Live Roulette, it may not count towards fulfilling the wagering requirements as stated in the general terms and conditions.

It was not in live roulette but rather in a programmed roulette, but in any case I did not expect this bet to progress wagering. I expected the previous bet to La Fiesta slot to progress wagering if it had been a sticky bonus, since the game was not explicitly mentioned in the list of banned games.

The bottom line is that they made this bonus look exactly like a non sticky bonus, and therefore it should be handled as one. If they had given any clue that the bonus is sticky, I would have cancelled it before doing any bets. Then I would have done the same bets as I did actually do, and now I would have 79.2€ that I could withdraw. But since the bonus appeared non-sticky in the UI, it didn’t make any sense to cancel it because of the way non-sticky bonuses work (one can play freely with the real money balance and withdraw it at any time)

The bonus just expired, causing the bonus balance to go to zero. After that I was able to successfully withdraw the 79€ real money balance, as I originally wanted to. So support was just being difficult and made me wait a week, instead of invalidating the bonus right away. Case closed.

Dear theTJK,

We're glad to hear that your issue has been resolved. We'll go ahead and mark the complaint as 'resolved' in our system. We appreciate your cooperation and confirmation. If you ever encounter any issues with this or any other casino in the future, please feel free to reach out to our Complaint Resolution Center. We're here to help. 

As you know, we do not charge for our services, nor do we accept any gratuities. However, we would greatly appreciate it if you could take a moment to share your experience with our services on Trustpilot https://www.trustpilot.com/evaluate/casino.guru. An honest review, along with any suggestions for improvement, would be invaluable. Your feedback could help others who may be considering contacting us for assistance with online casino-related issues. 

Thank you in advance for your time. 

Best regards, 

Veronika

Casino.Guru