Unibet Casino UK - The player's balance was voided.

Dear Casino Guru,

Sent an email to Kristina over the weekend just because the reviews of this casino on trustpilot was horrendous. Initially i thought it may be just disgruntled gamblers after losses, however that was not the case.

I was right, my main worry of not being able to withdraw funds have now become a reality, so here I am.

I opened an account with unibet on 2 days ago on saturday. Deposited £3000 over the next few hours of gameplay and to my luck with the last few hundred raised to £11000 which was thrilling. I than went on the withdrawals and withdrew the complete balance. Slept, woke up and its logged out. Tried to log back and the account was now blocked, immediately contacted live chat.

They told me that the "relevant department" is looking in to it and they cant do anything as of the moment and need to wait till monday. Patiently i waited the weekend out with all the anxiety as you can imagine. Just got an email to say that my withdrawal is being processed, as I read the details of the email i realized that the withdrawal is only for my deposits and not the account balance, my heart sunk.

Asked them why this is the case, they told me that I had recently self excluded from 32red and this is why this has happened, I was now really upset and dissappointed. The live chat representative was repating the same things over and over again hence why im now taking a different approach.

Last week I was using the 32red platform and I have self excluded from them directly, that is true as the casino mentions. I made some deposits, won some funds, withdrew the funds and closed the account. The only reason why I self excluded was due to the fact that on 32red you cant close an account as that option is not available. As i did not want to use that platform again I decided to self exclude and treat it as the same in this instance. Have there been a close account option this matter could have been avoided from the start.

I genuinely had no idea that unibet was part of 32red which is owned by kindred ltd, so who owns who and than who owns them is a puzzle, too many companies under umbrella companies and offshore malta gibraltar etc. Platinum gaming ltd is also coming up on the companies house. I could not do the due dilligience on a saturday night trying to have a bit of entertainment to be honest. Here is a lesson learnt..

Below im going to list all the points which may help you assess the situation and give me guidance on the matter. Honestly im after justice here, it feels like a borderline scam operation to me. The truspilot reviews actually reflect that clearly.

When registering with unibet I have used the same details as i did on 32red. Email address, contact number, address, dob etc. I used the same card to make deposits and withdrawals. Which is also registered at the same address. The details have not been manipulated in anyway to create an account or bypass securtiy.

I enjoy gambling and dont have a problem with it. I can register an account anywhere, just picked the wrong one here.

I am not registered to or have ever registered to gamstop/gamcare etc.

I have registered with my original details, same card and address.

Checked the UKGC and 32red and Unibet are licensed seperately.

I was able to create the account, make several deposits and play for several hours. Have there been an issue i could have been notifed earlier? Prevented from creating an account? Rejected deposits?

Have i have lost my initial deposit of £3000 and than they closed my account surely they would not have returned that. I genuinely though they would honour the account balance of £11000 at the least. Surely they cant get away with this right? It goes against the whole casino aspect and honestly a move that has no integrity at all. Effectively they are stealing £8000 from me. I played for hours and took the risks as needed, for no reason?

However sorry for the long message, im just trying to explain every little detail for transparency purposes. Your help and advice will be highly appreciated. I really want to resolve this matter..

Kind regards

Hello Sensei,

Thank you very much for submitting a complaint and I'm really sorry to hear about your issue with Unibet Casino UK

Please allow me to ask you a few more question before we would move forward.

Did you mention in your self-exclusion in 32Red that you have gambling addiction or was there any reason given? When exactly did you self-exclude in 32Red and for how long?

We were currently dealing with many similar complaints regarding self-exclusion. Currently as far as we know, the casino do not have to but can close your account if you are excluded in a sister casino. Every case is very specific and there are many factors playing role. The best recommendation I can give you is to contact directly the licensing authority of the casino. They will be able to handle the case with much more insight and details. Please let us know if you are going to take this step.

Looking forward to your answer.

Regards,

Nick

Hi Nick,

Thank you for the response. I can confirm I have self excluded on the 32red website directly 7 days ago. There was no mention of problem gambling option or sort and Ive been gambling just for a few months now. 32red does not have a close account option on their site, please check and confirm this. Had they have had this I could have just closed the account in a conventional way and not have this problem as of the moment. They are licensed individually, Ive got a solicitor to read through both terms and conditions and there is no mention of if you have an account here you cant have one there etc. This is a unfair management decision on their side.

Its now starting to dawn on me that them not having this close account option is a money maker for them because it can potentially put many people like me in risk regards to winnings and deposits.

Im surprised at the number of negative reviews on trustpilot for this company, they seem to be doing this very often which is giving me more power to take this matter on hand. Ive been doing thorough research and have some findings the of my own, people in similar situations. Three outcomes:

1) People that have self excluded on 32 red and have played on unibet. Accounts blocked in the same fashion and at their own discretion after gameplay and deposits not returned as they lost it.

2) (My Situation) People that have self excluded on 32red and have played on unibet. Accounts blocked in the same fashion and at their own discretion after game play, instead not lost but won funds. They insist only deposits are returned and winnings void. Account balance not honoured even though they took this decision.

3) People that have self excluded on 32red and have played on unibet. Accounts blocked in the same fashion and at their own discretion. Deposited funds, won funds to be told the same things of just deposit returns. Have fought back with litigation and the gambling commission and many people have been able get their winnings returned with their deposits. Generally it never ever goes to small claims court as my solicitor advised me. He says they actually care about their licences and will pay up before it get there.

Resolver/Pogg/Casino guru etc.

All situations are the same with different outcomes, the way they block accounts are the same. If they get to keep customers deposits after they lose and close their accounts immediately than the same shall be applied to customers who win. Just honour the account balance at least, the house wins long term anyway, why so much greed. You cant just turn around and now say oh so if a customer loses than we keep the deposits and close account but if a customer wins then will just close the account void winnings and return deposits only Win win situation, this is not how gambling works and its more like a fraud operation. I clearly asked them what the problem is and they cant even explain it to me as there is not one.

Im ready to contact the licence authority and provide more details in regards to getting this resolved. Please forward me in the right direction so I can get started on it with immediate effect.

Hello Sensei,

If a self-exclusion is active, no matter if you win or lose - the casino should always return only your deposit. The current balance should not be relevant only the deposited amount.

Please try to submit a complaint here - https://www.resolver.co.uk/freeadvice/services/53769/issues?territory_id=1

I'm not entirely sure that it will open the right casino but you can find it on that site. We will be also forced to close the complaint as unresolved and wait for the regulator's decision. You can always contact me on nikolas.b@casino.guru if you would need any help you you will have an update regarding the case.

Regards,

Nick

Dear Anonymized187,

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 nikolas.b@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,

Nick

Dear Anonymized187,

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, the player has not responded to our messages and questions. Consequently, we are unable to investigate further and have no choice but to reject this complaint.

The player can reopen this complaint at any time.