Vauhdikas Casino - The player's account got closed.

Hello. I'm one of the apparently several players who, on the 14th of march 2023, had their accounts locked, withdrawals cancelled and balances confiscated on all the 8 casinos run by PressEnter Group through their company PB Group;

21.com

NeonVegas.com

RapidCasino.com

UltraCasino.com

NitroCasino.com

JustSpin.com

CasinoFest.com

XLBet.com

I've been a customer for the casino network for years, I registered my NeonVegas account all the way back in 2020 while some of their casinos are of a more recent addition.

Lately they had started offering deposit bonuses on an unusually high frequency. They had daily deposit bonus campaigns that offered freespins, tournament promotions and on top of that they were generously offering bonus money on deposit every so often.

Constant depositing combined with their high withdrawal fee of 3 euro per withdrawal led to balance accumulation on these individual casinos.

At least in my case they couldn't have picked a better timing to confiscate my balances across all the 8 casinos, almost as if it was calculated... as I already had 2 pending withdrawals that I made day or two before and as I was attempting to make a third withdrawal on the 14th, they had disconnected my accounts from Trustly Pay'n'Play and I was asked by their system to make a deposit in order to activate the Trustly service. Obviously the Pay'n'Play function didn't work despite of making a deposit.

I contacted the customer service and they said they'll get in touch by email. Some hours later they emptied all my casino balances and sent me and email from the customer service of a singular site (21.com) on behalf of their whole network of 8 casinos telling how they suspect me of breaching their terms and conditions and based on that they've "confiscated" my money and closed down my accounts on all the casinos thereof. All the confiscated assets were real money.

My inquiries about the nature of the situation was met with response; "All the details are stated in the previous mail" - which only vaguely pointed to section 17 and 20 of their terms and conditions.

Unwillingness to elaborate further as to why they have confiscated my money and blocked my accounts, I once more requested my money to be returned to my casino balances and be allowed to be withdrawn and in the case they deny my request I also requested them to provide me with the reference number for the incident so that I can open a ticket with eCOGRA about this dispute.

Their response was again generic stating that my request has been forwarded to the relevant department and that they'll get back to me via email once they receive an answer. This latter exchange was on the 15th and as of yet, there has been no reply.

I have played by the rules of the casino; I've wagered my deposits and bonuses. I have not played games that aren't allowed with bonus money, even when they unannouncedly added one of the games I enjoy playing to the unallowed games list. Luckily I happened to check the bonus terms on that very day and noticed it. Well part of it being luck, part of it me being cautious as I had noticed them starting to add games to the unallowed list without notifying the customer about the changes, although they also recently made changes to the ToS that they did notify about.

All in all I was totally shocked by the actions taken by this PressEnter Group. I understand losing players are good business for casino and offering them promotions is a way to get them to play at your casino, what I don't understand is this attempted theft of customer assets when continuous effort of offering promotions has failed to turn the customer into a profitable asset for the company. This feels like a desperate last resort to recoup their losses. So desperate in fact, that I was shocked that an MGA licensed casino would even consider attempting something like this, let alone going for it.

Hello dessuli,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint and I'm really sorry to hear about your issue with CasinoFest. Please allow me to ask you a few more question before we would move forward.

Could you please advise since when is your account fully verified? Is your casino balance real money or bonus money - if mixed, how much of each? When was the last time you spoke to the casino and what was it about? Did you hear any specification regarding the account block from them since your last post in your first complaint?

Looking forward to your answer.

Regards,

Nick

Hello Nick. I don't know the exact date my account got verified, however I opened my account on 15.01.2023 so it's briefly after. There was an issue in registering so this date might not be exact, but I believe this is when I had access to the account I created.

My Casino Balance is real money.

All the correspondence with the casino is explained in the complaint. It's been over 10 days since they responded about "forwarding the issue to an relevant department." and there hasn't been a word since.

I've sent the email transcript to Tomas who is working on my original complaint about 21.com.

Thank you very much, dessuli, for providing the necessary information. I will now transfer your complaint to my colleague Adam (adam.m@casino.guru) who will be at your service. I wish you the best of luck and hope the problem will be resolved to your satisfaction in the near future.  

Hello dessuli,

I have reviewed your case and will contact the casino to see if I can help.

We would like to invite the casino to join the conversation and participate in the resolution of this complaint.

Dear CasinoFest,

Can you please clarify the reason for the player's account having been blocked?

Kind regards,

Adam

Hello dessuli,

There has been no further response from the casino, I will contact them once more. In the meantime, please let us know of any developments.

We would like to ask the casino to respond to this complaint. I will extend the timer for 7 days. If there is no response within the specified timeframe, the complaint will be closed as 'unresolved' and have a negative effect on the rating of the casino.

Kind regards,

Adam

Hello dessuli,

We have addressed the topic during our internal meeting. While we acknowledge that some complaints were submitted up to a month ago, we also need to take into consideration that investigating such matters can be time-consuming. In fact, we discovered that nine players raised concerns with our Complaints Resolution Center regarding the entire PressEnter Group, involving eight casinos, resulting in over 70 active cases. The investigation is being conducted by the entire group of casinos carefully, and we have already informed the affiliate team of PressEnter casinos. We appreciate your patience as the casinos gather evidence and work towards resolving the matter.

Thank you.

Kind regards,

Adam

Dear dessuli,

After some weeks of internal discussions and communications with the casino, no progress has been made regarding this case. We acknowledge that the investigation may be stalled by the involvement of multiple casinos and players, and therefore, we recommend seeking assistance from the Licensing Authority. As a possible solution, we suggest reaching out to eCOGRA, the official Alternative Dispute Resolution of the casino, by submitting your request here.

ADR is a free of charge service and the ruling reached by the nominated ADR entity will be considered final by both the Company and yourself, subject to full representation being given to all parties involved. You may submit a Claims Form at https://ecogra.org/forms/adr-dispute-step-1. Alternatively, you may email eCOGRA with details of your complaint at complaints@ecogra.org.

Kindly refer to this complaint as a point of reference. Let us know if you need any assistance when filing the official complaint and keep us informed about any further developments. Thank you in advance. 

Kind regards,

Adam

Dear dessuli,

Please respond and address my last post regarding contacting the ADR service.

I will extend the timer for 7 days, please be aware if we do not hear from you within that time the complaint will be rejected.

Kind regards,

Adam

I have filed the claim for eCOGRA to handle.

Dear dessuli,

As you have confirmed that you have submitted your complaint to the relevant ADR we will now close this complaint with the status "Waiting for the regulator's decision". 

Once the outcome is known, the complaint can be reopened and updated as necessary.

Please let me know of any further developments (adam.m@casino.guru).

Kind regards, 

Adam

Dear dessuli,
We hope this finds you well. We would like to ask you to provide an update regarding this case, which was previously marked as "Waiting for Regulator" on our website. Your complaint has now been automatically reopened, and we are eager to know if there have been any recent developments or resolutions since our last communication.
If the ADR or the Licensing Authority has resolved things in your favor, please update the thread and send over the official statement to my email. Alternatively, if the ruling favored the casino, your insights are just as crucial.
We understand that some time has passed, but updating your complaint will allow us to take appropriate action, such as issuing black points to the casino in case the ruling is in your favor or warning other players and users about instances 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.

Dear dessuli,

Please respond to my previous post. I will extend the timer for 7 days. Please be aware that if there is no response from you this complaint will be rejected.

Kind regards,

Adam

As this case is being discussed via email, the timer will be extended one more time.

Kind regards,

Adam

Dear dessuli,

As there has been no further response from you, this complaint will now be rejected.

It can be reopened at any time.

Kind regards,

Adam