Velobet Casino - Player's self-exclusion request has been ignored by the casino.

I had made a winning and asked to be excluded from the account for 7 days, as I wanted to lock-in my winnings and be sure to not gamble during an especially stressful period of my time, shortly after loosing a loved one. It was devastating, as you can imagine, and I knew I might have used gambling as a way to distract myself.

One day I found the account shortly re-opened, and in a short period of intense gambling went from roughly +$20,000 to a loss of roughly -$50,000.

I was a previously self-excluded player for life from one of their sister companies, goldenbet, where I made it clear this was because of a serious addiction, but for some reason this self-exclusion wasn't applied to velobet. In addition to this, the fact that I expressly stated to have my account closed for 7 days THROUGH VELOBET, and during that period of time it was still open, makes me believe that the comapny did not follow procedures in line with the Curacao gambling policy on responsible gambling.

See the screenshot attached, where I make it abundantly clear to a live agent that under no circumstance I want to risk having to gamble my money again for at least one week, during which ALL THE TRAGEDY INSTEAD ENDED UP HAPPENING. If the word of the company would have been followed, I would still have roughly 21,000EUR in my account and would have not been able to make further deposits. Hence, I want a refund of all the money lost if the account would have instead stayed closed from the 18 December to the 25 December, as I had asked.

I know that the company is keen to remain fully compliant with gambling standards and protect its players. A mistake has been made by an operator in re-opening my account and, while this is understandable, the amount of money is large and I really need for the situation to be settled and for a recognition of an inconsistency in implementing player protection standards has been made.

Dear samuelb, 

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m very sorry to hear about your negative experience. First, I’d like to explain to you what the difference is between closing the account and self-exclusion: 

Closing an account is simple and has almost no impact - the player can reopen the account anytime, and the casino has no obligation to the player.  

On the other hand, self-exclusion does. If a player successfully makes a self-exclusion the casino agrees not to open this account or if yes only under particular circumstances (after the cooling off period and this cannot be done for players who are addicted/with a gambling problem). 

Would you be so kind as to forward me the account closure requests that you sent to the casino? My email address is veronika.l@casino.guru. 

Thank you very much in advance. 

Best regards, 

Veronika

Due to the increased volume of complaints during this time of year, we kindly request your patience while awaiting our responses. We aim to publish each complaint within 48 hours of submission but reserve up to 7 days to reply to any subsequent comments. Additionally, please be aware that it might take a bit longer for your complaint to be assigned to a resolver, as we are currently managing over 800 complaints.

Your understanding is greatly appreciated. Wishing you a delightful holiday season, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Will do so now. Please look out for your inbox to receive the chats within the next few minutes.

Thank you for your emails.

When applying for the self-exclusion, always state clearly the reason why you want your account to be deactivated and specify the time period. Also, email "Subject" should be clearly marked and easily recognizable as casino support receives many requests per day hence, if it’s visibly marked you stand a better chance to have your request granted as soon as possible. I would also strongly recommend that you always save your self-exclusion request so that you have valid proof of such action.

Example:

Email subject: Self-exclusion due to xxx

Player’s info:

First name:

Last name:

DOB:

Casino login:

Email address:

"Greetings xxx xxx,

I’m writing to inform you that I wish to exclude immediately from this casino and from receiving any gambling-related marketing materials for a minimum period of xxx months/years (lifetime).

The reason that preceded my decision is xxx

I acknowledge that I will not be allowed to rescind my self-exclusion during this period and self-exclusion cannot be lifted before the end of the agreed period."

In the conversations you sent me, you did not state that you wanted to close your account due to gambling addiction. I'm sorry but in our view, you are not eligible for the refund of your balance. I apologize but we will not be able to assist you any further.

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. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you run into any issues with this or any other casino in the future.