Hi Petronela,
Many thanks for your quick response. I fully understand why the KYC process is so important for casinos and did my best to comply and provide everything they asked for. I've completed this process on sportsbooks and other casinos, with no problems like this. Can I ask if you were able to see the emails I sent to the casino which I uploaded as attachments with my complaint? They provide some context.
My account was fully verified before my first withdrawal request was completed. I uploaded my ID and Proof of Address and everything was normal and my first withdrawal was paid out with no issue.
When the next request for withdrawal of €500 was rejected, I contacted them and they asked for a bank statement for the account I was withdrawing to, to prove it was mine (My initial €190 deposit was with USDT cryptocurrency). Even though it seemed strange since this was no issue for the first withdrawal, I sent them a statement but unfortunately they still wouldn't process the second withdrawal of €500. They never stated why they were refusing to pay out at this point but just made another request. They then demanded a screenshot of my crypto transactions for the last 30 days. While I thought this was intrusive, I reasoned that it was OK because this was my deposit method so I sent them the required screenshot. However this was also not accepted despite it being what they had asked for. They then changed the request to crypto transactions for the past 30 days in PDF form. They knew I was growing frustrated but at this point they definitively stated that this was the last request and that my winnings would be paid out if I submitted it - which I did. They rejected it a couple of times, arguing about the formatting within the PDF (I was sending them a PDF generated by the crypto exchange Coinbase, where I had sent the USDT from for my deposit), I still followed each request until they simply stopped making any attempt to explain why they were rejecting it. At this point, their live staff was becoming pretty rude, dismissive and began terminating live chats or simply not responding. I attempted to ask them why it wasn't accepted and what needs to be done to get my winnings and they essentially tried to break off any meaningful contact at this point. I persisted in contacting their live chat, and it was like pulling teeth trying to get any sort of meaningful response. Then I noticed a message within my casino account that read "Please upload bank statement for October from the account with which you have bought crypto". They never contacted me to say this, if I hadn't have checked manually in my account I wouldn't have seen it, despite me having active withdrawal request. At this point, I became very weary of the casino because I felt that they were making it up as they went along. I agonized over whether to comply with this request. I'd only ever deposited €190 to the casino and I felt their request was unwarranted and everything suggested that they simply didn't want to pay my winnings out. Also, my trust for this casino was now non existent since they strung me along about 4-5 times. However, I decided I'd send it. However, after talking with family members, and my bank, who advised against it, I decided to send them a partially redacted bank statement that showed my deposit to Coinbase on the date I joined Vinyl Casino (If I recall correctly, depositing by card wasn't working on the day). I thought this was reasonable as it linked my bank account to my Coinbase account.
I'd now provided proof of ID, address, ownership of my bank account, ownership of the crypto wallet that deposited the money to the casino and the transaction history they asked for on my crypto wallet, and evidence that I had funded the crypto wallet with my own bank account. But, to no avail. They demanded I send completely unredacted bank statements including unrelated to the casino. I'd already explained to them that I was very uncomfortable with this.
Since then, I have learned that casinos have procedures to verify "source of funds", however I don't feel that is a reasonable request for a player who has made one deposit to the casino. Also, they never said they were asking for me to prove "source of funds". I felt like they weren't going to pay me and were trying to violate me by gathering as much data about me as possible, all while not communicating in any reasonable way.
I appreciate that the timeline for each interaction isn't there, but I do not have the Live Chat transcripts unfortunately, and I am having to do my best to recall each of their requests in the correct order. Apart from not receiving my money, which I think is totally unacceptable, I am appalled by their general tone and terrible attitude in their (limited) communications with me.
Hi Petronela,
Many thanks for your quick response. I fully understand why the KYC process is so important for casinos and did my best to comply and provide everything they asked for. I've completed this process on sportsbooks and other casinos, with no problems like this. Can I ask if you were able to see the emails I sent to the casino which I uploaded as attachments with my complaint? They provide some context.
My account was fully verified before my first withdrawal request was completed. I uploaded my ID and Proof of Address and everything was normal and my first withdrawal was paid out with no issue.
When the next request for withdrawal of €500 was rejected, I contacted them and they asked for a bank statement for the account I was withdrawing to, to prove it was mine (My initial €190 deposit was with USDT cryptocurrency). Even though it seemed strange since this was no issue for the first withdrawal, I sent them a statement but unfortunately they still wouldn't process the second withdrawal of €500. They never stated why they were refusing to pay out at this point but just made another request. They then demanded a screenshot of my crypto transactions for the last 30 days. While I thought this was intrusive, I reasoned that it was OK because this was my deposit method so I sent them the required screenshot. However this was also not accepted despite it being what they had asked for. They then changed the request to crypto transactions for the past 30 days in PDF form. They knew I was growing frustrated but at this point they definitively stated that this was the last request and that my winnings would be paid out if I submitted it - which I did. They rejected it a couple of times, arguing about the formatting within the PDF (I was sending them a PDF generated by the crypto exchange Coinbase, where I had sent the USDT from for my deposit), I still followed each request until they simply stopped making any attempt to explain why they were rejecting it. At this point, their live staff was becoming pretty rude, dismissive and began terminating live chats or simply not responding. I attempted to ask them why it wasn't accepted and what needs to be done to get my winnings and they essentially tried to break off any meaningful contact at this point. I persisted in contacting their live chat, and it was like pulling teeth trying to get any sort of meaningful response. Then I noticed a message within my casino account that read "Please upload bank statement for October from the account with which you have bought crypto". They never contacted me to say this, if I hadn't have checked manually in my account I wouldn't have seen it, despite me having active withdrawal request. At this point, I became very weary of the casino because I felt that they were making it up as they went along. I agonized over whether to comply with this request. I'd only ever deposited €190 to the casino and I felt their request was unwarranted and everything suggested that they simply didn't want to pay my winnings out. Also, my trust for this casino was now non existent since they strung me along about 4-5 times. However, I decided I'd send it. However, after talking with family members, and my bank, who advised against it, I decided to send them a partially redacted bank statement that showed my deposit to Coinbase on the date I joined Vinyl Casino (If I recall correctly, depositing by card wasn't working on the day). I thought this was reasonable as it linked my bank account to my Coinbase account.
I'd now provided proof of ID, address, ownership of my bank account, ownership of the crypto wallet that deposited the money to the casino and the transaction history they asked for on my crypto wallet, and evidence that I had funded the crypto wallet with my own bank account. But, to no avail. They demanded I send completely unredacted bank statements including unrelated to the casino. I'd already explained to them that I was very uncomfortable with this.
Since then, I have learned that casinos have procedures to verify "source of funds", however I don't feel that is a reasonable request for a player who has made one deposit to the casino. Also, they never said they were asking for me to prove "source of funds". I felt like they weren't going to pay me and were trying to violate me by gathering as much data about me as possible, all while not communicating in any reasonable way.
I appreciate that the timeline for each interaction isn't there, but I do not have the Live Chat transcripts unfortunately, and I am having to do my best to recall each of their requests in the correct order. Apart from not receiving my money, which I think is totally unacceptable, I am appalled by their general tone and terrible attitude in their (limited) communications with me.