Winz.io Casino - Player accuses casino of confiscating winnings.

This casino allows players to play and deposit from restricted territories in crypto and when they win, they suspend their accounts.

I created my account in June 2022 but since i play at other casinos such as Stake i never had the chance to play here. I liked their 10% cashback program and I made 3 deposits to test it. They were fine letting me deposit and play until I won approx. 0.16 ETH. I played real money funds without any bonuses but when I tried to cash out they said I'm playing from a restricted territory and i need to undergo KYC. The amount is really small so yes, i din't want to perform KYC as i find it totally unnecessary considering that is not required for amounts up to $2000 as stated in their terms and conditions.

The customer support team admitted they knew I signed in from a restricted territory(screenshot attached) yet they still allowed me to deposit 3 times and play hoping i would lose. I've read other players's reviews on casino.guru and other websites and it seems they're doing this on a constant basis to steal money from players.

Dear rvpromobtc,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your negative experience with Winz.io Casino.

Please allow me to ask you a few questions, so I can better understand the situation. 

• Was the conclusion of the casino to not pay you your winnings? Please understand that online casinos have the right to conduct account verification at any point, and without verifying your account, once the verification was requested you might not be eligible for any winnings.
• Could you please forward a more complete chat transcript between you and the casino to illustrate your point? Post the information here or send it to me via tomas@casino.guru

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

Best regards,

Tomas

I can't access the transcript as they disabled my account, but this is how the situation unfolded:

I created my account in 2022 and their customer support agent confirmed to me that during that time there were no restrictions but apparently now they exist. They allowed me to make 3 deposits for which i took no bonuses and I played a couple hands at blackjack that i won. I wrote to their support team because i wanted to inquire about the cash back program. Since their support team was unable to help i decided I no longer want to play here so i proceeded to request a withdrawal. I was told that because i'm from a restricted territory that all my funds will be frozen, yet they had no issues allowing me make 3 deposits knowingly I use a VPN. Truth is, this is how these scam casinos operate and hide behind the terms and conditions: they welcome you and if you lose, well, no one asks any questions, but the moment you win, they enforce KYC and say you breach the terms.

I think it's important to emphasise the following aspects:

1) There were no restrictions when I created my account in 2022 and I haven't received any new terms and conditions notification since then to sign which is required by the current legislation.

2) Winz.io allows users to play users via restricted territories a fact that can be read on their alias domain: https://winz.com/:

"There are two mirrors Winz casino provides its users with: https://wins.io/ and https://winz1.io/. Both options are legit and work in most restricted areas. Also, they offer the next benefits"

3) The only reason i got my account locked is because i won. There's no wonder why users play at casinos such as stake.com and not at these scam sites.

Thomas, obviously this will not be a fair trial if you come here and say "casinos have the right to conduct account verification at any point". You strike me as a smart man that can see the harm being done here. You and I both know that if they would actually like to forbid restricted territories they could simply implement geo blocking. They're not doing that which is against the law. Even casino.guru has geo blocking because you guys are fair and only promote trustworthy casinos. You have a good reputation because you do the right thing for the player.

All I ask is that I receive my deposits and winnings because I was encouraged to play here by their advertising and because they allowed me to make the deposits knowingly i use a VPN.

Thanks for your response.

Since the casino requested the verification of your person, it seems the intention is to transact your funds, on the condition the verification of your account is complete. Freezing of players' accounts is often used during the verification procedure.

Please correct me if the casino expressed an intention to confiscate your funds.

Do I understand correctly that your profile in the casino is filled with accurate personal information about your place of residence?

I'll await your response

Is Casino.guru aware that winz.io is violating their terms and conditions by asking users from restricted territories to play at their casino and after they deposit they perform KYC on them knowing they can't pass with the goal of confiscating their funds?

I'll await your response.

Account verification serves to confirm the player's identity. Please understand that KYC verification is a very important and essential process, during which the casino makes sure that the money is sent to the rightful owner.

Not passing account verification and breaching casino terms aren't necessarily the same thing. Could you please advise why you think you cannot pass the account verification?

Thomas, when i created the account, I wasn't from a restricted territory, now according to their terms I am. Even though they haven't announced the new restriction anywhere (they admitted to this in the chat transcript which they have). If i submit KYC they will simply say I played from a restricted territory and refuse to award my winnings. They do that all the time.

It is funny that they're saying is a restricted territory as they still run ads in all these "restricted" territories.

Honestly, I don't even need my winnings back. I just want them exposed.

Thanks for your patience.

Let me remind you that without verifying your account, you won't be eligible for any withdrawals. Since it's not clear if as a result of your successful verification, your winnings would be withheld or not, we'll close the complaint due to lack of cooperation from your side, and this is the reason why our recommendation was for you to proceed with account verification.

Please understand that we cannot compel the casino to pay out your winnings if you didn't even attempt to verify your casino account.

That said, If the casino will confiscate your winnings due to accusations of you playing from a restricted country, or you struggle to verify your account, please contact us again by requesting a reopening of your complaint and we'll try to help.

For this reason, the complaint will be rejected.

Thank you for your understanding.