Zoome Casino - Player's winnings were confiscated due to alleged 'bonus abuse'.

I created my account on 12/03 and deposited 400 EUR the same day and received a 125% welcome bonus. After some very nice big wins and wagering the bonus I had a balance of around 3000 EUR.

In the days after that I verified my account and made a withdrawal request. On the 20/03 I received an email saying "We want to inform you that your balance has been written off to the deposit amount." due to terms and conditions clause 10.

I am unsure of what I have done wrong since they did not give any further details other clause 10. I have been in contact with their live support and they won't give me any more information of what is happening other then "bonus abuse". I made sure to never bet over the 5 EUR limit that was on the bonus I received. Please help!!

Dear MrZuraika,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your problem. Please allow me to ask you a few questions, so I can understand the whole situation completely. 

• Did the casino leave the deposit amount in your casino account?
• Do I understand correctly that this is the only explanation from the casino you received?

If there is any other relevant communication between you and the casino, please forward it to kristina.s@casino.guru. Alternatively, you can post it here. 

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,

Kristina

Dear MrZuraika,

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.

Hello,

I forwarded the only email I received from Zoome regarding the case. Sorry for the delay

Hello!

A bug was found in the deposit bonuses, which allowed you to use the bonus money to play in tournaments and in this way bypass honest players who play exclusively for real money. 

That is why winning tournament money using bonus money is considered illegitimate. 

For this reason, these winnings were cancelled in accordance with the company's rules, namely clause 8. 

If the Casino mistakenly credit your Player Account with a deposit, bonus or winnings that do not belong to you, whether due to a technical issue, error in the paytables, human error or otherwise, the amount and/or the winnings from such bonus or deposit will remain the Casino property and will be deducted from your Player Account. If you have withdrawn funds that do not belong to you prior to us becoming aware of the error, the mistakenly paid amount will (without prejudice to other remedies and actions that may be available at law) constitute a debt owed by you to us. In the event of an incorrect crediting, you are obliged to notify us immediately by email.

Only the deposit you made in the amount of 409.78 EUR was left on your account balance. 

We apologise for the inconvenience, the error in the bonus has already been fixed and should not happen again. 

As an apology, you have been credited with an additional 50 free spins. 

Thank you very much, MrZuraika, for your cooperation. I will now transfer your complaint to my colleague Peter (peter.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.  

Hi MrZuraika,

I'm taking over your complaint and I will make every effort to assist you.

Dear Zoome Casino team,

Let me ask you a question. What happened to the 125% bonus funds? Did the player just get 50 free spins instead?

Hello Peter. 

Unfortunately, all of the client's bonus funds have been written off according to the rules. 

As a form of loyalty, we provided the customer with a 50 free spins bonus and a new 125% deposit bonus, the promo code for which was sent to the customer's email.

Dear Zoome Casino team,

We understand your point of view. Let me ask you some additional questions:

1. When the system works normally, what does it look like? Is there a pop-up informing players that they are about to play a restricted game or the games are hidden from bonus play somehow?
2. What kind of tournament did the player join and what was the unfair advantage they gained doing so?

Hello Peter!

We sent to your mail the most detailed description of the situation and screenshots of the confirmation.

Dear Zoome Casino team,

Thank you for your email. I've sent you some additional questions.

Hello Peter!

We sent you an email with a description of the situation.

Hello CasinoGuru and Zoome,

I want to clarify two things:

"A bug was found in the deposit bonuses, which allowed you to use the bonus money to play in tournaments and in this way bypass honest players who play exclusively for real money. 

That is why winning tournament money using bonus money is considered illegitimate. "

1. I made a deposit and received a bonus, after that I played on a normal slot and never chose to enter any tournament.
2. All of my winnings are from playing on a normal slot and risking my own money + bonus money and not from any tournament winnings.

I tried logging in to my Zoome account and view my game history but it only allows me to view my latest 50 bets. I have requested Zoome to provide me with my betting history which will show where my winnings are from.

Kind regards

Hi MrZuraika,

I'm discussing the whole situation with the casino by email. So far I haven't received sufficient evidence and asked for more details.

Dear  Zoome Casino team,

Please answer the questions I've sent you and please add also the player's full game history.

Hello Peter!

Additional information about this situation has been sent to you via email.

Dear Zoome Casino team,

I haven't received any emails. My email address is peter.m@casino.guru.

Dear Peter!

Sorry for the inconvenience. Re-sent letters with details to this mail.

Dear Zoome Casino team,

Same as in the other open complaint, it looks like we are running around in circles. At first, you stated that the player was able to play a tournament with bonus money due to an error. However, I still lack information on the tournament specifics, the player's full game history, and how bonus funds were restricted during the tournament. Secondly, you mention a strategy where the player plays four slots simultaneously. When I reviewed part of the game history, all rounds seemed to work normally even though they happened at almost the same time. What is the unfair advantage here? How does it matter if the player plays four slots at once if they all work as they should? Therefore, please present detailed evidence of bonus abuse otherwise, I'm afraid, the complaint will be closed as unresolved with potential repercussions.

Hello Peter!

Unfortunately, we got a little misunderstanding on this complaint.

We gathered all the information together and painted everything on this situation in the most detail and sent the information to you by mail.

Dear Zoome Casino team,

Thank you for your email. We acknowledge your perspective, but the player did not violate any rules. He utilized the bonus, placed multiple bets at the same time, won some money, and then asked for a withdrawal. While this may be considered a traditional bonus-hunting strategy, overall, no rules were broken. Our final position is that the player should get paid their winnings, otherwise the complaint will become unresolved which may negatively affect the casino's rating. Please let us know what your decision will be.

Hello Peter,

We have decided to return the client's winnings in the amount of 2589 euros (with 409 euros of the deposit remaining in the account balance). Once the funds are received, the client's account will be closed on our website.

We want to highlight that we still consider the client's strategy to be that of a bonus abuser. Due to our initial difficulties with communication, erroneous information provided, and delays in responses, we have decided to make an exception in this case.

Please note that in the future, playing multiple slots simultaneously while wagering a bonus will be considered bonus abuse. Clients who employ such strategies will have their winnings forfeited and their deposit amounts refunded.

Unfortunately, there were some shortcomings in our internal processes and communications that led to this situation. We take responsibility for this and commit to providing timely responses with accurate information in the future. We have established processes to ensure this.

Winnings will be returned within 24 hours. 

We will notify you additionally. 

Thank you Zoome Casino team for reconsidering.

Dear MrZuraika,

Please let me know when you receive your funds.

Hello!

The funds have already been returned to the client's balance and can now be withdrawn.

Hello!

At this time, the client has already withdrawn the funds from the account balance.

Hello,

I am glad to say that my balance was restored and I was able to withdraw the the full amount. Thank you so much Casino Guru and Zoome for resolving this.

It's still a bit unclear to me what the issue was, but if it was playing multiple slots at the same time I'd recommend you either write something about it in the rules not being allowed or just implement some feature which does not allow multiple slots at the same time. Or you could extend the short bonus wagering duration from 72 hours, which makes it very stressful to clear the bonus wagering with just 1 slot. Just trying to help out future players.

Never the less, BIG thanks to all parties involved, this means a lot to me

After successfully resolving the problem, we will mark the complaint as 'resolved' in our system. We appreciate your cooperation and confirmation, MrZuraika, and if you encounter any issues with this or any other casino in the future, please do not hesitate to contact our Complaint Resolution Center. Our goal is to assist you.

As you know, we do not charge for our services, nor do we accept any gratuities. However, we would appreciate if you could take a moment to share your experience with our services on Trustpilot https://www.trustpilot.com/evaluate/casino.guru. An honest review and any suggestions you may have to improve our complaint resolution and mediation process would be greatly appreciated. Your feedback could prove helpful to others who are considering contacting us about any online casino-related issues. Thank you in advance for your time. 

Best regards,

Peter