Complaint #751
Bovada Casino
Disabled my account and stole 8900 from me
3 years ago
A week and a half ago I was informed that my account was temporarily disabled after I attempted to withdraw 8.9k in winnings after an initial $1k deposit. I was told that my account being temporarily disabled was normal and that it would be removed between 24-48 hours. After a week and a half, I got another e-mail saying that my account was permanently banned and winnings seized due to "Refer-a-Friend" abuse. Before I get into that, I'll give a little backstory into how I joined the website and my relation to Refer-a-Friend.
I signed up for this website about 3 weeks ago after my brother referred me to this website. Prior to me joining under his referral, my brother asked bovada support if it was okay to refer his sister to this website and bovada's support staff said that yes, it was. If they did not say that it was okay I either would have not joined under his referral or I would have not joined at all. Under the terms of service for Refer-A-Friend, I see that it says that one cannot refer a person solely to receive a bonus, and while I did want to help my brother out, I actually did want to (and did) gamble on my own accord. I gambled on baseball, tennis, blackjack, and slots and luckily went from my initial 1k deposit (+75% first time user bonus) to 8.9k.
So not long after completing the rollover and wanting to cash out, I got hit with an email saying my account is disabled and all that nonsense. Going back to the refer-a-friend, again, customer service specifically said it was okay to refer family members, and yet refer-a-friend abuse is the reason they gave me for my winnings being wiped. The very confusing part is that I did not receive any type of bonus or extra money from the refer-a-friend, it was my brother that did. According to him, his account did not get terminated but his eligibility for bonuses of any kind were removed. Bovada did not go into any detail with any of us as to what part of the refer-a-friend terms of service was abused either. They did say that I could receive my initial deposit back and told me it would take 24-48 hours to arrive, but after close to 80 hours, I decided to just make this report even if it costs me my chance to get the initial deposit. At the very least I may be able to alert people to a potential scam this company is running.
In any case, even if there was some type of abuse with refer-a-friend (There wasn't), it makes zero sense for my account winnings to be taken from me especially when I did not receive any bonus funds on my account from signing up under my brother's referral. In the past couple days, brother told me that this website has been having more and more accounts getting disabled after attempting to cash out, and the website has been lowering or removing people's bonuses altogether. I don't know what's going on with this company but it sounds extremely shady.
In any case, I would like to receive my total $8.9k back.
I signed up for this website about 3 weeks ago after my brother referred me to this website. Prior to me joining under his referral, my brother asked bovada support if it was okay to refer his sister to this website and bovada's support staff said that yes, it was. If they did not say that it was okay I either would have not joined under his referral or I would have not joined at all. Under the terms of service for Refer-A-Friend, I see that it says that one cannot refer a person solely to receive a bonus, and while I did want to help my brother out, I actually did want to (and did) gamble on my own accord. I gambled on baseball, tennis, blackjack, and slots and luckily went from my initial 1k deposit (+75% first time user bonus) to 8.9k.
So not long after completing the rollover and wanting to cash out, I got hit with an email saying my account is disabled and all that nonsense. Going back to the refer-a-friend, again, customer service specifically said it was okay to refer family members, and yet refer-a-friend abuse is the reason they gave me for my winnings being wiped. The very confusing part is that I did not receive any type of bonus or extra money from the refer-a-friend, it was my brother that did. According to him, his account did not get terminated but his eligibility for bonuses of any kind were removed. Bovada did not go into any detail with any of us as to what part of the refer-a-friend terms of service was abused either. They did say that I could receive my initial deposit back and told me it would take 24-48 hours to arrive, but after close to 80 hours, I decided to just make this report even if it costs me my chance to get the initial deposit. At the very least I may be able to alert people to a potential scam this company is running.
In any case, even if there was some type of abuse with refer-a-friend (There wasn't), it makes zero sense for my account winnings to be taken from me especially when I did not receive any bonus funds on my account from signing up under my brother's referral. In the past couple days, brother told me that this website has been having more and more accounts getting disabled after attempting to cash out, and the website has been lowering or removing people's bonuses altogether. I don't know what's going on with this company but it sounds extremely shady.
In any case, I would like to receive my total $8.9k back.
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