Allowed me to play from a restricted country for over a year now
Dear AskGamblers,
I started playing on Stake.com a year ago because I've seen a French streamer on Twitch, who made some advertise about this provider, with an affiliation system. He has never mentioned anything about the fact that it was forbidden to play from France at all, as his audience is 99% from France. I filled the identity and address verification on Stake, because I read in their ToS that playing from my country (France) was forbidden. So I filled everything for Stake to be able to know that I was based in France. I thought it was ok to play, and that I maybe misunderstood something in their ToS. I never used any VPN or whatever, I can prove that all my login connections were made from France. They also gave me some mirror URL to use, when I asked the live support, because Stake.com was no more available from France. So at this point, I never tried to hide that I was playing from France.
I played for a year, and I became addicted. I had a very bad compulsive behavior, but Stake never tried to help me, or anything. I made so many times 5-6 deposit in a short time, which should have warn them about my gambling addiction, but they did nothing. Also, Stake doesn't have any limit option, as deposit or bet limits. They said it was because they're using crypto, so they can't block any deposit, which is right, but for the bet limit, they can, but they don't. Also, they're providing so many bonuses to keep you related to their casino - a weekly bonus, every Saturday, at the same hour, which creates a kind of psychological link with them. And a monthly bonus. These bonuses depend on how much you've bet during the week or the month. They also use a progression bar to access to different VIP levels, which gives you more different bonus, but also push you to bet more and more to level up. I complained about this kind of system, which pushes the customer to bet more and more. Despite the fact that they are showing some "Responsible Gaming" logos, they don't care about it. Also, in their promotion mails, they don't mention anything about "Responsible Gaming", which shows again, that they truly don't care about it.
As I mentioned having gambling troubles, Stake decided to close my account without my permission. They said that they can, because of point number 3 of their ToS Warranties. They didn't say anything about the fact that they let me play from a restricted country. It's funny because they decided to ban me when I started to complain. This is unfair.
I asked the support with a different email address if I can register from France on Stake, and they said that I can't. I asked them if there will be a system that will block my account, and they answered: "your account would be closed upon creation". This is a total lie.
I was able to create an account with my real IP address from France (I've got the login archives with IP address that Stake shows on their website), and despite the fact that I filled the ID and address verification, they didn't do anything. But, listening to them, and if you read the ToS, they should have closed my account as soon as they could know I was based in France. But they didn't.
This is the reason why I'm asking for a full refund, and for damages and interest because of the gambling addiction Stake gave me, which caused many issues in my professional and personal life, I'm now being under medical treatment.
I've got all the proofs about everything.
Best regards.