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Unjustified Confiscation of Funds


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By Faye J.
6 years ago
Hello,

I recently signed up to West Casino and deposited for the welcome bonus, The welcome offer was a 100% to £100 deposit match on my funds . I wagered all my funds in accordance with the terms and conditions displayed on their site, I finish the wagering with £6553.50 and was ecstatic. I then tried to withdraw my funds from their site, I was told to contact their customer services which I did. The customer service representative congratulated me on my winnings and informed me I just had to send in a few documents to comply with their verification procedures.
I sent in the documents requested which where approved by the casino, I proceed to withdraw from their site.
A few days later I got a heartbreaking email saying they where confiscating my winnings and returning my deposit. The email reads:-
Hello Faye,


We hope this email finds you well.

Please be informed that the winnings (the total amount from your withdrawal request) were confiscated, according to our Terms & Conditions :

GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR PLAYING WITH BONUSES

1. Each promotional bonus is limited to one per user, IP address, computer device, family, residential address, telephone number, credit or debit card and/or e-payment account, e-mail address, and environments where computers are shared (university, school, public library, workplace, etc.), unless otherwise stated in the Promotions' Terms.

3. West Casino reserves the right to confiscate any bonuses or winnings received in a fraudulent manner or generated from games which are restricted from being played with active bonus. West Casino rules forbid abusing bonus offers. If such abuse is discovered, the Casino has a right to confiscate the winnings and deny the player any bonus access.

Your deposit amount of 100.00 GBP has been left in your balance, and you can request a withdraw.

Kindly note that our decision is final regarding this matter.

Best Regards,


As I was very upset about this I emailed the casino back to ask for more details on the subject as I didn't feel I broke any of the terms they were accusing me of breaking.

Hi,

I am very upset by this. Please provide some evidence for this, as you are completely making it up. I only have one account.

Please advise me on your complaints procedure.

Regards
Faye


I then got an very abrupt email back answering none of my questions I had raised with the casino.

Hello Faye,


Please be informed that the decision regarding your case is a final one.

Kindly direct further complaints to compla­int­s@e­ver­yma­tri­x.com and they will provide you more details regarding this matter.

Let us know in case you have any further inquiries.

Best Regards,

I proceeded to email the complaints department asking for more details on why they were confiscating my winnings.

Hello,
Please could you provide me with the details regarding this matter.
Faye

The email I got in return to this shocked me deeply as they were no truth in the reason for confiscating my winnings, They simply made it up so they didn't have to process my withdrawal.

Hi Faye,

Thank you for contacting the EveryMatrix Complaints department.

We have analysed your case and reached the conclusion that the bonus confiscation is correct as per the following T&C article:

1. Each promotional bonus is limited to one per user, IP address, computer device, family, residential address, telephone number, credit or debit card and/or e-payment account, e-mail address, and environments where computers are shared (university, school, public library, workplace, etc.), unless otherwise stated in the Promotions' Terms.

We have detected in our system that multiple accounts using the IP 5.10.108.3 have received the first deposit bonus. Your account was among them and, as a result, the winnings were confiscated.

Kindly visit Terms and Conditions for more information regarding bonus restrictions.


Yours Sincerely,
EveryMatrix Complaints Team

The IP they were claiming I used was not even registered to the broadband provider I use (BT) but to a hosting company based in London (http:­//w­ww.s­of­tla­yer.com/).
As what they were saying was all false accusations I emailed them back again:-

Hello,

In reply to your email dated 21/01/2019 13.49.
The IP you are claiming I accessed and signed up to your site with is from an ISP I do not use or have ever heard of before.
The ISP I use is BT which is what I accessed your site with when I signed up. I even have a record of the IP I used when I signed up to your site.
I feel you are just trying to confiscate my funds by claiming I signed up with a different IP than I actually did.
I would like this escalating onto your senior management for their input on the situation, failing this I will be opening up a case with your ADR as I feel this is a gross misuse of your terms and conditions at your casino.

Regards Faye


​I notice from other complaints on here this is not the first time this has happened, I am shocked they can just claim someone at any point in time has logged in with the same IP would result in confiscating funds, as there are only so many IPs registered to ISP in any given country.
But to then fabricate a story to confiscate funds is bordering on criminal.

​I have also read that Every Matrix is losing its UK Gambling licence so one would presume these practises are a common theme upon the Every Matrix group.
I would be grateful for my funds re instated to be made available for immediate withdrawal

Kind Regards Faye
Disputed Casino WestCasino

Discussion

User name

AskGamblers Complaints Team has been provided with enough information and evidence on behalf WestCasino management in regards of this complaint to confirm and justify the casino actions.

Based on the above, AskGamblers Complaints Team consider this case as Resolved and it is now officially closed. In case of a disagreement with our decision we remind player that further assistance on this matter could be requested from the relevant regulatory body.

User name
Hi AskGamblers Team

We are providing extra evidence right away, via email.

Regards,
Ed Blake
User name

AskGamblers Complaints Team is awaiting WestCasino team to provide the required information.

User name loyalty-level-2
Hello Ask Gamblers,

If this is the same fabricated evidence I have already seen from them this is by no way "proof" of any wrong doing on my part, All which it showed was an IP that I apparently logged into their site with, I did not log into the site with the IP in question, as its from a hosting company ISP and not my BT Broadband ISP which I used to access the site.
Furthermore there are only so many IPs available to the UK market so one would presume at some point someone will log in with matching IPs, Would this be a justifiable way of stealing money from players given that players that access the site have no way of knowing if the IP was the same as someone else's?

WestCasino Complaint Stats

Resolved 38 / 38
Avg. Amount $2,258
Avg. Complaint Duration 7 days
Avg. Response Time 1 day
Casino not verifying account
On 8.9.2024, I had 1329€ after wagering a bonus, I withdrew the money and started verifying my account. I then uploaded a picture of my ID card to the site on the same day. On 16.9, they sent me an email (screenshot) saying that my withdrawal has been placed back in my balance, as I had sent them a "blurry" image of my ID, and hadn't send them an official bank statement yet. I then uploaded a bank statement, and new pictures of my ID card on 17.9.

As I hadn't heard anything from them, I contacted them through live chat on 31.9, and asked what is the hold up, since the verification of the documents should take only 1-3 days, as their site says. The live chat operative told me that they "trust" that the verification team is going to contact me once they are done with the verification, nothing else.

On 1.10 I again asked what is the hold up, and told them I'd contact AskGamblers on the following friday if my account hasn't been verified and money withdrawn because my verification is being held up for no reason.

On 4.10, they sent an email (screenshot) saying that, again, the pictures of my ID card are blurry (none of the pictures were blurry, other sites had accepted them without a problem). I humored them and sent them new pictures of my ID cards for the third time. I sent the pictures on 4.10, and waited again, and as I received no response I decided to contact the customer support through email on 10.10 (screenshot), and they told me that the documents I send have to be valid and that the finance team will check it "as soon as they can".

It's been 4 days since that and I haven't heard anything from them, so I thought its time to open a complaint here, as it seems they are just using delay tactics and trying to make me play the balance away.
Status solved Resolved
€1,329
Operator deliberately ignoring emails

I have been trying to get in touch with WestCasino regarding a legal issue about their operator in my country of residence since December 11, 2022. Hence, I contacted them via e-mail on December 11 and 19 with my initial request. Since I did not get a response whatsoever, I sent follow-ups reminding them about my writings on December 20 and January 9 2023.

Please find proof of my e-mails attached to this writing. In the meantime, I got in touch with their live-chat several times, as I simply did not hear anything at all from their e-mail support. There, I was told, "Live-Chat support and e-mail support are to different departments and both cannot access each other's data." Hence, they could not tell me if they received any of my e-mails or were processing them. However, I was told multiple times I would receive an answer "soon".

Since that had not happened after one month, I decided to bring in my lawyer. Therefore, I needed my official transaction history on their Casino. On January 14, I contacted the operator again, asking for said transaction history. This time, after two days, I was told to contact their DPO - which I did. I have not heard from them since January 16.

On January 31 I resent my initial request with more detailed information. On February 3, I reminded them about my e-mail and asked for a confirmation of receipt. I have not heard from WestCasino since then.

I gave the operator the benefit of the doubt for some time. However, I have been waiting for almost two months now and have not heard anything at all (!) regarding my request. I would love to solve this issue through my lawyer, though I also do not get any responses from the operator's DPO.

WestCasino simply seems to be intentionally ignoring my request for whatever reason, as my e-mails clearly come through - since they responded to my request about my transaction history within two days. I had also thought that perhaps my e-mails did not come through, however, my e-mail provider always informs me within seven days if such a thing happened.

With this public complaint, I would like to utter my discontent about the way the operator is handling this issue. I would like to specifically point out that this complaint does not regard the legal issue behind my initial complaint (I will either try to find a solution with the operator itself or resolve the entire matter in court), but the way the support team simply ignores any of my e-mails. I understand requests sometimes can take longer to process, however having to wait almost two months without hearing anything really goes beyond anything I have seen before.

I am hopeful this complaint will encourage the operator to finally get in touch and find a timely solution to my request.


Kind regards

S

Status solved Resolved