I won some money on the winner bingo site last week, and following on from that I also won £250 cash as part of their 12 days of Christmas promotion.
I've since requested a withdrawal for some of the money and received an email the next day requesting notorised copies of my passport, a utility bill, and proof of ownership of my moneybookers account that I used to deposit.
Firstly, I contacted moneybookers and they told me there's no such thing as a "proof of ownership" for their accounts, so the best thing I could do is probably send them a copy of the email. Secondly, the address that they've requested I send the documents too is a PO box in the Phillipines. Since the company is based in Gibralter I believe, it seems outrageous that they would ask me to send notorised personal documents that could potentially be used in a fraud into a country that they apparently aren't even based in. Not to mention that this will likely cost a lot of money to get the documents notorised and to send them by courier. Finally, I don't think I can send by recorded delivery because the address they've given me is a PO box.
I've spoken to support and I'm more than willing to send any documents by email, or to send notorised documents to somewhere in the UK or Gibralter, but I'm not willing to put myself at risk by sending them to an unknown place in the Phillipines. They've responded that unless I do so they will refuse to process and withdrawal or return any money.
Is there anyway around this at all? Obviously I won't ever be using this joke of a company again, but I'm worried I'm not going to even get my money back at all. I'm wondering if it's possible to take legal action in this scenario or anything?
We would like to summarize the details of this case. The player deposited 200 pounds in the Bingo cashier of which he then subsequently received Bingo bonuses relating to that deposit. The player then used the 200 pounds deposit he made in the Bingo cashier to place a sports bet, this contravened our terms and conditions of the Bingo bonus as the player had to play within Bingo product in order for his bonus to be valid. The player was able to use the bonuses in Bingo and was able to generate winnings with them.
At the time the player was playing with his Bingo bonuses Winner Bingo was running a promotion in which a random player who played in the Bingo product would receive a 250 pounds cash bonus. The player in question won this bonus. The 200 pounds sports bet the player placed won with returns of £236.36. His total winnings in the Bingo and Sports Product along with the £250 cash bonus totaled £722.34. As the player was not eligible for the bonus as he did not use his deposit in the Bingo bonus we removed the winnings received with that bonus along with the 250 pounds 12 days of Christmas bonus as he won that with a bonus he was not entitled to.
We subsequently have cut the amount of £536.38 from the original £722.34 request and refunded the amount of £236.36 that was won from the sports bet. The withdrawal was processed on the 31st of December to the players Moneybookers account. If the player has not yet received this we ask that he contacts our customer support team who will be able to provide subsequent proof that the withdrawal was successful so he can take the matter up with Moneybookers.
This is a further complaint after the one I had recently on this site which I had hoped was resolved. You can see the details of the complaint by clicking the link below:
http://www.askgamblers.com/casino-complaints/winner-casino-request-for-notorised-documents-c3573
They finally agreed to remove the request for notorized documents to be sent to the Philippines as you can see in their response, so I then logged in again and tried to withdraw.
The withdrawal didn't go through (I've been waiting well over a month now) so I went on live chat to check it out and was told that they still haven't received my notorized documents. I explained the situation and after well over an hour on live chat I received an email asking for written confirmation that the document request had been removed. I sent this through as requested.
I assume this was accepted (although they didn't confirm this with me by email). I then received an email saying that I have now been accused of bonus abuse and all of my winnings have been removed. The part of the terms and conditions that they've accused me of breaking wasn't written into the terms and conditions of the offer at the time that I did it and has subsequently been added.
The bonus in question was a 300% sign up bonus and the mistake I made was to bet part of it on sports rather than bingo (all with the same company). The major issue I have with this however, is that after completing the bonus requirements for the sign up offer, I later received a £250 cash bonus as part of the "12 days of Christmas" promotion which was separate from any bonus that I had done before. This was a cash win that came out of the blue and I received an email asking me to send in a picture and testimonial so I could be put on the site.
Well, low and behold, the £250 cash has now been removed from my account as well as the winnings from the other bonus offer that I've been accused of abusing. Confiscating my winnings from that one is bad enough (since they manipulated the terms to suit themselves) however I can accept that if it meant getting the rest of my money back. The fact that they have now stolen ANOTHER £250 for absolutely no reason is mind blowingly ridiculous. They openly admit that I didn't break any terms or conditions, but they just decided to remove that as well as the other winnings and bonus.
I went on live chat with the bingo team again this morning top question this and you just couldn't make this stuff up. They AGAIN said to me that I needed to send in notorised documents. I told them FOR A THIRD TIME that this had been waivered and showed them the confirmation I had in writing, and after another hour on live chat they accepted that and told me they had removed the lock on my account for withdrawals AGAIN.
So that's where I am now,
-STILL NO SIGN OF A WITHDRAWAL after over a month of waiting.
-Well over 3 hours spent on live chat as they STILL tried to get me to send notorized documents after clearly stating on this site that I didn't have to anymore.
-Over £250 taken from me for alleged bonus abuse.
-£250 stolen from me WITHOUT ANY BONUS ABUSE, just because they felt like it with no explanation at all.
-Still completely refused any contact with the finance team or anyone involved with making the decision to steal these funds from me. I simply get passed from one section to another, and have to explain the whole situation again and explain why I don't have to send notorized documents in.
After all of this, I'm even willing to accept the false accusation of bonus abuse and over £250 being taken away, but I refuse to accept that they can steal £250 cash from the account from a bonus that THEY THEMSELVES ADMIT I didn't abuse as it was a totally separate promotion.
If they are willing to let me withdraw my deposit and the £250 christmas promo cash, I will end this complaint now and not pursue it any further. The ball is in your court.
Dear adjones56,
We would like to inform you that the decision for the requested documents has been overturned in the interests of moving the issue forwards. As the documentation request was overturned the pending withdrawal was released. If documents were still required then this would not be the case and the withdrawal would still be frozen. We can confirm that the withdrawal was process on 31 December 2013 and the funds should be with the customer shortly.
We hope this now resolves the issue and should the customer need any further assistance we are at their disposal.
I've now had ANOTHER request for notarized documents, that's 4 times now they've asked AFTER confirming that I no longer need to send them.
Absolute bunch of liars, total crooks.
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