NetBet Casino - Cancelling a £1500 Withdrawal & Unfairly adding the balance back as Bonus

Hi Support.

I am currently in the early stages of a withdrawal issue with NetBet Casino over the cash balance of £1567.
As it currently stands. I am awaiting an email response from NetBet regarding the cancellation of my Withdrawal request.
I will structure this email with event timelines in order to communicate this as clearly as possible.

09-08-2016: So to begin with, after logging into NetBet Casino I was notified of an offer in my Bonus Section. The offer was a 100% deposit Bonus up to £1000 with a wagering requirement of x40 (£40000) attached to it before I could withdraw.

09-08-2016 23:47:46: I made a deposit of £1000 but could not activate the bonus using the code so logged off.

10-08-2016: I spoke with a Live Chat agent to have the bonus activated and this was done after I made sure I knew the specifics of the terms and conditions surrounding the wagering requirement. The offer was added to my account requesting me to accept the offer.

I proceeded to start the wagering requirement only to realise that the wagering requirements were not decreasing as the offer hadn’t been accepted yet. With my balance now at £900 I accepted the offer and then deposited £100 at 13:09:49 to get my balance back to £1000 in order to increase my chances of completing the wagering requirement.

Acknowledging my mistake of wagering before accepting the bonus, I knew that the extra deposit of £100 would become part of the bonus offer terms and conditions and was happy to accept that.

So with a balance now of £1000 Cash balance and £1000 Bonus balance and the offer accepted with it showing in my Active Bonus Section with details of the wagering requirement present, I proceeded with wagering.

Just to provide a clearer perspective, the wagering requirement was carried out on two Slot Machines both of which were not listed in the terms and conditions as blacklisted in anyway.

I completed £18438.08 wagering before my Cash balance was £0 and my Bonus balance was £0.

I then went to my active bonus page and cancelled the active bonus in my account to ensure I didn’t have to continue to wager any more money on this active bonus in the future. This was successfully cancelled and before I logged off there were no active bonuses in my bonus section and the bonus was now moved onto the Bonus History tab as expected.

10-08-2016 23:21:41: Purely for leisurely purposes I deposited £500 for another session in the Casino. When I deposited there were no Active Bonuses or Wagering requirements presented on my Bonus Section page. As expected, the £500 went straight to my Cash balance and with no associated wagering requirements I proceeded to play at the Casino.

By the end of this session my Cash balance was up to £1567.50 my Bonus balance was still rightfully £0 so I proceeded to carry out a withdrawal request of £1567. This was processed and removed from my Cash Balance

11-08-2016: I then received the following email from NetBet support:

Our finance department would like to inform you that your withdrawal request of GBP1567.00, registered on 2016-08-11 has been cancelled by our payment agent as your application was not completed in time.

As a result, the amount of GBP 1567.00 has been returned to the balance on your player account and you can use it at any time you wish.

For any additional help, feel free to contact our customer service department.

Straight away, I logged into my NetBet Casino account only to find that the money had not been put back into my account. Also, the brief, unclear email obviously left me with more questions than answers so I proceeded to contact the support line.

Upon getting through to support, the agent who I will not mention by name out of decency took my username and without performing any security checks, proceeded to give me information about my account. This in itself is extremely concerning. Her vague, unclear and inconsistent response as to why my withdrawal was refused included the following:

• The email I received was not communicated correctly and shouldn’t have been communicated like that as explanation is incorrect.
• The withdrawal was refused as I still had to complete wagering on the bonus I had previously cancelled earlier in the evening.
• There was a ‘Technical Issue’ with the site which enabled me to request a withdrawal request when it shouldn’t have.
• She could not give me any further information than that as she had limited access to the information on my Account.
• The money had not been transferred back into my account as it was with the Finance Department who were carrying out investigations.
• While this has been escalated to the Technical and Finance departments I can expect to hear back in 48 hours or more.

I explained that I had cancelled the active bonus at the end of my previous session, there was nothing in my bonus section other than cancelled bonuses and deposited the £500 with no bonus or wagering attached - purely as a fresh deposit. Essentially I did not agree to any terms, nor was I presented with any throughout the deposit process.

While on the phone I checked the Bonus section of my account and just as before there was still no record of any Active Bonuses or Wagering requirements so I took screenshots of this to support my claim with the date and time clearly shown.


To summarise in short:

1. Deposited £1000 on 09-08-2016 but could not activate the bonus.
2. Had the bonus added to my account on 10-08-2016 but started wagering without accepting the offer leaving my deposit balance at approximately £900.
3. 10-08-2016: Accepted Bonus. 13:09:49 Deposited £100 to bring my Cash Balance up to approximately £1000, Bonus Balance now £1000. Aware that the extra £100 would be tied in with the offer.
4. 10-08-2016 13:09:49 to roughly 20:00/21:00 Wagered £18438.08 until cash and bonus funds both reached £0.
5. Cancelled the active bonus on my account, bonus funds and cash both at £0. Active Bonus now moved to Bonus History page. Logged off.
6. 10-08-2016 23:21:41 Deposited £500 cash into my account with no promotion opted in to, Cash Balance of £500, Bonus Balance of £0
7. Ended Session in the early hours of 11-08-2016 with Cash balance of £1567.50 Bonus Balance £0.
8. Withdrew £1567 cash in the early hours of 11-08-2016. Cash balance of £0.50 Bonus Balance £0.
9. 11-08-2016 14:09: Emailed regarding withdrawal cancellation.
10. 11-08-2016 15:00: Contacted telephone support. Cash balance of £0.50 Bonus Balance £0 no funds returned.
11. 11-08-2016 Evening: Cash funds returned as Bonus funds. Cash Balance £0.50 Bonus balance £1567 with remaining wagering requirements of £21561.92 from previous cancelled bonus active. Expiry date also extended by 1 month.
12. Currently awaiting a detailed response from NetBet Casino. Seeking further assistance from your Team.

Please note that I am only able to see my deposit date and times so the times given for game sessions times are close estimations.

I am completely aware that if I hadn't cancelled the active Bonus and then deposited £500 I would have accepted that I would need to complete the wagering. Like I did with the £100 deposit. However, if my Balance is 0 for both balances before wagering is completed I always cancel active bonuses before making fresh deposits. This is purely on the basis that sometimes I deposit with bonuses attached to extend playing time and other times I deposit without so that I can withdraw whenever I see fit and not be committed to any wagering requirements.

My main concerns are as follows:

• When depositing the £500 I have been opted into something without being informed of it nor agreeing to it.
• In my experience with online Casinos I have never been made to commit to a previously cancelled offer – nor have I ever seen any terms and conditions that declare this.
• After reading some of the previous cases on Askgamblers I can see that this has happened before to other users.
• This ‘Technical issue’ was not of my making and so far have been given vague information about this.

At this point I want to make it clear that I am not accusing NetBet Casino of any unethical business practices until I have received a response from them and expressed my concerns with this case. I think it could be highly possible that whoever has investigated my withdrawal request is mistakenly of the belief that a technical issue enabled me to withdraw when I shouldn’t have been able to. If this is the case, they have missed the fact that the Bonus was no longer Active. Provided they acknowledge this mistake and proceed with the withdrawal request then there is no issue.

However, if they claim that I am still required to complete wagering on a Cancelled Bonus then that is illegitimate to say the very least. I have evidence that clearly shows there were no Active Bonuses at the time of the £500 deposit so I fail to acknowledge how NetBet can justify the need for me to continue wagering £21561.92 of a cancelled bonus.

I would also like to express concern at the level of inconsistency of what I have so far been told. For example, if they expect me to complete £21561.92 of wagering after wagering £18438.08 during the bonus attempt, why hasn’t the money wagered after depositing the £500 been considered? This assumes that they are of the belief that money wagered during this period was my own cash balance and not contributing towards any wagering requirement.

Therefore, surely any money won from this is rightfully cash winnings?
Are they trying to argue that before I can make a withdrawal I could potentially have to deposit and lose £21561.92 until then?
If what they are saying is consistent then shouldn’t the wagering now be of a value less than £21561.92 with the wagering of the £500 deposit included?
Also, if the new cash balance of £0.50 is correct shouldn't that 50p now be Bonus money too?

Essentially I do not believe I should be required to fulfill any wagering requirements and that the money won with the £500 is completely irrelevant to the cancelled bonus and the withdrawal request should be fulfilled.

As I’m currently awaiting their response regarding this technical issue (which I do not believe to be true or relevant) I would request that this case is reviewed initially and would appreciate any advice before publishing this.

I have included some screenshots of my account as and when this has been on going with the date included. The only Edits made are to the username using windows retouch to hide this information. I have included both the edited and unedited versions to verify this but obviously request that my username isn't publicised. Unfortunately, I don't have any screenshots from before making the withdrawal requests, but as you can see from my casino balance of 50p, this was £1567.50 before withdrawing but you can only withdraw whole numbers so the 50p was left.

Also, just to confirm that the bonus balance was 0 at the time of withdrawal, I did not receive any warnings notifying me of any bonus balance that would consequently be removed had I proceeded with withdrawal which from experience usually is the case.

Thank you for your time – I appreciate it’s a big read but I’m trying to give the clearest possible review of the current situation as I can and need as much assistance as I can get having never been in this position before and extremely concerned.

Many Thanks,