My first problem with a casino, ever.

[Linus]

I've been playing for a couple of years, but I've never had a problem... until now. I thought I'd post it here, for thoughts or suggests, or even just to give people a heads up.

The casino is City Club Casino.

I deposited $100 last night, and played for a couple of hours. I played a while again this morning, before checking to see if I'd met the WR, mostly at $5/hand.

Here are the terms and conditions, from their website.

100% MATCH BONUS ON YOUR FIRST DEPOSIT UP TO $100

Deposit any first deposit amount up to $500 at City Club Casino and we will automatically credit your account with a 100% bonus of up to $100 in free bonus cash.

Please note that in the interests of fair gaming, we require you to have wagered a minimum of 20 (twenty) times your deposit and bonus before cashing out any amount higher than your initial deposit amount, up to$4,000. If you make a withdrawal before wagering 10 (ten) times your deposit and bonus, the bonus money and winnings will be removed from your account.

For example:
Deposit $20, Get $20 Bonus. Wager at least $800 ($40×20).
Deposit $100, Get $100 Bonus. Wager at least $4,000 ($200×20).
Deposit $200, Get $100 Bonus. Wager at least $4,000 .
Deposit $500, Get $100 Bonus. Wager at least $4,000 .

They're much longer than that, of course, but they're the same now as they were last night, so you can go and read them if you want.

The casino prohibits BJ, but allows VP.

About an hour ago I checked my cashier, and saw I'd wagered enough to fulfill the WR. The comp screen showed I'd wagered $4330, for which I earned one dollar in comps. I took the $1, bumping my account all the way to $132.00, and tried to cash out. No luck.

I called, and the CSR told me the bonus was play money only. It was automatically removed, and could not be withdrawn. I told her that's not what the T&C's said, and she asked me to read them to her. Then she said I hadn't wagered enough. I asked her if the problem was that I hadn't wagered enough, or was it that the bonus couldn't be withdrawn at all. She said it was both.

At that point I decided I wasn't getting anywhere on the phone.

So I've sent an email.

Hi,

My name is xxxx xxxxx. Last night I deposited $100 at your casino, under the "Match Bonus" promotion, advertised on your website.

I read the terms and conditions carefully, and I saw I had to play the bonus and the deposit twenty times in order to cash out the bonus.

After playing for a few hours last night and this morning, I checked my comp points in the cashier, and saw that I'd wagered $4,330. But when I tried to cash-out, my cash-out was denied. I called customer service,, and the rep I talked to said that the bonus was non-cashable, that it could not be cashed out all at, ever.

Please note that nowhere in your terms and condtions is this said or implied.

Instead, they say:

Please note that in the interests of fair gaming, we require you to have wagered a minimum of 20 (twenty) times your deposit and bonus before cashing out any amount higher than your initial deposit amount, up to$4,000. If you make a withdrawal before wagering 10 (ten) times your deposit and bonus, the bonus money and winnings will be removed from your account.


Again, the figures in the "Comp Points" section in the cashier show I have wagered over $4000.

Could you please help me sort this.

Thank you.

Again, any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

Thanks!

[Lukas85]

regarding the discrepancy between comp points and calculation by the casino: Did you Double when playing VP? You get comps for doubling however it does NOT count towards the WR .... that might be an explanation.

[Linus]

Thanks, Lukas. No, it's not doubling. I did see that doubling doesn't count toward the WR, and I did not double until after I checked the comps. At that point I had (something like) $133.50, and I doubled three times (losing twice and winning once), in order to get rid of the odd amount.

[The Watchdog]

If they are honest, they will not have a problem giving you the exact amount of wagers you have placed.

Also request them copies of your chats and keep contacting them. I really dont understand why would they give you problems for a $32 proffit. They shouldn't give you problems for any amount of proffits, but if they were some type of scammers I don't see why would they go through the trouble of holding $32 from you.

[spearmaster]

Linus, I believe there's a rep somewhere here (City Club belongs to same group as Racetrack).

It occurs to me that if you've done enough wagering as evidenced by the comp screen, that really ought to be the end of the story unless something else happened:

* an additional bonus was put into the account without you noticing it
* something you played, whether doubling, or BJ, or something, didn't count.

I'm guessing that you're probably more knowledgeable than that and so everything ought to be in order. So maybe best you PM the rep, and if that fails, PAB.

[Linus]

Yeah, I don't understand it either, but I suspect incompetence, not malice.

Looking at the comps page again, I'm realizing the comps # they have for me are wrong. They're showing 4330 in comps, at 10:1. I was thinking that meant I'd wagered just over $4K. But actually it's saying I've wagered over $40K - which can't possibly be right.

I'm guessing the correct figure is 40:1, not 10:1. That means I still have more wagering to do, and would explain why I can't cashout.

It doesn't explain why the CSR was insisting the bonus is noncashable, though. (Although I can think of a perfectly good explanation for that!)

[Linus]

Spear - thank you for responding. I've already emailed the casino, so we'll see if they can confirm or deny what the CSR told me on the phone this morning.

I really suspect, though, that the problem is the wagering, and that what the CSR told me was simply wrong (that the bonus is noncashable).

Anyway, it'll have to wait until tomorrow - I do have a little bit of a life, away from my computer.

[Linus]

Completed the rest of the WR this morning and cashed out $154. The cashier accepted it, and I'll assume the CSR was wrong, and there won't be anymore problems.

Moral of the story: don't call CSR, and don't listen to what they tell you.