Beware Big Dollar Casino - locked me/confiscated because I won

[KnickNut3]

Hello. I will explain the facts that led to my account being locked at Big Dollar Casino and winnings confiscated with no actual notice from the casino itself.

I received a letter in the mail for a $100 promotion.

I signed up for an account and received the free $100. I read that it had to be wagered 30 times, and most low advantage games only counted for up to 5% of the wagering requirement. I could also only withdraw at least 3 times the bonus amount (so I needed to be aggressive).

Understanding this, I decided to play some video poker up to 5% of my wagering requirement, then switch to the allowed games (e.g. American Roulette). I had a lucky run of cards at VP and ran my $100 balance up to $600. After this, I went to American Roulette, hoping to keep my luck and keep my balance about the same, at least until I fulfilled the wagering requirement before I decided whether to withdraw my winnings.

I played about $600 of American Roulette (about 100 spins at $5, and about 10 at $10). This was in addition to a couple hundred I wagered at video poker. After this, my balance was about $500.

I decided to quit for the night, and checked the cashier to find that, according to them, my "current playthrough" was only $268. I wrote an e-mail 48 hours ago inquiring as to why this was the case--I thought I understood the terms and conditions, so I wanted to confirm that, as well as the definition of the "cash balance" and when some of it could be withdrawn.

Having not received a reply in 48 hours, I tried to log into my account, to see "The Casino has refused to log you on. Your User Account on the Casino has been LOCKED." I wrote another e-mail to ask about this but have not received a response.

I have disclosed everything I did in this thread, and I have not violated their terms. As far as I can tell they locked my account because they don't want to pay me my winnings.

I would appreciate assistance in this matter and would like to hear if anyone else had similar difficulties.

[KnickNut3]

They just responded and said they wanted to verify my identity/age.

Not sure if they just screwed up with the locking, if the casinomeister threat made them reconsider, or if this is just another hoop to jump through before they deny payment (hoping they can give themselves a reason to lock me out).

We'll see.

[vinylweatherman]

This sounds familiar.

Free money, must win 3x original amount and 30x WR.

RTG by any chance?

Run by a Mr Curran or a Mr Cloud?

Certainly rogue behaviour to ignore a query and lock an account. At least you find out before depositing your own money!

It would be worth having a really good look at those T & C to see if you can find the trap you obviously walked straight into!

The usual is to have a locked account at a sister site, and not know about it or even remember it. Players are not told when accounts are locked, you only found out when you tried to log in again after not receiving any reply.
You will be ineligible for any other promotion at the same group, although keeping track of who owns what can be hard sometimes.

I believe Warren Cloud is a member here (assuming Big Dollar is one of his stable), and it may be worth asking him to at least come clean with you why your E-mail was ignored but the account locked after the query was made. If not locked accounts, the trap may have been in the Roulette play, this is normally an excluded game, even if other usually excluded games were listed as contributing 5%. Try looking for an "about us" on the casino site. If it mentions either "Crystal Gaming" or "Doloplex" it will be one of his.

[thelawnet]

Originally Posted by vinylweatherman

This sounds familiar.

Free money, must win 3x original amount and 30x WR.

RTG by any chance?

Run by a Mr Curran or a Mr Cloud?

Certainly rogue behaviour to ignore a query and lock an account. At least you find out before depositing your own money!

It would be worth having a really good look at those T & C to see if you can find the trap you obviously walked straight into!

The usual is to have a locked account at a sister site, and not know about it or even remember it. Players are not told when accounts are locked, you only found out when you tried to log in again after not receiving any reply.
You will be ineligible for any other promotion at the same group, although keeping track of who owns what can be hard sometimes.

I believe Warren Cloud is a member here (assuming Big Dollar is one of his stable), and it may be worth asking him to at least come clean with you why your E-mail was ignored but the account locked after the query was made. If not locked accounts, the trap may have been in the Roulette play, this is normally an excluded game, even if other usually excluded games were listed as contributing 5%. Try looking for an "about us" on the casino site. If it mentions either "Crystal Gaming" or "Doloplex" it will be one of his.

er, no, they are microgaming.

The OP has jumped the gun a bit, and should have just called the casino to sort it out.

[vinylweatherman]

Originally Posted by thelawnet

er, no, they are microgaming.

The OP has jumped the gun a bit, and should have just called the casino to sort it out.

This would be the new EZBonus then. I would expect there to be NO issue about excluded games then! However, there may be an explanation for the figure in the cashier. The games that count less are weighted, so that the amount wagered is multiplied by the weight before being displayed. If $10,000 were wagered in a game weighted at 5%, then the amount wagered would be 5% of $10,000

30x in MG EZBonus is assuming the 100% weight, 5% is a horrendous 600x WR! The norm for VP is 10% weight, except All Aces which is 2% along with Classic Blackjack. Operators can set these parameters differently, and it seems that they have started learning how to do so now from differences I have seen lately.
The other term of needing to win 3x the initial amount is "so Oliver Curran" that I initially thought he had another casino! MG do not have this under any of the free money offers I have seen so far with EZBonus, although these are for less than $100.
Locking the account also seems odd for MG, however, MG software will automatically lock an account if the wrong password is attempted more than 3 times (this is to protect the player whose account number only has been compromised, easily done by reading their promotional offer E-mails), and the lock out is either for around 15/30 mins, or needs releasing by support.

Please post back if this turns out to be nothing more sinister than this type of issue.

[KnickNut3]

Sorry if I jumped the gun. After two unanswered e-mails, a locked account, and a phone call that didn't go through, I was understandably worried/pissed

Their T&C states:

Different games played may contribute a different percentage of the wager - up to 100%, towards the required play-through.

The contributing percentages are as follows:

(a) Slots, American Roulette and Parlor Games count 100% towards wagering requirements

(b) Table Poker, all Roulettes excluding American Roulette, Casino War and Sicbo count 5% towards wagering requirements

(c) Video Poker, all Blackjacks except Classic Blackjack, Craps and Baccarat count 5% towards wagering requirements

(d) Classic Blackjack counts 2% towards wagering requirements

So I guess if it said "counts towards 2%" that would mean 2% max, whereas this way means "Wager 100 we'll count it as 2."

Wow. 1500x WR for blackjack!

Regardless, that doesn't explain my number. If I played $400 VP and $600 roulette, that should be 600 + .05*400 = $620. They show less than half of that.

Let's just say their initial bonus offer is not attracting me as a returning customer at this point. (At least I haven't put up any money yet!)

[thelawnet]

Originally Posted by KnickNut3

Sorry if I jumped the gun. After two unanswered e-mails, a locked account, and a phone call that didn't go through, I was understandably worried/pissed

Their T&C states:


So I guess if it said "counts towards 2%" that would mean 2% max, whereas this way means "Wager 100 we'll count it as 2."

Wow. 1500x WR for blackjack!

Regardless, that doesn't explain my number. If I played $400 VP and $600 roulette, that should be 600 + .05*400 = $620. They show less than half of that.

Let's just say their initial bonus offer is not attracting me as a returning customer at this point. (At least I haven't put up any money yet!)

You haven't checked what you actually did play rather than guessing

The amounts you have bet are listed in playcheck (the tick icon at top left).

Have a look and check there.

[Macgyver]

Originally Posted by thelawnet

You haven't checked what you actually did play rather than guessing

The amounts you have bet are listed in playcheck (the tick icon at top left).

Have a look and check there.

Not to be too sarcastic, but it might be a little hard to do that when the player's account is locked.

[soflat]

It took more than 48 hours for them respond? That's terrible.

I sent an email today because my money disapeared without a trace in the CashCheck system. So I guess I'll be waiting a while to find out what happened.

Originally Posted by Macgyver

Not to be too sarcastic, but it might be a little hard to do that when the player's account is locked.

roflmao