Palace Group Rules Shenanigans

[suzy1975]

I recently had a terrible experience with Spin Palace of the Palace Group.

I made a new account, deposited £150 and got a 100% matching bonus. Balance £300. Ive checked their terms and conditions and I can play 3 Card Poker which is great because thats what I normally play at land based casinos.

1st Hand, bet 120, call - lose.
2nd Hand, bet 60, fold
3rd Hand, bet 90, fold
4th Hand bet my remaining 30 quid and hit a straight flush! Happy Day! £2700.

I go to withdraw, but my balance is locked as the wager requirements have not yet been met. I play slots, eventually clearing the wager requirement and then cash out a tidy £2400.

I receive an email from Spin Palace asking me for ID and then another email offering me a 20% bonus on the full amount if I cancel my withdrawal with no strings. Tempting though this is, Im a bit short on funds recently so I decline the special extra bonus and ask them to just pay me.

Two days later I check my neteller account and The Palace Group have deposited £150 with me. WTF? I immediately contact support and ask them where the rest of my money is. They email back and say that their risk department has confiscated my winnings and the decision is final. After a few more emails they quote the following rule:

"Your withdrawals are more likely to be confiscated due to you breaking the terms and conditions of the casino. As per casino terms and conditions, before any withdrawals are processed, your play will be reviewed for any irregular playing patterns e.g. playing of equal, zero margin bets or hedge betting, **placing single bets using your entire or the majority of your account balance and bonus**, all of which shall be considered irregular gaming for bonus play-through requirement purposes. Should the Casino deem that practices such as this have been utilized, the Casino reserves the right to withhold any cashins and/or confiscate all winnings."

Here`s a quote from the eCogra ruling (against me)

* 1st bet, wagered 120 – 40% of balance and bonus and lost
* 2nd bet, wagered 60 – 33% of balance and bonus and lost
* 3rd bet, wagered 90 – 75% of balance and bonus and lost
* 4th bet, wagered remaining 30 and won 2700 with a straight flush – 100% of balance and bonus

Your 3rd and 4th bets are in breach of the clause and as such the operator is within his rights to withhold any cashins and/or confiscate all winnings. When the operator reviews an account for irregular playing patterns they take the original bets, the way in which wagering was met and other factors into account before making a final decision.

Im shocked. I didnt increase my bet size but because I was losing and my balance was going down the percentage of my balance being bet was going up.

A simple argument shows just how unfair this rule really is. If I had deposited £10 and gotten a £10 bonus then played jackpot slots at £1 a spin, losing the first 19 spins then hitting a big jackpot on the last spin I would have wagered 100% of my balance on the last spin breaking the rule and had my winnings confiscated. Does that sound fair to you? The whole Palace Group has this term hidden away deep in their Terms and Conditions. They all have the eCogra "safe and FAIR" seal. What was I supposed to do? Decrease my bet size after every loss to stay within their rules? What about if I had..Eventually Id be betting £1 a hand..then 50p...then 25p and so on and so forth to inifinty. I feel like I have been straight ripped off by this group. Your thoughts Casinomeister members? Anyone else had this sort of experience? I am doubly gutted because I found the casino on the Casinomeister accredited list and they are eCogra registered. I didnt think anyone on these lists would risk their good standing by hiding behind this sort of terrible rule which seems clearly designed to claw back wins in any way possible.

A very unhappy Spin Palace/Palace Group customer.

Anthony

Hi Anthony, i am disgusted but not shocked at these antics nor of those by ecogra....you do sometimes get the feeling you are up against it with them both as they seem to be working hand in hand, however that said....if Brian has said there aint much you can do because of there t&c then im sorry hun but you are pretty much screwed. Why do people continue to go to ecogra when they are as well coming straight to the casinomeister crew as they are fairer and more impartial.

[deltoid]

well done for stealing the Meisters blue hat saying from the playtech Jackpot winner.....come on make up your own ....i mean they could for instance say you must be wearing lacey knickers lol.......

LOL I wasn't stealing, I was referencing it Please don't put me in the rogue webmaster/poster category lol!!

Look I generally agree with the Meister all things considered, but I think he and I have a difference of opinion on this. To me this term is a Blue Hat Term just as the 9k a month term is, if not more!

Players have a right to fair terms, and those terms ARE out there - eg Galaxiworld. Really, the software should be able to limit how much the player bets when they have a bonus but afaik this hasn't been done yet. That way the casino is protected, and the player has a FAIR shake at winning and getting paid!

[Jasminebed]

A bit OT but found this gem in their T&Cs:

30. Spin Palace Casino reserves the right to pay all Progressive Jackpot winnings in US dollars.
The amount to be paid, will be determined by the US Dollar Progressive Jackpot amount on the Progressive Game played, at the time the jackpot was won.



And on the FL terms, they never changed them. It was just "damage control" on their part. But even they never applied the T&Cs in such a way that Spin Palace now did.

Edit: The term they used to rip the player isnt in the Finnish T&Cs. Wonder what would have happened if I had been the OP?

Most T&C's state that where there is a discrepancy between another language and the English language version, the English language version will prevail.

[spiderlegz]

Most T&C's state that where there is a discrepancy between another language and the English language version, the English language version will prevail.

Nowhere to be found in their T&Cs.

[gingeanth89]

Really, the software should be able to limit how much the player bets when they have a bonus but afaik this hasn't been done yet. That way the casino is protected, and the player has a FAIR shake at winning and getting paid!

But thats just it Deltoid! They do have their software set up to limit your bets! They have it set to prevent bonus abuse, they have a wager requirement to stop bonus abuse, they have restricted the games you can play to stop bonus abuse. Now I find that they also have a rule that they can use as a catch all to stop anyone with a bonus from ever being paid!!

The Palace Group has gone rogue. Run for the hills everybody!

Avoid at all costs: Spin Palace, Ruby Fortune, Mummy's Gold, Piggs Casino and Jackpots in a Flash. They will not pay you if you win!

Did I miss any of them?

[spearmaster]

Before this thread gets out of hand, let's just say that this is still being discussed - I consider it far from done and dusted.

[Casinomeister]

...

The Palace Group has gone rogue. Run for the hills everybody!

Avoid at all costs: Spin Palace, Ruby Fortune, Mummy's Gold, Piggs Casino and Jackpots in a Flash. They will not pay you if you win!

Okay - I know you're a newbie here, but if you have an issue, we'll look at it and talk about it. I've contacted the casino rep, and hopefully they'll be making a statement about this tomorrow.

We're going to discuss this in a civilized manner. If you have come here to slag off and start a casino thrash thread, you've come to the wrong place. If you've come here to debate an issue - you're in the right place.

If you want to affect change, then you'd better chill out.

So word to the wise - I want to hear constructive comments concerning these terms and conditions. Any more trash talk and I'll cut off your access to this thread. Thank you for your understanding.

[RobWin]

For the record, I have already made my position clear to CM and to eCOGRA.

I wish you would share that with the rest of us here since you are a well respected member and I for one enjoy hearing and reading your thoughts on such matters of high importance..

[spearmaster]

I wish you would share that with the rest of us here since you are a well respected member and I for one enjoy hearing and reading your thoughts on such matters of high importance..

LOL, I didn't think it would be necessary

The short and sweet of the matter is, it is mathematically impossible for someone who takes a bonus to avoid breaching this term if they bet everything they have left in their account - even if it's only 1 cent.

[Casinomeister]

I wish you would share that with the rest of us here since you are a well respected member and I for one enjoy hearing and reading your thoughts on such matters of high importance..

The PAB came in Friday afternoon. We had looked at the terms and conditions and understood that yes, the player had broken these. But we have been debating the issue of their fairness privately since.

I'd like to hear from the casino representative so we can have a balanced discussion. So perhaps Spear can respond to the rep's comments as soon as he has a chance to get involved.