888.com steals me 714 USD!

[chingkuen]

I have deposited 1000 USD for the 10% happy hour bonus in the beginning of last month at 888.com. I ended up with 1115 USD and asked for a withdrawal on the 9th of September, that I gained is a tiny win of 15USD and the 100USD bonus. My withdrawal was not processed after 3 weeks and then I received the following mail.

Dear Ching,

This is James O from the Operations Department at Cassava Enterprises
(Gibraltar) Ltd.

Cassava Enterprises manages operational and risk management services for
Casino On Net.

I am contacting you following your email regarding your Casino On Net
account with username "chingkuen".I apologise for the delay but it is
due to the large number of emails we have been recieving.


We have noticed that the only purpose you are opening accounts with us
is to
abuse our First Deposit Bonus offer. Since your actions have nothing to
do
with the gaming services we provide, your membership is not welcomed.
According to the SITE USER AGREEMENT, we have decided to close all of
your Casino accounts.

The cashout you requested was of $1115, however it will be paid out only
to the amount of $301
(i.e. your original deposit) and the rest was transferred to the
bankroll
and voided.

Please note that the cashout will take about 4-5 days to be processed.

Please refrain from opening any new accounts with us as they too will be
closed.

Also note, in the event you do open any new accounts your deposits will
not
be refunded.


Regards,

James O

Operations Department
Cassava (Gibraltar) Ltd.
operations@cassava.net

They claimed that they would only pay me back 301 USD, that is stealing from me 714 USD, among which 699 USD is my own money! There is nothing related to signup, which was done months ago and cashed out. I only do flatbetting with small bets on the allowed game: blackjack. There is absolutely nothing that contradict the terms or even has anything to do with bonus abusing strategies in my gameplay.

It appears that 888 has recently been acquired by some gangsters and they started running the casino as a scam.

Please advise me on how I can proceed with this once-reputable casino. I cannot find it in the list of casinos which I can submit a bitching form.

[Trollet]

Please advise me on how I can proceed with this once-reputable casino. I cannot find it in the list of casinos which I can submit a bitching form.

Hi chingkuen!

You can find them on the No Can Do List.
http://www.casinomeister.com/no-can-do-list.php

Trollet

[lots0]

888.com/cassava should be on the Rogue list here... not just on the no can do list...

These guys at 888.com are as Rogue as it gets... just count all the player complaints about them in the last few weeks.

but I guess because they are a part of ecogra they will never get Rogue status here at CM... not very cool guys.

[DiamondGeezer]

chingkuen about your only hope is a chargeback if you paid by debit or credit card.

I know how much this hurts because 888 seized about $300 I had in my account just for not playing there for a few months. I thought it would be safe with them as I had played poker a few years there. But they just took it under an obscure 'dormant account' clause. A great way to treat a customer who had been with them over three years.

[vinylweatherman]

This is starting to look like a recent policy change at Cassava. Players used to be able to have accounts at all the skins, and have bonuses at each. Now they have HUNDREDS of skins because of their "white label" approach. Cassava may have reason to limit bonuses, but it is WRONG that they will NOT release a list of all the skins, yet REQUIRE players to

Please refrain from opening any new accounts with us as they too will be
closed.

Also note, in the event you do open any new accounts your deposits will
not
be refunded.

Players CANNOT be certain they are abiding with this because they are not allowed to know which casino is merely another skin of 888.com. What is clearly ROGUE is that despite it being impossible to tell that you have opened another account at another 888.com skin UNTIL you have gone quite a way into the process, yet Cassava say they will confiscate DEPOSITS.

If they are to even threaten confiscation of deposits, they must make it ABSOLUTELY CLEAR on each skin that it is operated by Cassava Enterprises, so that players informed they are no longer welcome have a clear warning not to proceed with registration.

This case does rather look like Cassava are abusing players because they allow NO mediators to get involved, and arbitrarily decide what they deem as "refunding the deposit".

I have deposited 1000 USD for the 10% happy hour bonus..........

Yet

The cashout you requested was of $1115, however it will be paid out only
to the amount of $301
(i.e. your original deposit) and the rest was transferred to the
bankroll
and voided.

The gameplay (flat betting on Blackjack) should be taken in the context of a continuing promotion that 888.com and Reef Club were running, which was a Blackjack race, similar to the 32Red Slotsmeister, where you scored 1 point per hand of BJ played (min $3 bet) during event times.

This kind of promotion clearly ENCOURAGES a great deal of flat betting at BJ, and naturally participants would take advantage of 10% reload bonuses along the way.

An HONEST approach to all of this by Cassava would be full & frank disclosure of ALL branded "white label" skins that run under the Cassava umbrella, PLUS a NEW TERM limiting individual players to a specific number of "bonus allowed" accounts at the skins, perhaps allocated in the order they are opened.

Provided players are honest, Cassava will be able to track this, and block bonuses from any new accounts opened at skins exceeding the limit.

This in turn will mean players never facing this kind of "ambush" from Cassava Enterprises, and will also deter players from actively seeking out all the Cassava skins and using too many of the bonuses.

Yet ANOTHER minefield of problems created by the concept of the "white label".

Since Cassava will not engage, and give their side of the story, we have to take the word of players, and at present this does seem like Cassava are operating a widespread policy of confiscation of winnings without giving prior warning to players that their pattern of play is not welcome.

Casinomeister standards state that confiscation of winnings should only be used AFTER a player has been told "not to open further accounts....", and that any winnings PRIOR to receiving such notification should be paid in full.

In this case, the player should be paid the full $1115, but have their accounts locked, and their details recorded so that if they mistakenly come upon another Cassava skin, they will be refused registration.

[Sherlock]

888.com/cassava should be on the Rogue list here... not just on the no can do list...

These guys at 888.com are as Rogue as it gets... just count all the player complaints about them in the last few weeks.

but I guess because they are a part of ecogra they will never get Rogue status here at CM... not very cool guys.

I agree, why haven't they been rogued?

Their recent actions across their skins (I know of maybe 10 people) show that they are clearly shutting people's accounts AFTER they have signed up/completed the WR etc and returning their deposit if they've won or what is left of their deposit if they've lost.

This, in all seriousness, is not cool as it's a one-way bet for the casino and the ability for winners to complain via e-COGRA is limited by the few skins that Cassava have on there versus the many that are not.

Seriously, rogue these guys - it's the only way to make them understand what they're doing is wrong. Not doing so is as good as condoning their actions and opening the door for other casino's to do the same.

[Casinomeister]

... but I guess because they are a part of ecogra they will never get Rogue status here at CM... not very cool guys.

What's uncool are comments that imply that I am uncool. You know I am...cool

It has nothing to do with eCOGRA - you should know this by now. In fact, 888.com was in the rogue pit some time ago, but they managed to crawl out of that mess.

This complaint is disturbing. I'll take it at face value and make an exception and accept a PAB from this guy. We'll take it from there - hopefully 888.com will resolve this in a fair manner.

@chingkuen - please familiarize yourself with the PAB FAQs
http://www.casinomeister.com/forums/...cmfaq_pab_info

and go ahead and submit - thanks!

[Webzcas]

This is becoming quite worrying. What is the point of eCOGRA if any or all skins of an eCOGRA certified casino can opt out of their certification if they choose to do so?

Yet the casino operating the skin, can lock out players for so called bonus abuse without any recourse for the player, if said player was playing at a white label operation?

This is not good. So a few years ago we have 888 being caught with their pants down having employed spamming techniques to rank in the search engines. Now we have them locking out players at their sole discretion and not refunding players full deposits as highlighted in this thread.

Will be interesting to see what you or Max can find out Bryan.

I wonder if it is also worthwhile getting eCOGRA to state their position with regards to this.

If it does turn out that 888 are heading back to the pit, you could always set up a special section for them on the site - I've just checked, 666.de is available you could register that domain and put all the 888 threads in there.

[Casinomeister]

I'm contacting 888.com asking them to look into this. One thing - the email the OP posted mentions "accounts" - so this may be an issue of a player having multiple accounts.

@chingkuen - did you have more than one account at 888.com?

[Casinomeister]

...It appears that 888 has recently been acquired by some gangsters and they started running the casino as a scam.

Please advise me on how I can proceed with this once-reputable casino...

Does anyone find it odd that a person would come here - make one and only one post - claims that a casino is gangster owned and a scam - asks for advice, and then never logs back in again? He posted nearly two weeks ago.

Sure, I'll give the guy the benefit of the doubt, but on the surface it doesn't seem kosher to me.