888 locked my account and SOME funds

[maxd]

Forgive me but it's not clear, did they finally resolve your problem or not? Were you able to access the funds remaining in your account?

[vinylweatherman]

From what I can gather, they just asked him to send his passport as supporting ID, yet he ALREADY sent this, and they failed it, so how come all of a sudden the EXACT SAME document is going to release the account and funds back to him.

Whilst they don't disclose the internal workings of the verification process - no casino does, they initially REFUSED point blank to allow this player to send supporting documentation to allow more checks to be made.

It seems that it was the notification to the casino that he was making formal complaints both to eCogra and the GRA that prompted them to have another look, and find a way forward.

This shows that having the protection of a PROPER regulatory authority is CRUCIAL for player protection, as the casino would NOT want to risk getting a complaint adudicated in favour of the player, and for the adjudicator to find that the casino acted incorrectly, or failed to properly deal with the complaint internally, since it would be on their record with said regulatory authorities.

By being on the "no can do" list, Cassava have stripped players of one level of independent adjudication, leaving them only two more.

For casinos NOT regulated by "proper" authorities concerned with player protection, players have no-one to turn to, and it is becoming clear that casinos ARE wrongly confiscating the funds or winnings of players, and getting away with it because players have nowhere else to turn to.

It is no wonder that this gives thimpression that many casinos are deliberately rogue, and players faced with no recourse, but know they have done nothing wrong, will start to use tactics similar to those used by fraudsters, mainly using "chargebacks", sometimes as a means of revenge by getting back ALL their past deposits, and not just the amount they are due. Others resort to blackmail, using similar tactics as recommended by some consumer self help groups, aimed at airing their grievance so that it gets into the public domain, and causes the company to consider it less damaging to give proper justice to customers, rather than simply ignoring them.

[DEV]

thats right. They already had most of my docs and didnt even want any more docs. They said their decision to freeze my funds/account was final. But then after chasing them for a month they actually did make a u-turn. So can u really trust these casinos with your cash. (Not that we do already)

yes my account was unlocked again and i gained access to my funds but thats not the point. The point is they repeatedly told me that they will never unlock my account. Had I given up, they would have had their way, which I am sure they already do in many cases.

[vinylweatherman]

thats right. They already had most of my docs and didnt even want any more docs. They said their decision to freeze my funds/account was final. But then after chasing them for a month they actually did make a u-turn. So can u really trust these casinos with your cash. (Not that we do already)

yes my account was unlocked again and i gained access to my funds but thats not the point. The point is they repeatedly told me that they will never unlock my account. Had I given up, they would have had their way, which I am sure they already do in many cases.

You can STILL complain to eCogra because of the way they treated you for a whole month, effectively treating you like a criminal UNTIL they feared that you might involve eCogra.

If you let it lie here, eCogra will NEVER KNOW that this ever happened. eCogra may also provide you with an explanation of what went wrong, and why. This will be useful to you so that you do not get wrongly accused of wrongdoing elsewhere.

In essence, they accused you of faking your supporting documentation, but it turned out they were incompetent in performing the proper checks, and failed to properly follow up possible INNOCENT reasons for these "discrepancies" they thought indicated fraud.

No doubt there are other players getting stuffed like this, and those that just walk away are allowing Cassava to profit from rogue business practice. It is a bit like the insurance industry, where they have a department whose job is to search thoroughly for a reason NOT to pay. This is evident from the cases that receive publicity, and are subsequently upheld in the customer's favour by the ombudsman.

Excuses for non-payment are along the lines of "you didn't tell us you saw the doctor for a throat infection when you were 5, so we are not paying out on your critical illness policy". Clearly, they went to great lengths to dig this out, and I bet few people remember all the minor things they went to see their doctor about, especially when they were young. Patients do not even get to ever see the full record that insurance companies see, so are relying mostly on memory when filling in the form.

It seems casinos are doing the same, looking for the most minor problem with documents, and using it as an excuse to stall, or not even pay. Sometimes, it looks like this is an invention to avoid paying a player who has won too much, and probably won't return to play it back.

Documents are always subject to innocent discrepancies because they are issued by different departments and companies, and can use data of varying validity dates. Data can even be plain wrong at places like credit reference agencies, so checks could fail because one of the trusted verification sources has incorrect data. Usually, it is caused by similar names, and/or similar addresses.

My MUM has a constant problem with her post because the daft developers named two different roads so similarly that the post office often transposes the mail, THIS is also the kind of thing that can cause ID and credit reference databases to hold incorrect data, perhaps by combining two similar addresses into one, and dropping the other from the system altogether, so it appears not to officially exist. It can create a problem when checking names and addresses, because the wrong name will come up at the address, and this will instantly look like fraud to a casino.