Casino not paying my £400

[aaron]

Hi, Please help.

First of all, is it best not to mention the casino name here? I notice other complaints here do not mention the casino involved, but they usually involve more money than this one with me. This casino is a well known sportsbook and casino though, they are "a member of European Gaming and Betting Association and Remote Gambling Association" and are "a company incorporated in Malta".

My problem involves a casino/sportsbook that will not pay out £400. I have deposited £320 total with them, played at the casino and also placed a £100 sports bet (which lost). I have received a casino bonus from them, but I think I lost it and I definitely carried on playing anyway. ...I chased some losses a little bit on the site (But I can't log in and check my history, so I can't exactly remember what I've done there).

I think the best thing would be to quote my latest few emails, as they sum up what has happened. This long email, I sent to them after I got a bit angry with them on the phone.

company name edited out of quote:

Dear Sirs,

My ---- user name is: "----"

I am still awaiting a £400 withdrawal that I requested 22 days ago on
the 19/08/08 and also for my account to be unlocked.

Shortly after filling in the withdrawal form, I was requested to send
in some documents (including photographic ID), so I sent you my bank
card, drivers license and account statement via email on August 28. I
received an email stating that your security department were "not
convinced" by my drivers license, so, at your request, I emailed you
my passport on August 29.

I received no contact from you after this email so I phoned a few days
later and was told that you were now "unsatisfied" with my passport as
well, but I was given no explanation as to why or what to do, only
that I would be contacted in a day or so.

I waited 2 Weeks since then, so I have just phoned customer services
at around 5:20 am (BST) on September 10.

As I was still not given any better explanation of why there is a
problem, other than that I will be contacted when you are ready, I
became frustrated. I became further frustrated when the customer
service assistant I spoke to could not help but laugh at my annoyance,
and also told me that my situation was "hopeless".

I repeat what I told the assistant on the phone: Why should I not
believe that "----" is a scam website? ...and that you have no
intention, despite my extended cooporation of you requests, to ever
pay out my withdrawal?

Can you give me any reason to think otherwise? Do you think my
treatment, and lack of explanation, solution, or even contact is a
reasonable way for any trustworthy gaming site to carry out business?

Please bear in mind that I have deposited £320 to unibet and this was
accepted without a problem, it is only when requesting my £400
withdrawal that you have become "unsatisfied".

I'm afraid I have already waited too long, if I do not receive a
satisfactory solution via email by Friday this week (September 12), I
don't feel that I have any choice, other than to recover the full
amount of my deposits to unibet through my bank's (Lloyds) security
department. I believe I have enough evidence of negligent business
practice to pursue such a charge-back without a problem and am hopeful
that any further measures will not be needed.

After my previous phone conversation, let me make it clear that I do
NOT wish any further telephone liaison with you. I request that any
contact you may or may not attempt to make, be written via email.

Regards,

Aaron

Their reply:

Dear Customer,


Thank you for contacting us.

Please note that the documents you sent are not satisfactory and therefore will not be accepted. We are not to reveal as to why they will not be accepted as that would be malpractice.

Your account is to remain blocked and the funds not to be returned unless legitimate documents are received.

Thank you for your cooperation and do not hesitate to contact us once again if you require further assistance.



Best Regards,

----

My reply:

You said: "Your account is to remain blocked and the funds not to be
returned unless legitimate documents are received."...

Please then tell me what other "legitimate documents" I am supposed to send?

The documents I have sent are legitimate They are my drivers license
and passport and I have them with me right now. I used my friend's
scanner, so that the image is large and clear. I cannot see anything
wrong with them at all. Perhaps you have the files confused or mixed
up with a different customers? Perhaps it is because my address has
changed recently?

But as you are not telling me what the problem is, I have nothing I
can do about your request.

Regards,

Aaron

I feel like I've hit a brick wall. What can I do???

Obviously, it would help if I could post my passport and drivers license in question. I don't really mind showing them, but I obviously don't want to post the on to the internet (I'm even beginning to worry about ever sending them to this bookie). But anyway, they are normal UK documents and I sent them large, clear colour scans.

Thanks.

[aaron]

P.S: I don't have my own PC at the moment, so I am sorry if I am a bit slow in replying in future.

[Swede]

aaron:

I think it's fine to mention the name of the establishment(and you did ). This doesn't sound like Unibet at all, a well respected bookie/poker/casino in most people's opinion. If you'd like, you can PM me a scan of the documents you sent in(with all vital info blacked out, of course) and I'll tell you if they are good enough or need to be altered.

Swede

[aaron]

Thanks mate. Oops! I missed that bit - You've mentioned it to now too, so no point editing it out.

How can I send you the documents? Would I have to upload the documents as pictures to an image-hosting site first? I don't want to have to do that. Maybe a zip file with a password would be better, but I don't know where I could upload a large file like that for free and I don't even know if I'm able to do that either.

What about if you messaged me your email? Then I could send you an exact copy of what I sent to unibet.

[kauphy]

hi you say u don,t have ur own computer maybe it is the address thing if u were on a friends computer when u went to the casino. try updateing ur lic with the address that u now live at and see if that works or the address that is on ur account

[pubjoe]

My names Joe and I'm Aaron's friend and Uncle-in-Law. I know the situation he is in and I feel responsible, but I don't know how to help him.

I feel really awful at the moment as I recommended Aaron to play at unibet. Myself and other friends of mine have played there without any problems and I didn't expect any of this. I also told him to join here for advice.

Aaron can have a bit of a temper, so he got a bit rattled on the phone the other day, so it was me that recommended that he only deal with unibet in writing from now on.

He won't have access to a computer for the rest of tonight. But I can phone him and/or he can take his next step at some point tomorrow.

I regards to the thing above about not having a computer. He has used my computer to access unibet (as have others). I don't really understand what is wrong with that. I am aware of bonuses and the terms and conditions that casinos make about a single ip address and household, but this is not the concern in Aaron's situation. Furthermore, changing his registered address may or may not help, but his account is blocked and unless unibet actually tell him what the specific problem is, how is he supposed to resolve it? So far they have told him that it would be malpractice for them to tell him what exactly is wrong.



He has sent them his full id and they are still not satisfied. I am now having to persuade him to continue to chase this up, he feels ripped off and never wants to return to online gambling again. He sounds very close to considering this a loss and letting them keep his money.

I don't want Aaron to lose money unfairly on my advice ...and I don't like the idea of casinos getting away with that, as I'm sure they do too much already.

[Casinomeister]

Well, we're in luck since Unibet's rep signed up in the forum just yesterday.

@aaron - I'm guessing you've broken the casino's terms and conditions by playing on your uncle's computer. Most casinos have strict rules concerning this. I'm sure the rep might be able to look into this for you/us.

[aaron]

Thanks for help. I've had another email.

Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting us.

We just received the following message from our security department:

Please inform the customer that we have found his passport not to be in standard and probably fake. We need them to send us a genuine document proving their identity and also a Birth Certificate to support their documents.

Best Regards,

So I sent back:

You said: "we have found his passport not to be in standard and probably fake"


It is my passport! I've had it for 3 years. You must have made some
sort of mix up with someone elses document.

Can't you check my serial number? It is:
****************************************

I have attached the file again incase there was a problem with it
getting to you in the first place. This time I have called the file
aaron.jpg so there can be no confusion.

Aaron

This is stupid. They also didn't like my drivers license either, which is why I had to send the passport. Do they not like my face?

If anyone wants to see the document, can you tell me how to send it? We can't figure out how to attach it to a private message here.

[pubjoe]

Just thought I'd bump up this thread for Aaron.

He can't be much bothered to keep pursuing this. I don't think he can find his birth certificate. Also, understand that he has come round to use my computer now on almost 10 occasions to email documents and reply to emails from them, while he has work and a young family to worry about.

I completely respect that he is beginning to consider further effort pointless, as so far, contacting the casino has not achieved anything as they will not enter into discussion with him.

I know he has not sent the documents to anyone here yet, but I can assure you his passport and drivers license are both genuine, there is nothing unusual about them. He has short hair on one photo and a shaved head on the other. This is hardly unusual though.

Has no one else here ever had this type of problem? What can he do? Pay to get the documents signed by a lawyer? I have never heard of this bizarre problem before.

In my opinion, the casino does not seem to want to resolve the issue either.

[zebedy]

if you dont mind being without your documents for a few weeks maybe you could send them to unibet by registered snail mail, that way they could really give them the once over, just an idea,