PartyCasino Unfair Terms

[Rusty]

The laws about contract fairness are covered in England, Wales and NI by the UCTA (unfair contract terms act) which would certainly consider the Party Casino conditions unreasonable.
Also the UK Gambling commission would not allow such T&C's under the following regulations which also reference the Unfair terms in Consumer contracts regulations of the Office of fair trading as well as the UCTA.

Licensees must satisfy themselves that the terms on which gambling is offered are not unfair
under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 and, where applicable, meet the
reasonableness test under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977. An accurate summary of the
contractual terms on which gambling is offered must be made available to customers and set out
in plain and intelligible language.
Customers must be notified of changes to terms before they come into effect.

Also any remote Casino that considers itself respectable should take note of that last regulation.

I outlined all of this in another email to Party Gaming which, since this is a matter that their customers should be aware of but probably are not and their is no breach of privacy, I will post below.

Dear Party Casino,
You state;
This rule of earning 15% of the deposit amount in Party Points is there for security purposes. This is to prevent unlawful activities such as money dumping, money laundering, etc
The logic of your argument is then that by applying such unprecedented wagering requirements on your customers you will only have genuine players depositing. Therefore you are simply penalising your genuine players by forcing them to wager in your Casino when they may otherwise wish to cashout.
If Party Casino are so keen to dissuade fraudulent deposits why do they not make the T&C's headline news?
Instead they are surreptitiously buried in a block of legalese text and the WR is made even less conspicuous by unnecessarily converting it into a 15% of deposit Party point requirement.
Why are there no other remote Casinos enforcing such unjust WR on their players if it is so necessary?
Let us be clear about this.
Given Party Casinos feeble explanation for the reason for such T&C's this appears to be nothing short of a scam to enforce unfair wagering requirements on your players.
Will you state in writing that Party Casino see this policy as fair to their players?
Do you intend to review and modify this T&C into something that One would expect of a legitimate online Casino?
While Party Casinos has the right to make T&C's it sees fit it also has a moral obligation to its customers.
such T&C's would never be allowed under UKGC regulations or even be considered reasonable under the UK UCTA.
Here is a suggestion;
Deposits must be wagered 3 times before a withdrawal request can be made to prevent money laundering and prevent unnecessary cost of processing transactions and to ensure fair play etc.
Clear, concise and reasonable. In fact that is still above the requirement of the majority of respected operators.
Regards

This is their reply;

Thank you for contacting us.

With regards to your question about our Terms and Conditions I'd like to confirm that the 15% rule is implied for the reasons mentioned in the paragraph you have cited. We do not try to penalise our loyal customers, we just try to ensure that our site and the services we offer are not used for processing of fraudulent transactions. Furthermore I'd like to inform you that these 15% are not chosen at random the amount of points has been reviewed by the department dealing with all cash outs and is considered to be achievable and acceptable.

Moreover it is clearly stated on the site and is available for all players to check before they cash out. Also I'd like to inform you that we have ensured that our Terms and Conditions comply with the local regulations of all countries we offer our services in.

In case you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will be more than happy to help you.

Thank you for choosing us as your online gaming site.

So they consider the T&C's to be fair and though they state they try not to penalise their loyal players - imposing a possible 30XWR on their deposit seems to do just that.
However they see it as achievable and acceptable.
Acceptable to them certainly but not for their customers.

They state WR on deposit without bonus is clearly stated on their site - who would agree with that?
I think my description is far more accurate.

Finally they assure me that their T&C's comply with UK regulation when I have clearly demonstrated they do not.

[Casinomeister]

I've just spoken to Party Gaming over the phone - and the administration is in the process of changing these terms to something more reasonable and realistic.

[Rusty]

I've just spoken to Party Gaming over the phone - and the administration is in the process of changing these terms to something more reasonable and realistic.

Well done Bryan.
I think they will benefit themselves as well as the player in the long term - it will save on a lot of complaints.

I will look out for the revision.

[vinylweatherman]

It was a close shave for them though, with this quote:-

Also I'd like to inform you that we have ensured that our Terms and Conditions comply with the local regulations of all countries we offer our services in.

This seems not to be the case, and I am pretty sure that if these terms were put before the UK OFT as a "hypothetical case" they would have said they looked unfair, and in breach of a number of provisions in the regulations. This would have been a SERIOUS embarrassment for Party Casino, and it is good to see they chose to avoid it by having another look at the terms.

I also noted the point in Rusty's post from the UKGC rules.

Customers must be notified of changes to terms before they come into effect.

Almost EVERY online casino breaks this one, since they mostly rely on a clause of the form...

It is the player's responsibility to revisit these terms and conditions at least once a month............

This has lead to many problems, since it allows the casino considerable leeway to chose a random mid-month date to make a change, and apply it from that date, meaning that even players who check the terms every month could miss changes for up to 30 days.

It should be a simple matter to email existing players a notification that the terms had changed, and for players yet to register they should ensure offers have start dates and expiry dates.

Some casinos make changes that are hard to spot, since they don't highlight them, giving the player no clue as to where to look in what could be more than a dozen header items in the terms.

Outside of online gambling, changes to consumer terms, and their notification, has been dealt with.

The onus is on the BUSINESS to notify the CUSTOMER of any changes. IF the changes are detrimental to the customer, they must give 30 days notice before the changes come into effect, which gives the customer time to decide whether to accept the changes, or leave. There is also a right to leave a contract early if a detrimental change is made part way through that was not mentioned in the initial agreement. Customers CANNOT "opt out" of their basic consumer rights. This means that the often used argument of "the player agreed to these terms when they signed up" means nothing if these terms include clauses that imply the consumer has agreed to forego some of their basic rights.

I am rather surprised there have not been more complaints about this policy while it was in force, but suspect the reason might be down to bonuses, with players who use bonuses automatically gaining their 15% worth during the process of meeting WR, and perhaps never encountering the rejection of a withdrawal for this 15% Party Points reason. The maths seems to support this, with 30x deposit easily being covered by the WR that would be expected with a bonus.
It seems peverse that it was players who did NOT take bonuses that were being targeted by this rule, since such players must surely be the best catch of all, as if there is one thing they are NOT - it is an "advantage player/bonus abuser", supposedly the scourge of online casinos.
The low level of complaints might also indicate that very few players decide to opt out of the bonuses at Party Casino.

[3dfella]

Thanks for all the great posts and thanks to Bryan for contacting them. I will wait and see how they amend the terms before returning. One thing I have never understood about the money laundering thing is how money can become laundered if you deposit and withdraw using the same electronic methods?

[Rusty]

No change in the T&C's yet.

[Rusty]

No change in the T&C's yet.

Now well over a Week since they stated to CM they would change these specific T&C's to something more akin with a reputable Casino rather than a rogue operation.

[Casinomeister]

Well this is not good. I'll contact them again.

[Rusty]

Well this is not good. I'll contact them again.

How did your Second phone call go? Same assurances?

Still no change.

[chuchu59]

Nearly 3 weeks and still no change it seems. Oh, maybe they are on summer vacation.