PartyCasino Unfair Terms

[3dfella]

Partycasino have hidden away in their terms and conditions a clause which I came across purely by accident when trying to make a withdrawal. I say trying as my withdrawal was bounced back into my account and I was provided with an email stating that I had not accrued enough "Party Points" to make a withdrawal.

I had wagered my deposit through a few times and then submitted a withdrawal request and didnt think any more of it. It transpires that you must accrue party points equivelent to 15% of your deposit before you can withdraw your funds. Now this wouldnt be so bad if say for example it was a term put in place to prevent money laundering or people making deposits without wagering but it isnt.

It seems to me that this clause is specifically designed to force you to lose money.

Not all games accrue points equally and my game (Blackjack) required me to wager over 100x my deposit in order to withdraw. Let me repeat that - 100X my deposit on my chosen game! This is with no bonus but purely playing for fun!

I have seen an awful lot of strange and unfair terms imposed by casinos but this is ridiculous.

Suffice to say I wont be playing at Party Casino again.

[Rusty]

Partycasino have hidden away in their terms and conditions a clause which I came across purely by accident when trying to make a withdrawal. I say trying as my withdrawal was bounced back into my account and I was provided with an email stating that I had not accrued enough "Party Points" to make a withdrawal.

I had wagered my deposit through a few times and then submitted a withdrawal request and didnt think any more of it. It transpires that you must accrue party points equivelent to 15% of your deposit before you can withdraw your funds. Now this wouldnt be so bad if say for example it was a term put in place to prevent money laundering or people making deposits without wagering but it isnt.

It seems to me that this clause is specifically designed to force you to lose money.

Not all games accrue points equally and my game (Blackjack) required me to wager over 100x my deposit in order to withdraw. Let me repeat that - 100X my deposit on my chosen game! This is with no bonus but purely playing for fun!

I have seen an awful lot of strange and unfair terms imposed by casinos but this is ridiculous.

Suffice to say I wont be playing at Party Casino again.

If you and I are interpreting these T&C's correctly they are totally unacceptable and if used, as in your case, to force unfair wagering restrictions on vanilla deposits then they need to be put in the rogue list.

10. CASH OUTS

Your account balance is the amount of real money held in Your Account (if any), plus any winnings and/or minus any losses accrued from using the Services, less any rakes or entry or other fees, if applicable, and less any amounts previously withdrawn by You or amounts forfeited or reclaimed by Us due to any known or suspected fraud or due to deposits or other transactions rejected or cancelled by Your bank or any relevant third-party bank (whether as a result of insufficient funds, charge-backs or otherwise), any Inactive Account Fees (see Section 11 below) or any sums which are otherwise deductible or forfeited under these Agreements ('Account Balance'). Before You are able to cash out monies deposited by You or received by way of Inter-Account Transfer or Gift Certificate You must first have earned Standard Player Points with such monies (excluding any bonus points awarded) greater than or equal to15% of the amount received in USD ("Release Requirements"). Where such monies are deposited or received in a currency other than USD, the required 15% of Player Points must be calculated on the value of such monies in USD (based on the exchange rates offered by Us at the point of cash out. Please see Currency Converter). In addition, acceptance of a cash out request is subject to any deposit method restrictions, bonus restrictions and/or Security Reviews (see Section 16 below) and any other terms of these Agreements. All amounts You withdraw are subject to the transaction limits and any processing fees for deposits and withdrawal methods that We notify You of before cashing out. For further details of current deposit and cash out options and fees please see PartyCashier. Further, We may report and withhold any amount from Your winnings in order to comply with any applicable law. All taxes due in connection with any winnings awarded to You are Your sole liability. Account balances cannot be transferred, substituted or redeemed for any other prize. Payment of funds which You withdraw shall be made by cheque, wire, credit card and/or any other manner which We select in Our sole discretion, although We will try to accommodate Your preferences as indicated by You when You register. Payments will be made as soon as reasonably possible, although there may be delays due to any Security Review (see Section 16 below) undertaken by Us and save where We hold any such payments in accordance with these Agreements.

[vinylweatherman]

Party casino seem to be "reputable" given how they are allowed to advertise on the telly, but these must be the most predatory terms ever seen. They are worse than Winward, who made it compulsory to wager plain deposits 30x.

Party casino are preying on the "newbies" here in the UK, through the TV adverts and program sponsorships. Even seasoned players often miss such things. It is in deliberately "long winded" language that might tempt people to skip such a large congested paragraph, perhaps dismissing it as "legalese" which to does look like on first inspection.
The term also seems to give the casino wide ranging and unspecified permission to void winnings, confiscate balances, dick players around with cash-ins "at the management's discretion".

Should be "not recommended" at the very least due to these terms (which would actually be ILLEGAL in the UK, falling foul of both the old unfair consumer contracts law (biased unfairly towards the casino - little or no rights to customer), and also under the new trading laws, which specifically outlaw 31 "business practices" as well as give the consumer extra rights to have terms of business CLEARLY DEFINED (no woolly subjective clauses).

In reality, these terms are designed to penalise players who don't take bonuses, as those who DO take bonuses are likely to meet the "party points" criteria alongside meeting wagering requirements. The bonuses are also likely to steer (or force) players to play slot games rather than blackjack.

I would suggest a PAB, so that this can be investigated, and maybe a casino warning - pretatory terms will result. This might get their attention, and they might decide to remove the predatory terms.

[3dfella]

Glad to see Im not alone in finding these terms offensive. I wouldnt be looking to use my one freeshot PAB on this issue but will send a message to highlight the thread so that at least the issue is not buried.

[Rusty]

I invited Party Casino to respond to this either me directly by email or here (link supplied)
So far no response.
These T&C's are scandalous as far as I can see and I urge CM to have Party Casino at least on the not recommended list until they respond and try and justify this.
If they can't or fail to modify or remove this term they should be thrown in the rogue pit.
There seems to be a lot of apathy here to recent scandals - even if you do not play at these places you should be making your voice heard.

[kmay87]

I was aware that Party used this system when it came to bonus WR, in that you had to not only meet the WR but also collect a minimum number of Party Points, which, in my opinion, was a way for them to make it appear that all games counted in what were very reasonable terms. I think we could understand if they wanted say a 1x deposit turnover to save on costs, but this is just obscene.

I wonder just how many people have been caught out by this.

[Rusty]

I was aware that Party used this system when it came to bonus WR, in that you had to not only meet the WR but also collect a minimum number of Party Points, which, in my opinion, was a way for them to make it appear that all games counted in what were very reasonable terms. I think we could understand if they wanted say a 1x deposit turnover to save on costs, but this is just obscene.

I wonder just how many people have been caught out by this.

Absolutely, a reasonable condition to prevent unnecessary processing costs would be acceptable but this is not.

[3dfella]

I would also like to add that the value is calculated based on USD so if as I did you deposit in a currency which is stronger, then your deposit is converted to the dollar amount and the 15% is based on that. So if you deposit 1000 GBP they convert it to 1500 USD and require you to acheive party points equivelent to 15% of that which is 225 rather than equivelent to 112.50 which is 15% of GBP.

It really is terrible. Here is a list of how the points are accrued:

Single-deck blackjack $200
Roulette $50
Las Vegas Downtown Blackjack $150
Baccarat $50
Progressive slots $25
Table poker $25
Video poker $20
Slots $10
Keno $10
Casino War $20
Red Dog $20
Blackjack – Bonus Pairs $25
Virtual racing $5

So if I am playing Single Deck BJ with a £1000 deposit I must acheive 225 party points and need to wager 200*225 which is 450,000 just to be able to cashout my own money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please tell me I have calculated this wrongly!

[Rusty]

That is why I have invited Party Casino to explain.
If they are conspicuous by their absence then they should be thrown in the pit or at the very least put on the not recommended list and a warning issued.
Perhaps we are misreading the meaning of such abstruse Terms but since they are intentional abstruse I very much doubt it.

The First sentence alone contains Six commas, Four sets of brackets,Thirteen "or", a couple of "and", as well as a forward slash for good measure.

I also doubt very much that it is presented in unattractive block text by accident either.

The person who wrote it should be put against a wall and shot (without a blindfold)

[De Beuker]

I would also like to add that the value is calculated based on USD so if as I did you deposit in a currency which is stronger, then your deposit is converted to the dollar amount and the 15% is based on that. So if you deposit 1000 GBP they convert it to 1500 USD and require you to acheive party points equivelent to 15% of that which is 225 rather than equivelent to 112.50 which is 15% of GBP.

It really is terrible. Here is a list of how the points are accrued:

Single-deck blackjack $200
Roulette $50
Las Vegas Downtown Blackjack $150
Baccarat $50
Progressive slots $25
Table poker $25
Video poker $20
Slots $10
Keno $10
Casino War $20
Red Dog $20
Blackjack – Bonus Pairs $25
Virtual racing $5

So if I am playing Single Deck BJ with a £1000 deposit I must acheive 225 party points and need to wager 200*225 which is 450,000 just to be able to cashout my own money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please tell me I have calculated this wrongly!

You have, its only 45.000, ONLY 45.000 WR before you can cash out on your own money, or whats left of it.
Bonus: 0 WR: 45x deposit.
Now ain't that a real bargain?