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About LinkBacksHere's my entire tale of woe regarding my very first foray into online gaming:
I became a user of Gamblers Palace on Sunday February 25, 2001 (perhaps it was after midnight so it could have been Monday, February 26, 2001). I deposited $500 in my account by credit card and immediately started playing single-deck blackjack. I had a few computer glitches that I was able to live with but the game would continually freeze up (something that plagued me each session I played).
Playing basic strategy, I was very successful the first few days and my account grew to the $6,000-$7,000 range. The next few days were very up and down but I was able to get my account to $9,000. Around this time I put in an online redemption request for my $500.00 deposit to be credited back to my credit card (redemptions are only processed on Mondays). On Friday March 2, 2000 I played some more and broke the $10,000 mark. On Saturday March 3, 2001 I decided to change my redemption request to $5,000 and did this by telephone. That night I played some more - and I had a huge swing of luck with my account shrinking to the $6,000 range and then growing back to a bit over $10,000. During each of these sessions my computer would freeze requiring me to sign back onto my account.
On Sunday morning, March 5, 2001, I tried to sign on to my account and I received the message that my user ID and password were no longer valid. When I e-mailed and called the site I was informed that my account was under investigation for some unknown reason. They told me to talk to the manager but he was unavailable at the time. Later that afternoon, I finally got through to the manager and he nastily accused me of playing "illegally" as he claimed that I had, on four occassions, been doubly signed on to my account (meaning that my sessions over-lapped). I asserted that I did no such thing. As a result, he froze my account so I could not play and could not get my money redeemed. He said that if I were honest, as I claimed, then I had nothing to worry about. He said the "investigation" would be over by Monday morning. After that I wrote an e-mail to the site telling them that I find their reasoning unacceptable. I received an e-mail back with my alleged transgression (a supposed abstract showing one, not four, time overlaps between two sessions - it was a 10-minute overlap). The manager also wrote that I have nothing to worry about and that my money will be waiting for me when the investigation was over (Monday morning).
As of that Monday afternoon, my account was still frozen and my redemption had not been processed. In an e-mail that morning I demanded the entirety of my account be sent to me (over $10,000). I received an e-mail back that basically called me a crook and said that investigation will not be over until later that week and they will not process any of my redemption requests.
I wrote another e-mail demanding answers to questions such as during that one alleged ten-minute overlap does their computer indicate whether more than one hand was being played at once. Did I win or lose during that one period? How much? Certainly, their computer glitch during that one alleged ten-minute overlap period does not cover a large amount of money - certainly not an amount that would give them reason to withhold over $10,000 of my money.
Upon a later exchange of e-mails (where the casino manager was a bit nicer after I told him I was going to post on the boards)the casino manager demanded to know why I was playing 2 games at once. I denied playing 2 games at once and suggested that perhaps when the my computer window got frozen it's possible that their server did not have me logged out, so when I logged in again it looked like I was logged on twice. I told the Casino manager to investigate the matter further and I am confident that he will see that I was not playing 2 sessions or 2 hands at once.
Finally, after I e-mailed (without responses) and called many times throughout the week I was able to speak to the manager of Gamblers Palace again. He told me that the "audit" of my account was over and that I had been cleared of any wrongdoing (although he never apologized for accusing me of being a cheat). He assured me that my $10,000 withdrawal request will be processed immediately.
WRONG!!
Although my credit card was credited back with $500; I never received my $9,500 bank wire. In the past two weeks, whenever I called Gamblers Palace asking about my money they would tell me that I will be getting it any day.
This past weekend Gamblers Palace changed their story and told me that they cannot pay me and the decision to not pay me was made by UNIFIED GAMING. It appears that after two weeks of being strung along, Unified Gaming has now decided to "audit" my account. Gamblers Palace told me that since it was not their decision to do this new audit, I now have to contact Unified Gaming. Well, my e-mails to Unified Gaming have gone unanswered.
I won my money fair and square. I weathered many downswings and was able to capitalize on winning streaks by increasing my bet. I am outraged and incensed that Unified Gaming is witholding money that I fairly won. I find it highly suspicious that they started "investigating" me only right after I put in my first redemption request.
I am completely distraught.
By the way, the manager at Gamblers Palace saw my postings on another board and he was outraged. Serves him right for accusing a customer of thievery (he actually never apologized after he cleared me of any wrongdoing) and for running a crooked casino.
I would suggest that nobody give their patronage to Unified Gaming casinos based on these unethical actions.
I lodged a complaint with the OPA - complaint number 601. You can check it out on this site. I hope Steve will be able to assist me.
If anyone has any other ideas please let me know.
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