Sands Of The Caribbean: eliciting deposits under false pretexts & lying to customers

[caruso]

Oh, the irony.

The very day after I rag on people about critisizing Crypto gameplay, Sands Of The Caribbean pull the first casino stunt I've been subjected to since...err...Cirrus, 18 months ago?

This is in fact pretty much identical to the Omni case:

http://www.casinomeister.com/forums/...ead.php?t=6147

On the monthly round of clicking on the Crypto casino sites to see what's what on the freebie front, I noticed Sands had added an Omni-esque "wager up front" monthly $100 bonus for $6000 upfront wagering.

They have a get-out clause in the T & C:

"This loyalty bonus will NOT be credited to accounts that have shown patterns of bonus abuse in the past ((ie wagering is done primarily using promotional funds and not deposited funds, or wagering is done primarily to satisfy minimum bonus requirements."

Fair enough.

I once had an issue with Sands, which was my fault but was resolved to my satisfaction, but which necessitated checking first with them that I was OK for this promo.

So I live-chatted - and screen-copied. See the "Sands chat" attachment below - all personal details edited out.

Here's a copy of the chat:

--------------

CSR: Hi, how can we help?

Me: (I post my account number)

CSR: I got your account up, (my name)

Me: Can you tell me if my account is eligible for the "wager $6000, get $100" bonus?

CSR: This offer is for the month of June, so yes, you sure are eligible"

Me: Great, thanks

CSR: yw

---------------

So I deposited $600 and played $15 blackjack up to $6000 in wagers, so fulfilling all requirements - and winning about $700 in the process.

No bonus come 5:30 EST as promised, so I emailed an enquiry.

Reply came thus:

---------------

"Hello (me);

"Your email was forwarded to the Promotions Department here at The Sands of the Caribbean® in regards to your wagering patterns for our Monthly promotions.

"The reason the casino has opt to change our monthly promotion for June was to track and eliminate players who have been taking advantage of our Monthly Promotions.

"1) For the past months your wagering patterns have been exemplifying one of a Bonus abuser whereas (2) you are meeting the exact wagering requirement with the promotional funds only and only wagering for the promotion thus never risking your own funds and basically playing with the promotion only. 3) This is a breach of our Terms and Conditions to the promotion.
http://www.carsands.com/common/terms_and_conditions.asp

"Attached you will find a spread sheet of you life activity on this account, you will notice that every month you have met the wagering to the "T".

"I am sure you are aware that The Sands of the Caribbean is part of Peak Entertainment, which allowed me to view other accounts that you have with Peak, unfortunately 4) you were also blocked at Omni Casino and 49er's for the same wagering patterns, this is further indication 5) and ammunition that you are wagering at our casino only to take advantage of our courtesy promotion.

"I'm sorry to say but Peak Entertainment has opt to no longer qualify your account for further promotions due to these activates.

"If you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to ask, I will be more than ready and willing to assist you the best way that I can.

"Abi
Omni Casino®
Customer Service"

---------------

Many, many points to make:

1) This is a generic email. I haven't, in fact, played at Sands in about a year or so. The reference to "the past few months" is incorrect as far as it applies to me. This email is basically sitting on their desks, waiting to be forwarded to whomsoever they they choose.

2) "you are meeting the exact wagering requirement with the promotional funds only and only wagering for the promotion thus never risking your own funds".

Err, excuse me, but how can you make a medium sized deposit, wager about 350 hands of $15 blackjack, whilst "never risking your own funds"? How can you wager "with the promotional funds only" when there are no "promotional funds" in your account, and the ONLY funds in your account are your own?

3) "This is a breach of the terms & conditions".

Err, excuse me, but isn't it the casino breaching their agreement with me in the chat? Don't they have this one backwards?

4) "you were also blocked at Omni Casino".

Well now, this is very interesting. Take a look now at the second screenshot below, "omni chat". It's basically a repoduction of the first: same question, same response. To quote the most relevant bit:

"I see your account is OK to receive bonuses so you are good to go".

Omni casino told me the EXACT same thing, that I was fine to receive promos - and the Peak CSR I spoke to regarding the Sands incident tells me I would also have been denied there, had I played!

5) "this is further indication and ammunition that you are wagering at our casino...(etc)

Well, isn't that a fine, pugnacious attitude to take with a customer who deposited, risked his deposit relatively agressively having confirmed his entitlement to the monthly freebie, then requested said freebie as per the casino's above-quoted agreement? They want "ammunition" to use against their customers. What a fine state of affairs this is.

6) MY ENTITLEMENT WAS CLEARLY AND UNQUESTIONABLY CONFIRMED. I specifically gave my account number to the CSR to check, and the CSR confirmed I was good - at BOTH casinos, in fact. The reason I specifically asked was because of the stated get-out clause "This loyalty bonus will NOT be credited to accounts" being entirely fair, and although I've received regular monthly promos at Sands in the past without any glitch, it's beholden to an experienced player to check on all matters.

Yet I was denied - on the apparent basis of "risk-free" play, after depositing without a bonus and plainly risking my own funds (I could easily have wiped out at that level), and with the casino's expressly-stated confirmation that I would NOT be denied.

This I never expected this from Sands. I rate (rated) Crypto right at the top of my list of quality casinos. What an error.

Sands Of The Caribbean (and Omni) will say one thing to get your money, then turn around and say the exact OPPOSITE when they've got it.

Sands Of The Carribean (and Omni) are eliciting deposits under false pretexts and LYING to their customers.

This is Class A rogue casino behaviour.

Sands must be classed as a rogue casino at this point. And all for a hundred bucks.

[Vesuvio]

I suppose they decided they got away with the Omni debacle scot-free (giving in to a handful of players on here to diffuse the situation), so now they're trying it again.

As you say, there are too many things wrong with that e-mail to list.

The reason the casino has opt to change our monthly promotion for June was to track and eliminate players who have been taking advantage of our Monthly Promotions.

That's an open admission that the purpose of the new bonus system is to trap players into depositing then deny them the bonus, isn't it? It's also nonsensical - if they wanted to "track" or "eliminate" players they could just have analysed past play and informed them. There's no longer any possibility of not risking your own money, so tracking how the bonus gets played is pointless. Not to mention the fact you'd think they'd be happy for anyone to play a bonus like this where you have to manually meet such a huge wr and could potentially deposit far in excess of the bonus.

Given this is exactly the same behaviour as with the Omni bonus I agree they should at the very least be removed from the Accredited casinos list immediately. No-one can put this down to ignorance or a one-off mistake.

p.s. and if you're going to write your customers such an aggressive e-mail you could at least spend the time to check the spelling and grammar. See the above quote & "I'm sorry to say but Peak Entertainment has opt to no longer qualify your account for further promotions due to these activates."

[Weedlayer]

Oh, no. Not again.

It makes me sad to see the Peak Entertainment group get such (deserved) bad publicity again.

[kfellmy]

What about the other BS they pulled: This was a while back-

If I remember correctly, I got an email about the upcoming voting for some #1 casino and poker room awards. They sent the links to all their players so they could vote. In turn SC would have a 5K freeroll for all the players who voted. Cool. They won and the freeroll happened (eventhough I sucked in it).

Next month...no more monthly casino match; Following month they jack the hand requirement in the poker room to 500 hands. I talked to live support and when I got through finally I asked about the situation and got the response that I would be earning more points with the higher hand requirement. Huh? Turns out they don't get it.

I know changing their T & Cs doesn't mean instant rogue-dom but when they changed after getting everyone to vote for them made them an instant rogue in my book.

Shame too. I used to kill the Single Deck Black Jack game. Made me a lot of money, but now it's gone from my computer.

They either changed management or changed philosophy. Something happened for these drastic measures to be implemented. Now they look even worse. Maybe no one is playing there anymore. I know I won't ever be back.

[two_card]

Because of the OMNI problem last year I quit playing at any Peak Entertainment casino.

I have never had a problem but there are very good casinos without this reputation.

We must support our players.

[largeeyes]

I thought CSun and switched over to the must wager to get bonus long ago, but noticed they upped it to 60x this month. Is that a new change?

[KasinoKing]

Why am I not surprised by this thread!
This group completely lost the plot some time ago, but even I can't believe they're still quoting this "not risking your own funds" BS with their current bonus system!

It is blatant complete incompetence - I'm surprised they have any customers left at all!

And with their ludicrous 60x WR - this is another 'very long barge pole' casino on my list anyway!

Hope you get paid by these idiots, caruso.

[caruso]

Actually, I AM surprised by this thread. I never thought Sands would pull a stunt.

And FTR, not paying money you owe people is no different to stealing from them. Funds retroactively reclaimed are the same as promised funds subsequently non-honoured.

I'll take a guess I'm not the only person this has happened to, so I'd advise against making any deposits at Sands Of The Caribbean in the expectation of their respecting an agreement they may have entered into with you.

I had the pleasant surprise of receiving two unsolicited offers for help on this one, so we'll see how it goes. To be honest, this was intended as an information thread and not a call for assistance, but now I think about it I see no reason why the casino should be allowed to withhold / steal even such a relatively small sum without an attempt to prise their wallets open.

[Casinomeister]

...I had the pleasant surprise of receiving two unsolicited offers for help on this one, so we'll see how it goes. To be honest, this was intended as an information thread and not a call for assistance, but now I think about it I see no reason why the casino should be allowed to withhold / steal even such a relatively small sum without an attempt to prise their wallets open.

As soon as it was posted, management got involved are are already looking this over. Further assistance shouldn't be necessary.

When you post complaints in this forum, it will always help by PMing the casino reps to let them know what is up. Thanks.

[caruso]

What is the handle of the SOTC rep here? One way or another, this is someone I badly need a chat with.

Is there a membership list somewhere? General list of all "resident" casino reps?