Casino wants to know my salary

[Markus]

Today I decided to play at one of my favorite casinos. As I tried to login I noticed that my account is locked. Therefore I wrote an email to their customer support and asked why my account is locked. They answered this:

Hi Markus, your account was locked automatically because the level of
deposits/withdrawals has triggered our "know your customer" policy. As
with most gambling institutions we have a responsibility to fulfill KYC
and with this in mind, we would appreciate some back ground information
from you. Naturally anything that you say will be treated as
confidential and not divulged to any third party whatsoever. Could you
confirm

Your nationality, occupation, salary & name of your employer. If you are
self employed/own business, could you advise the nature of your business
and is this the source of your income?

Thank you for your understanding in this regard

Nick M.

I don't want to name the casino because I hold them in high esteem and always had good experiences with them. They are also accredited on Casinomeister.

I just want to know if this is a acceptable procedure and if someone else had experienced something like this? It must be said that I haven't had any big losses, quite the contrary I hade a lot of winnings there lately, so they don't do this because they worry about me.

In my opinion they don't have the right to demand this information from me, but on the other hand if I don't provide them with this information they probably don't allow me to continue to play in their casino.

[chayton]

huh....that is weird. Unless they're afraid you're money laundering or something?

If something like that happened to me, I'd shoot a PM to Casinomeister and find out if that's a normal request or not. It seems odd to me that they'd be asking for that kind of info, but maybe it's standard practice.

Maybe the high rollers can tell you if this is normal if you're depositing large amounts?

[mn001]

My reply would be "close my account i play somewhere else".

KYC is a must for financial companies. They will also give out info to police and other 3rd parties when they are forced to do so. But here they say "Naturally anything that you say will be treated as confidential and not divulged to any third party whatsoever.", so I don't think this is a standard KYC request. I mean if they never give out any info to anyone there's no reason to even care about KYC...

[Markus]

I always withdraw with the same method I deposit with (Moneybookers), so there is no reason to believe there would be money laundering or something.

I'm also no high roller, most of my deposits are only 20 Euro.

[Casinomeister]

I would only provide what you feel comfortable submitting to them. If this is not good enough for the casino management, then I'd just let them know that you choose not to provide everything and move on elsewhere.

[mrjones]

sounds like inetbet

[Diane]

sounds like inetbet

Now why would you even make that statement? It adds nothing to the content of the post and he specifically said he didn't want to name the casino.

Diane

[chuchu59]

I would dearly love to know which casino this is.

[Simmo!]

sounds like inetbet

Sounds like a bookmaker or a PLC to me. The red tape in some of these companies goes well over the top. On the plus side, if it is then it's unlikely that they will actually do anything with that information so although it's intrusive, I can't see it would do any harm.

Bottom line is, are they worth staying with?

[IanO]

Personally I think this kind of request is a smidge intrusive, but the reasons for asking may be very honorable. I once worked for a casino where we asked a player this exact question, though it was not part of our general policy. The reason we asked was we feared they might have been gambling 'above their means' and as such we asked these questions as part of our dedication to responsible gambling.

One of the triggers that caused us to ask was an increase in betting size following losses, and another was the players address. They were living in what could be described as a low income area, but betting like they owned a Bel-Air mansion.

I know you say you've been winning lately and dont think they ask because they worry about you... but problem gamblers dont always lose. Even they can have good streaks. You also say you only make small deposits.. but has the frequency of those deposits jumped up since you started winning?

Bottom line... can anyone think of a nefarious reason for a casino to ask this? I agree with Simmo and cant see any potential scam where a casino could or would use such information against a player... and would only (likely) need it for suspicion of either fraud/laudering or problem gambling.

'Partly' answering their question may proivide enough to re-assure the casino in question. For example 'I work in the construction industry, and earn between $XX and $XX anually.' Like Brian says... only share what you feel comfortable sharing.