ECOGRA RELEASES 2009 ONLINE GAMBLING DISPUTE STATS

15 January 2010

Significant number of disputes resolved in favour of players

Tex Rees, the Fair Gaming Advocate at the player protection and standards non-profit eCOGRA, has released consolidated player dispute statistics for January 1st to December 31st 2009, showing that almost 50 percent of the disputes she mediated were resolved in favour of the player.

Rees publishes quarterly reports on her activities, which cover the 141 online gambling websites accredited and monitored by the independent London-based organisation.

The annual overview shows that Rees received a total of 826 disputes through eCOGRA's online player facility, an increase of 83 or around 10 percent over FY 2008. However, 83 of those submitted were in respect of non-eCOGRA operators, over which the organisation has no influence.

A further 115 submissions were classified as invalid due to being anonymous, non-specific and/or abusive in nature - slightly up on the same category for 2008 when there were 96 such submissions.

Rees mediated the remaining 628 issues, securing resolutions that favoured the player in 303 - or 48 percent - of the cases.

"The average number of valid disputes handled per week was 12.07, slightly up on the 2008 number of 10.6," Rees said this week.

"Taken over a total of 141 "Safe and Fair" seal websites, that amounts to an average of 0.37 issues per site per month, a minute increase over the 2008 number of 0.36. That remains an industry-leading disputes statistic by any standards," the Fair Gaming Advocate added.

The main causes for disputes were:

Cash Ins: 46 percent
Bonus: 22 percent
Locked account: 19 percent
Other*: 13 percent
* Issues regarding responsible gambling, queries on sportsbetting, software enquiries and spam.

"The hierarchy of disputes remains the same as it was in 2008, although the percentages differ slightly," Rees said. "Once again I found operators quick to respond and fully cooperative in addressing the mediated disputes."

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