Player Arbitration (PAB) Policies and Procedures

Last update: 26 November 2018

• PABs are private and closed, meaning the case discussions are only between the PABer, the casino representatives and us. Full stop.
• Case details and discussions are never published nor are they publicly accessible.
• All parties involved are expected to respect the privacy of the PAB process.
• We reserve the right to post monthly case summaries which will include a brief description of the case and its outcome: case summaries are fully anonymized.
• PABs are English only please. If you need help translating we'd recommend asking on our forums since our membership is very multi-national.

1. PAB Policies and Procedures (PAB P&P)

1.1 - Before you submit your complaint to us please attempt to resolve the problem with the casino directly. The Casino Representatives list will help you find someone from the casino to discuss your issue with. Please allow at least 10 working days for the casino people to resolve your issue AFTER you have provided them with the necessary details.

1.2 - Your first complaint at Casinomeister can be about any casino not listed on our Rogue Casinos page; subsequent PABs should be about casinos listed on the Accredited Casinos list. (this is our old "One Free Shot" rule.) We usually ask that you have only one PAB on the go at a time.

1.3 - Issues that date back a year or more are generally not eligible for the complaints service at Casinomeister.

1.4 - Please do not file your complaint here if you have opened multiple accounts at the casino, colluded with other players, registered using stolen or fake identities, etc. In other words fraudsters are not welcome and will be kicked to the curb without notice.

1.5 - Summarize your complaint, 50-100 words is almost always sufficient. More is most definitely NOT better; long-winded texts are unnecessary and unwelcome. Saying "go look at my post" or equivalent is not an acceptable substitute. Abusive material of any sort will not be tolerated; your complaint will be canceled and discarded without notice.

1.6 - We require that you be readily available for discussion during the course of your complaint being processed so when you complete the complaint form we ask you for a "contact" email address that is neither Hotmail, Yahoo nor AOL. In our experience those services are unreliable for casino-related correspondence. Complaints that fail to respect this requirement will be delayed and/or cancelled.

• if you are looking for alternative free email services we've found gmail.com and gmx.com to be reliable and hassle-free.

1.7 - When you submit your complaint please DO NOT attach or send supporting materials: the basic PAB details are almost always sufficient. If we need additional material from you we will ask for it.

1.8 - You will have opened your complaint with us via our ticket system on the forums, we will normally reply to you there or by email within one or two working days. Further progress on your case will be announced and can be discussed in the ticket or via email.

• simple cases are usually resolvable within a few days or a week; the worst cases have taken a year or more to resolve.
• if there's no hope of further progress we will make a final decision based on what we have available to us at the time and close the case.

1.9 - We often require your input while we work on your complaint: if you are unresponsive within a reasonable time your complaint will be closed and note will be made that you have misused our service. Repeat offenses may result in you being barred from access to our arbitration service.

1.10 - Please do not post on other forums or file your complaint with other 3rd party arbitration services while we work on your case: we strive to get your issue resolved ASAP so please respect our efforts and don't confuse things by asking for outside assistance while we are engaged on your behalf. Failure to comply will, at our discretion, result in your complaint being cancelled and discarded.

1.11 - Please understand that our arbitration service is non-binding on the parties involved. We try to reach resolution through mutual agreement but if that is impossible you may have to seek redress through the courts.

1.12 - If the online gaming property named in your complaint refuses to cooperate with us regarding your case and offers no reasonable arbitration alternative we may, at our discretion, publish a Casinomeister Warning against them. Or, if we deem the casino to have acted unfairly and/or unreasonably towards you and/or other players, we may publish such a warning. For any such warning the details will be anonymized before publication.

1.13 - If and when legislation in your jurisdiction precludes our involvement we will withdraw from any ongoing complaint as is required to comply with said legislation.

1.14 - Under all normal circumstances you will be notified of our decision regarding your complaint. If you have committed fraud or otherwise tried to mislead us or the casino we reserve the right to make our final decision and withdraw from the case without notice.

1.15 - If we deem that you have abused our arbitration service by misuse, false claims or failure to comply with these Policies & Procedures we will, at our discretion, close any ongoing cases you may have, bar you from future access to the arbitration service and/or terminate your membership at Casinomeister.

2. DOs and DONTs for a successful PAB

2.1 - DO provide a BRIEF description of your problem

When you submit your complaint details there is a text box to describe your problem. Please do so in 50-100 words. Yes, that's brief but trust us, that's a good thing.
If you don't provide a problem description as requested our work on your PAB will automatically be delayed while we contact you directly to get it.

2.2 - DO stay in touch

Complaint resolution depends of communications back and forth between the parties involved. If we can't reach you your PAB can and will fail.

2.3 - DON'T sabotage your complaint

Posting on the forums or submitting your issue at other 3rd party sites while we're working on it undermines our efforts. If we find out you've done so your complaint will likely be canceled. You'll be free to discuss your complaint wherever you like once we've completed our work and given our decision.

2.4 - DO keep us updated

Let us know if the status of your issue changes. If the casino contacts you and resolves the problem, let us know. If you've given up and are no longer interested in working with us to see your complaint through, let us know.

2.5 - DO allow us time to do our work

These things take time. If you haven't heard anything from us for a couple weeks -- assume 10 working days -- then by all means feel free to ask for an update. Otherwise give it some time; pestering us will only slow things down.

3. GDPR Compliance

The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is now in effect and requires that we inform users of our complaints service of our Legal Basis for Data Usage and our Data Retention Policy:

3.1 - Legal Basis for Processing Data

The GDPR identifies six (6) legal bases upon which personal data may be processed of which two (2) apply to our site, your usage of the site and the work we do:

• Consent: by registering on our site you consent that we can and will hold information on you including your IP address(es) and basic computer profile including browser type, operating system, etc. Furthermore if you use our Player Arbitration Service you will be consenting to us having, holding and using for the purposes of processing that complaint such data as you provide to us or that we gather about you regarding your complaint from the internet gambling property(s) you have named in your complaint and/or the licensing body(s) that regulate those internet gambling properties. For ongoing complaints you may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us with your request. We will act on such requests as soon as is reasonably possible. There will be no penalties for withdrawing consent.
• Legitimate Interests: in the course of pursuing a Player Arbitration complaint that you have filed with us we will process and use your data in pursuit of a resolution of that complaint. Our legitimate interest is to see that complaint fairly and reasonably concluded and what information we have, hold or gather about you will be related to that purpose.

3.2 - Data Retention Policy

Any personal data collected from you or about you in the course of a complaint investigation will be retained no longer than is necessary for that purpose. Typically this will mean that once a decision has been reached any personal data that is no longer required to provide basic identification of the complainant and/or support for our decision regarding their case and to meet our legal obligations will be deleted and purged within 30 days.

4. Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about these policies or our PAB service please feel free to contact us on the forums or via email:

• Send us a general message via our Contact Us page.
• Bryan aka Casinomeister is the head man on the site, message him here.
• Max aka maxd is the Complaints (PAB) Manager, message him here, email at max.drayman@casinomeister.com.

5. PAB related links

• Submit a PAB intro.
• Read our How To PAB guide.