9am-5pm Weekday Casinos

[SlotsGuy]

Always wondered about so many casinos which have a fully functioning online 24/7 website, but only have a fully staffed office team Monday-Friday 9am-5pm (payments team, player protection, management, verification etc). It's especially frustrating to make a withdrawal on a Friday afternoon and be told the 'payments team' will be back in the office on Monday at 9am. It just doesn't make sense, this includes live chat support which closes at say 7pm. Surly making players wait days for a simple withdrawal just causes annoyance/anxiety and makes them search their competitors for instant withdrawal options for future gambling sessions.

Peak time for playing online casinos/bingo/poker etc is after 7pm on weekdays and weekends, so why have a full office working weekdays at 9-5?? I mean it's common sense to realise more players will be using their website on a Saturday at 9pm than Monday at 9am. Another aspect is finding a decent looking casino website to find they don't have live chat support, so your only option is ping pong email or AI chat (with no option to speak to a human) which generally takes days to get any form of resolution, this is an instant put off and I try to stay away from these sites. It surly doesn't cost much to have a few staff members 24/7 who are fully trained in support/payments/verification etc.

 

[maxd]

Just my 2 cents worth but I can tell you as a guy that works Sundays that the business side of the casino world is pretty much stone dead on the weekends. And aside from crypto transactions no money moves on the weekends either (bankers are the first out the door come the weekend). Given that, it's pretty understandable that most -- but not all -- casinos stick to the regular work week too.

One thing to keep in mind is that there are very few people in the business that only do one thing, most of us have multiple roles we fill and a lot of that involves interacting with other people in the business. If they aren't around not much gets done. So again it makes sense to be off when everyone else is off and be around when they are.

And last but not least, everyone needs their weekend, whatever days those might be.

- Max

 

[jasonuk]

I wouldn't agree with 24/7 coverage, but I can see the argument for it being longer than 9-5 Mon-Fri... say 8-10 Mon-Sun depending on the function.

In the old days, it would make sense because banking transactions are only processed during bank hours - and thus whether they do it last thing on Friday or first thing on Monday makes no difference. However times have changed considerably in recent years, and with faster payment methods (e-wallets, visa direct etc) that can take minutes - that 60h+ delay is very noticeable.

If I was looking into a casino, I'd want to know:

• does live chat close early - e.g. before 10pm, or on weekends
• how easy is it to get to said live chat - I don't buy the AI fad at all, and most of the "chat bots" are awful.
• does the casino automate most withdrawals, or is everything manual - i.e. a 48+ hour "pending" period at weekends (which would have historically encouraged reverse withdrawals, or may still do outside the UK)
• how much friction is there for verification / paperwork - e.g. are the requests reasonable, are they processed in a timely fashion

It surly doesn't cost much to have a few staff members 24/7 who are fully trained in support/payments/verification etc.

You would be replacing one 40 hour shift (9-5 M-F) with four or five. So the costs, particularly for financial roles, would increase dramatically. There is a fair argument for secondary coverage (e.g. 5-10 M-F, some coverage on Sat and Sun), but you'd struggle to reason beyond that.