I find these stories rather annoying. First the casino accuses the player of fraud, and more or less gives "case closed - no appeal", and will not look into it further. Then casinomeister contacts the casino rep and all of a sudden it's a horrible mistake and player gets $75 bonus.
WHY WAS THIS NOT RESOLVED INTERNALLY IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!
While there is fraud in many of these cases, and Bryan does indeed find them out, here is an innocent player who would probably NEVER have got justice had they not known there was another avenue for appeal. This has happened not with a rogue, or "not recommended" casino, but an accredited one!
Casinos have to take this matter more seriously, and PROPERLY investigate such issues before levelling accusations, trial, jury, and execution at the player involved. This industry is having trouble enough already with it's reputation in some quarters, and must remember that there really is NO official redress for players beyond the intervention of third parties like Casinomeister who independently vet and help with complaints.
No doubt, the casino will never say what went wrong here, as this could allow real fraudsters to create a work around for security features, but such a SERIOUS mistake should not happen in the first place, casinos must be 100% sure before making it a "final decision". By all means, lock accounts TEMPORARILY and request documents before withdrawal if they think something does not look right, but never make it final till the can be sure a crime of fraud has been committed.
For every 4 players that know about such fora, there are 6 who do not, and would stay "screwed over" in the event that they really were innocent of charges but thought that there was no avenue other than the "chargeback" to use in pursuit of justice.
While the casino offered $75 compensation, this is peanuts compared to the possible repercussions were a fully regulated UK business to be found guilty of wrongfully removing money from a player's account with their company, be it an energy business or a bank.
Every time I see a story like this where the player is vindicated in short order after being accused of being a criminal by a casino, particularly one accredited here, my confidence in the ability of this industry to self regulate falls.
The industry are fighting to be allowed back into the US and parts of the Canadian market, while at the same time convincing other countries that the US has overreacted by calling them "criminal enterprises". There has to be an improvement in transparency of behaviour, or this industry could die in it's current self regulated form.
I have been playing since 2004, and I have never before witnessed such a torrent of complaints relating to confiscated winnings and deposits before this year, it is not the PLAYERS' fault that the US have decided to really turn the screw, and those players who continue to patronise the casinos, and keep them afloat, deserve better than the lowest standards casinos can get away with.
If it is really a problem with first deposit bonuses, then develop a new model, perhaps one that treats loyal players better than "cash cows" while lavishing huge bonuses on unknown new players that loyal players will NEVER see again in many cases unless they break with the loyalty and defect to a new casino. This would make sense, a casino knows how a loyal player plays, but they take a gamble that a new sign-up isn't just after the juicy bonus.
