Hey hey
So I've recently moved to Australia, and to avoid any conflicts with entitlement to bonuses and IP addresses etc I decided to open a new account with Australian-facing Emu Casino. They're a sister site to Videoslots so I knew they were trustworthy.
Because I'm in the country temporarily, and my rent is inclusive of all bills, I was worried that I would struggle to prove my address for the purposes of identification. With this in mind, I contacted the support team to ask if a letter from the Australian Government with my name and Australian address on it would suffice, and they confirmed that it should be fine. I then registered and uploaded this document to my account.
I'm starting a new job next week, and have time on my hands this week, hence my desire to play slots. Foolishly, I decided to deposit and start playing before my documents had been approved (although feeling somewhat safe in the knowledge that the support team had confirmed that what I have should be fine). I deposited $150 and got to work slotting.
For my $150 I got a lot of play time, and eventually decided to withdraw when my balance was at $250. The cashier screen informed me that my withdrawal was denied because my identity had not yet been verified. My past experience of this process is that the cashier removes the balance from your account and then they hold your cash until your documents are approved. Not at Emu Casino: they just denied my withdrawal and the cash remained playable.
They took more than 24 hours to get around to processing my documents, and got back in touch to say that the document from the Australian Government was not acceptable, and that I had to provide a bank statement. (I hasten to add that for an "Australian" casino the hours worked by the document processing team seemed to be those of Europe). So the next day I went to the bank to get a stamped official document with my address on it, and duly uploaded it. I also had to re-submit my credit card as I had obscured some digits for the purpose of security and apparently this is not allowed (although it has been at every other casino I've sent scans of my card to). I've been waiting longer than 24 hours now and still had no word about the status of these documents.
Of course, throughout this whole time my balance was still playable and not available for withdrawal. Having the impulsive nature of a gambler I returned to play, and in fairness I got a lot of playtime out of the deposit. Eventually, of course, I bust out the full $250 balance.
Losing that money was my own fault. I should have patiently waited for my documents to be approved and cashed out. I'm also aware that, had I cashed out, I would have re-deposited the money in a few weeks anyway and ultimately lost it, that's gambling.
Regardless, I am annoyed with Emu Casino for:
1. Telling me that the document I had should be acceptable and then rejecting it after I've made a deposit and have a withdrawable balance.
2. Taking so long to review identity documents.
3. Rejecting my withdrawal and returning the cash to my playable balance. To me this is completely unacceptable. When a player clicks "withdraw" it signifies that they have finished gambling and want to get their money out. In any other casino I've ever played at they remove the balance (and therefore the temptation) as soon as you click "withdraw". I'm man enough to accept that I gambled and lost that balance, but I did make a conscious decision to withdraw and had the casino operated like every other casino, or indeed processed documents in a timely manner, or accepted the documents they said they would, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to lose.
Thoughts?
So I've recently moved to Australia, and to avoid any conflicts with entitlement to bonuses and IP addresses etc I decided to open a new account with Australian-facing Emu Casino. They're a sister site to Videoslots so I knew they were trustworthy.
Because I'm in the country temporarily, and my rent is inclusive of all bills, I was worried that I would struggle to prove my address for the purposes of identification. With this in mind, I contacted the support team to ask if a letter from the Australian Government with my name and Australian address on it would suffice, and they confirmed that it should be fine. I then registered and uploaded this document to my account.
I'm starting a new job next week, and have time on my hands this week, hence my desire to play slots. Foolishly, I decided to deposit and start playing before my documents had been approved (although feeling somewhat safe in the knowledge that the support team had confirmed that what I have should be fine). I deposited $150 and got to work slotting.
For my $150 I got a lot of play time, and eventually decided to withdraw when my balance was at $250. The cashier screen informed me that my withdrawal was denied because my identity had not yet been verified. My past experience of this process is that the cashier removes the balance from your account and then they hold your cash until your documents are approved. Not at Emu Casino: they just denied my withdrawal and the cash remained playable.
They took more than 24 hours to get around to processing my documents, and got back in touch to say that the document from the Australian Government was not acceptable, and that I had to provide a bank statement. (I hasten to add that for an "Australian" casino the hours worked by the document processing team seemed to be those of Europe). So the next day I went to the bank to get a stamped official document with my address on it, and duly uploaded it. I also had to re-submit my credit card as I had obscured some digits for the purpose of security and apparently this is not allowed (although it has been at every other casino I've sent scans of my card to). I've been waiting longer than 24 hours now and still had no word about the status of these documents.
Of course, throughout this whole time my balance was still playable and not available for withdrawal. Having the impulsive nature of a gambler I returned to play, and in fairness I got a lot of playtime out of the deposit. Eventually, of course, I bust out the full $250 balance.
Losing that money was my own fault. I should have patiently waited for my documents to be approved and cashed out. I'm also aware that, had I cashed out, I would have re-deposited the money in a few weeks anyway and ultimately lost it, that's gambling.
Regardless, I am annoyed with Emu Casino for:
1. Telling me that the document I had should be acceptable and then rejecting it after I've made a deposit and have a withdrawable balance.
2. Taking so long to review identity documents.
3. Rejecting my withdrawal and returning the cash to my playable balance. To me this is completely unacceptable. When a player clicks "withdraw" it signifies that they have finished gambling and want to get their money out. In any other casino I've ever played at they remove the balance (and therefore the temptation) as soon as you click "withdraw". I'm man enough to accept that I gambled and lost that balance, but I did make a conscious decision to withdraw and had the casino operated like every other casino, or indeed processed documents in a timely manner, or accepted the documents they said they would, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to lose.
Thoughts?
