Are you a Highroller? BEWARE of CASUMO

[Lobo]

Hi all,

(SUMMARY tl;dr: If you plan to play at Casumo for more than €2000 a month, BEWARE. They will make hell for you.)

First I must say that I love Casumo. The best online casino I have ever played on. I have been a VIP for 3 years and they have treated me very well. The first year at Casumo my VIP manager said I was one of the most loyal players... everything was OK, until a few days ago where they asked for a "proof of income".
I did Proof of income back in 2017, so I tought to myself "no big deal", and sent them documents.

I am a highroller that can gamble for big money on a regular basis. 2-3 years ago, when I joined Casumo, I could deposit €20k+ in a week. My biggest withdrawal was around €80.000 in one week and I did over 20 withdrawals above €10.000. Yes, I could deposit alot too - I became a VIP quickly and got my own VIP manager. I was invited to trips to Bahamas etc, got free cash and all the regular VIP stuff.
I could do tons of small deposits, or a few big ones - and I have in a few occasions done a self exclution for a week to "cool off" and that is because I sometimes need to be 100% focused on my business. And I totally understand that these patterns are common to 'problem gamblers'. I see that.
*snip* [max says: text removed at OP's request.}

After 1 year, back in 2017, I did a "Proof of income" and all neccessary verifications. No problems.

Little background information about me:
I am a business owner with a small successfull business.
I have made alot of money on Bitcoins and other crypto currencies.
I play alot of live poker in my town.
I am from Scandnavia.
I did a 6 month self exclusion back in earlie 2018 to 100% focus on my business.

Back to today:
In august I lost a totally of around €6000 at Casumo and around €3000 so far in september. I dont play nearly as much as I used to... maybe 1/5 of the money.
I had a small win a few days ago and were about to cash out when I suddenly noticed my withdrawal options was locked due to a verification request to show "Proof of income". No problem I thought, so I sent them copy of my paycheck, copy of banktransfer from cryptoexchanges + gave them a summery of how I got my money. The same stuff I did a couple years ago. I even made a few more deposits because I was 100% sure this would not be any problem.

As a business manager I decide my own salary and due to tax reasons I take out a low monthly salary and then one big after each year based on the surplus.
(I make around 5 x time the avarage yearly income in my country).
These numbers are public information in my country. Casumo knows that.

They declined the documents because my monthly income were to low compared to my losses in august and september, so they asked me to have a lawyer to write a signed letter that prooved I had such money in crypto. They also wanted signed documents from a registered accountant + all the finances to my company.

I mean... what the *snip* is happening? I am not joking.

I am a private person, and take my own security seriously... I dont splash around with such documents. This is a foreign casino and in my country such casinoes are more of less banned. Further I dont want to pay a lawyer to write documents.

Casinoes are casinoes... this is a industry built on greed, and with greed comes the shady people.

After some emails back an forth they just told me that they needed to see my bank statement from August. Showing every single transaction of what I use my money on. Now in 2019 I never use cash, just my card - so this is private. EXTREMELY private information. After some back and forth I agreed and sent them it the statement from the account attached to my VISA that shows everything.

On the staments they saw I had transfered money back/from to some people... guess what... they need a signed letter from each and every person that transfered me money to explain in a signed letter where the money come from + a copy of their ID.
YES SIR! I need to contact my poker buddies and have them to write a letter and scan there ID and send it to a foreign gambling company!

(Remember! I play live poker on a regular basis and nowadays we just transfer money to eachother electronically after each game).

I did not have any money in my Casumo account at this moment, most because they have locked the withdrawal options (so yeah, I gambled it away) - but I have a good amount of cashback + an open support case where Evolution Gaming owe me some money due to a technical error playing Lightning Roulette.
This money they refuse to pay out before they have gotten ALL above documents.

I mean, I am lost for words... this is straight up a comedy.

YES, the deposit options at Casumo are still fully functional and I am free to deposit as much as a want today, of course. But withdrawals are locked. Where the *snip* is the logic?

Are you a "highroller" that plan to play for, let us say above €2000+ in a month at Casumo... stay the *snip* away. You might have to expose your whole life to them.
If you send them your bankstatements and you (must God forbid) have recieved money from a privat person or anything else except your salary, THAT person (or company) has to write a signed letter stating where the money are coming from + send their ID to Casumo.

Thanks for reading. See it as a warning before it happens to you!

 

[pereblue]

Have you tried to contact with casumo reps at CM?: @CasumoLouis

 

[Degen]

Unfortunately that's how it is these days. These casinos are scared of high rollers.. Due to potential fines or fraud or what ever. Their approach generally shoots themselves in the foot for the most part though, as many high rollers have been scared away from playing online anymore.

This is especially the case if you've lost a decent chunk. Their attitude seems to be, well, we're happy with what you've given us, and we're comfortable you leave us now without any risk of repercussions should anything be wrong.. K thx bye

 

[Lobo]

I have done all the communication with my VIP manager @Casumo.

And she just confirmed 5 minutes ago that they need all the above documents to open up my account for withdrawals. Deposits are open, lol.

 

[Borgie]

I have done all the communication with my VIP manager @Casumo.

And she just confirmed 5 minutes ago that they need all the above documents to open up my account for withdrawals. Deposits are open, lol.

To take your money when they know they will not be giving you anything back until you comply with their requestes is just plain wrong. The whole account should be frozen. Deposits and withdrawals

 

[Lobo]

To take your money when they know they will not be giving you anything back until you comply with their requestes is just plain wrong. The whole account should be frozen. Deposits and withdrawals

haha, yeah -I agree... I did deposit €2k more after the withdrawal option was locked as well. I was confident this verification process would'nt be any issue.

A casino gonna do what a casino does, I guess.

 

[Lobo]

EDIT: I asked my VIP manager to close my deposit options as well upon my request. She said she just did.

 

[Lobo]

My VIP manager even offering me money as a reward if I send in all requested documents.

Sidenote: I got €500 a couple months ago for sending in my ID again.

 

[Slottery]

My VIP manager even offering me money as a reward if I send in all requested documents.

Sidenote: I got €500 a couple months ago for sending in my ID again.

Your VIP manager for sure don't wanna let you go but probably compliance/legal team is demanding all these documents to be sure that all your funds are legit. Can imagine what you have mentioned here that these transfers from your poker friends are more than 10-20€ and to you have quite a lot of money in your own business and cryptos etc. compliance/legal team might be very scared that if there is anything what they can't see for sure (like salary you pay yourself is not matching your gambling habbits, which is normal when you own your own business you don't pay yourself much as monthly salary. Then cryptos can be bit scary for them as these are not easy for them to track that how you actually gained that all you have, did you buy them when they were cheap, what money used for them etc...

There are quite few casinos who have lost their big VIP players when these SOW checks have been taking a place. Your VIP manager for sure have tried everything to make process easy as possible for you but can't get any further with them. Not really sure about these transactions how much they have reason to be scared that you are using some non legit money as if your bank where you have them are not even would think they have more responsibilities to know you don't have any dirty money on your account.

edit: Not sure how compliant it's to offer free money for you to provide your documents and keep on playing. Probably not breaching any laws, but would guess it's not a best practice if asking from regulators

 

[Slottery]

,

 

[nikantw]

Ok, legaly, how can someone demand from you private information and documentation that belongs to a 3rd person?
Request the IDs from other people?! Seriously?

How far are we from a probe into our a.... to provide info on our health directly to the casino?

 

[lotusch]

Very recognizable and it is ridiculous i.m.h.o.
I have closed several casino accounts after they started to ask me for proof of income and all that bullsh*t.
And I am just a Joe Average who plays bets between €0.20 - €2.00 and deposits of mostly €100.00 max at one time.

I feel this is a breach of MY privacy and am not willing to go through this wall of verifications.
All casinos I play at have my ID, proof of address and proof of payment method(s) and I feel that is enough.

Luckily most casinos I play most of my bankroll have never asked me for this extended proof of income.
The ones who did lost a customer.

 

[Lobo]

I am still very baffled over the whole situation, so I asked my VIP manager again about having to get statements + ID from the people who have sent me money, and she confirmed once again...
(the amounts are from €200 to €500 - so no BIG BIG money. I have also sent other guys alot of cash).
Having me to ask these people if they please can write a signed letter where they state where this money is coming from, and if I please can take a pciture of their ID's with my cell phone... they will probably ask me why; which I will respond: "well, I need to send them overseas to gambling company in Malta".
haha... this make me laugh

PS! These people are guys I play poker with regulary and we allways send money to eachother after we've finished playing. I don't know them as friends.

My account is still open, I am free to deposit and play... but locked for withdrawals.

I have been given 30 days to send documents before they close the account.
Question: What will happen to my money when they close the account. Are they gonna confiscate/steal it?

To sum up: If you play for over €1 a spin at Casumo; stay the *snip* away!

 

[misstrouble]

I have played high at their casino And never had an issue.

 

[Lobo]

Your VIP manager for sure don't wanna let you go but probably compliance/legal team is demanding all these documents to be sure that all your funds are legit. Can imagine what you have mentioned here that these transfers from your poker friends are more than 10-20€ and to you have quite a lot of money in your own business and cryptos etc. compliance/legal team might be very scared that if there is anything what they can't see for sure (like salary you pay yourself is not matching your gambling habbits, which is normal when you own your own business you don't pay yourself much as monthly salary. Then cryptos can be bit scary for them as these are not easy for them to track that how you actually gained that all you have, did you buy them when they were cheap, what money used for them etc...

There are quite few casinos who have lost their big VIP players when these SOW checks have been taking a place. Your VIP manager for sure have tried everything to make process easy as possible for you but can't get any further with them. Not really sure about these transactions how much they have reason to be scared that you are using some non legit money as if your bank where you have them are not even would think they have more responsibilities to know you don't have any dirty money on your account.

edit: Not sure how compliant it's to offer free money for you to provide your documents and keep on playing. Probably not breaching any laws, but would guess it's not a best practice if asking from regulators

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, my VIP manager is great and this is for sure coming from higher up. I know she has tried. And she seems to be more or less baffled herself.
I am a big and good regular costumer, and her job is to keep me happy... so to throw me some money for this trouble is just fine, imo.

I could maybe understand this process if I was a totally new player, but I have been a regular at Casumo for over 3 years... and then BAM.
I feel sorry for new highrollers; they probably get smashed with this the first time they will make a big withdrawal.
And many of them will for sure not expose such private sensitive information.
But the highrollers are of course free to deposit as much as they want while it is going on...lol

 

[Borgie]

I am still very baffled over the whole situation, so I asked my VIP manager again about having to get statements + ID from the people who have sent me money, and she confirmed once again...
(the amounts are from €200 to €500 - so no BIG BIG money. I have also sent other guys alot of cash).
Having me to ask these people if they please can write a signed letter where they state where this money is coming from, and if I please can take a pciture of their ID's with my cell phone... they will probably ask me why; which I will respond: "well, I need to send them overseas to gambling company in Malta".
haha... this make me laugh

PS! These people are guys I play poker with regulary and we allways send money to eachother after we've finished playing. I don't know them as friends.

My account is still open, I am free to deposit and play... but locked for withdrawals.

I have been given 30 days to send documents before they close the account.
Question: What will happen to my money when they close the account. Are they gonna confiscate/steal it?

To sum up: If you play for over €1 a spin at Casumo; stay the fuck away!

Do you have outstanding funds in there? - withdrawals ? Not cashback or freebies but actual withdrawals they they are holding on to

 

[Lobo]

No pending withdrawals, lucky me... but they implanted the restricted on withdrawals right after I deposited.

The only outstanding is around €1k in cashback. No biggy, but the whole situation pisses me off.
Feels like I just got dumped by my girlfriend ...and I feel a certain responsibillity to the community to warn others about Casumo.

 

[Slottery]

Ok, legaly, how can someone demand from you private information and documentation that belongs to a 3rd person?
Request the IDs from other people?! Seriously?

How far are we from a probe into our a.... to provide info on our health directly to the casino?

Don't given them ideas.....

They are willing to understand why some persons are transferring money to you, are they payment from drugs or what so ever.... Understand that they have responsibilities for money laundering and staff, but if your money is already in banking system, in account with your name in it where it comes and goes, would really assume that bank is first to act when suspicious transactions from Mr XX and Ms DD are coming in to your account, if they are ok with them, casinos could be as well as money is already in legal banking system.

If using anonymous payment methods, netwallets, phone deposit methods etc.. then they have something what might need to be reviewed and see how the heck i buy Paysafe cards for 50k€ deposits in month even my payslip not really support kind of spending. These checks many times are completed with not much common sense used there, casinos themselves are not supper experts in monitoring money transfers and what risks are there or there but just rely to some AML documentation provided some regulators etc... and try to cooperate with that without very deep knowledge in that area and therefore players keep receiving some very extensive requests when somebody think something might be very alarming. If there would be very suspicious transactions in players bank statement, bank would be first to spot them, if your friend have transferred you money and it's officially documented to bank, these should be quite safe part for casinos not to be scared that they are doing something bad by allowing you to play....

They just try to cooperate with these kind of regulations and guidelines, and many times getting bit too stressed about normal persons transactions as we have seen in this forum in last two or some years... Reading and listening some lessons about money laundering can make you very scared about something and you just forget your common sense and take easier "computer says no" approach... Regulators like to provide these guide lines where actually 98% of players don't cause you almost any risk, but when you read these enough, you can see risks everywhere and players can be "happy"

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[Lobo]

Don't given them ideas.....

They are willing to understand why some persons are transferring money to you, are they payment from drugs or what so ever.... Understand that they have responsibilities for money laundering and staff, but if your money is already in banking system, in account with your name in it where it comes and goes, would really assume that bank is first to act when suspicious transactions from Mr XX and Ms DD are coming in to your account, if they are ok with them, casinos could be as well as money is already in legal banking system.

If using anonymous payment methods, netwallets, phone deposit methods etc.. then they have something what might need to be reviewed and see how the heck i buy Paysafe cards for 50k€ deposits in month even my payslip not really support kind of spending. These checks many times are completed with not much common sense used there, casinos themselves are not supper experts in monitoring money transfers and what risks are there or there but just rely to some AML documentation provided some regulators etc... and try to cooperate with that without very deep knowledge in that area and therefore players keep receiving some very extensive requests when somebody think something might be very alarming. If there would be very suspicious transactions in players bank statement, bank would be first to spot them, if your friend have transferred you money and it's officially documented to bank, these should be quite safe part for casinos not to be scared that they are doing something bad by allowing you to play....

They just try to cooperate with these kind of regulations and guidelines, and many times getting bit too stressed about normal persons transactions as we have seen in this forum in last two or some years... Reading and listening some lessons about money laundering can make you very scared about something and you just forget your common sense and take easier "computer says no" approach... Regulators like to provide these guide lines where actually 98% of players don't cause you almost any risk, but when you read these enough, you can see risks everywhere and players can be "happy"

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Thanks for your reply!
All my deposits are with VISA, so yes - all my gambling history are very transparent with my bank. Been doing this for around 15 years.

One thing comes to my mind tho... the ONLY way I withdraw is to Skrill. Skrill is in fact my only available withdrawal option at Casumo.
I used to withdraw my winnings from Casumo back to my bank account, but my gouvernment is chasing foreign gambling companies and closing down their accounts and/or blocking these providers to send money into our country. I would prefer to withdraw to bank, but cant :/
So around 1 year ago I was asked to only use Skrill from now on.

The rules in the MGA is very strict; you can only withdraw to the option used to deposit - but at Casumo I am not allowed to withdraw to the option I used to deposit with.

So it might, in combinaten with what you write, Slottery, be that my account looks very suspecious to new employees etc at Casumo. Since I deposit with one method and withdraw with an other method. I dont know.

 

[asidea]

Very recognizable and it is ridiculous i.m.h.o.
I have closed several casino accounts after they started to ask me for proof of income and all that bullsh*t.
And I am just a Joe Average who plays bets between €0.20 - €2.00 and deposits of mostly €100.00 max at one time.

I feel this is a breach of MY privacy and am not willing to go through this wall of verifications.
All casinos I play at have my ID, proof of address and proof of payment method(s) and I feel that is enough.

Luckily most casinos I play most of my bankroll have never asked me for this extended proof of income.
The ones who did lost a customer.

Have to agree this is ridiculous, Trada requested the same payslip, bank statements or end of year tax doc. I know what i will say to this..close my acc. To me Casinos, is not supposed to take the place of govermemts, requesting information like this, and intruding into your private financial affairs. For Goverments to implement it , it's like big bro. at work, but for casinos doing it is bs., i am simply not complying, it only reflects the casino has turned slightly dodgy, to implement such a procedure. Casinos can just f. off, if they demand such a ludicrous request.

I rather do without the casino, no matter how good u think it is.

 

[Lobo]

Have to agree this is ridiculous, Trada requested the same payslip, bank statements or end of year tax doc. I know what i will say to this..close my acc. To me Casinos, is not supposed to take the place of govermemts, requesting information like this, and intruding into your private financial affairs. For Goverments to implement it , it's like big bro. at work, but for casinos doing it is bs., i am simply not complying, it only reflects the casino has turned slightly dodgy, to implement such a procedure. Casinos can just f. off, if they demand such a ludicrous request.

I rather do without the casino, no matter how good u think it is.

Totally agree with you.
The problem is that the player often is facing such verifiaction with money on the line. You get an option of pissing away your personal information across the seas to shady companies or not see your money again...
In this case they also want the personal information of anyone I have been in contact with financially... lol

Maybe a dickpick can help. That is very personal. I'll ask.

 

[asidea]

Totally agree with you.
The problem is that the player often is facing such verifiaction with money on the line. You get an option of pissing away your personal information across the seas to shady companies or not see your money again...
In this case they also want the personal information of anyone I have been in contact with financially... lol

Maybe a dickpick can help. That is very personal. I'll ask.

If i were u i will not divulged your buddies info, it is illegal. Your buddies could sue u and the casino, for invasion of privacy.if the request is unreasonable do not comply, not worth the bs.

 

[Lobo]

If i were u i will not divulged your buddies info, it is illegal. Your buddies could sue u and the casino, for invasion of privacy.if the request is unreasonable do not comply, not worth the bs.

That was my first reply to them: it is illegal for me to send their ID's away, and most of them would never ever accept it. An impossible situation.
Casumo replied with: sorry m8, that is the only way.

So yeah, they are still happy to take my deposits, but I am forced to break the law to be able to withdraw.
I am a VIP for 3+ years at Casumo, they have made alot of money of me... so just think about all the other poor souls they are doing this too :/

 

[Slottery]

Thanks for your reply!
All my deposits are with VISA, so yes - all my gambling history are very transparent with my bank. Been doing this for around 15 years.

One thing comes to my mind tho... the ONLY way I withdraw is to Skrill. Skrill is in fact my only available withdrawal option at Casumo.
I used to withdraw my winnings from Casumo back to my bank account, but my gouvernment is chasing foreign gambling companies and closing down their accounts and/or blocking these providers to send money into our country. I would prefer to withdraw to bank, but cant :/
So around 1 year ago I was asked to only use Skrill from now on.

The rules in the MGA is very strict; you can only withdraw to the option used to deposit - but at Casumo I am not allowed to withdraw to the option I used to deposit with.

So it might, in combinaten with what you write, Slottery, be that my account looks very suspecious to new employees etc at Casumo. Since I deposit with one method and withdraw with an other method. I dont know.

My guess is that your total threshold of deposits have reached some limit what's triggering these SOW etc.. checks even there wouldn't be anything that suspicious.

There have been these topics earlier and unfortunately most probably will be, these checks should all be based to their risk assessment, but many casinos have found easy way out and complete these to all who life time threshold is reaching XXX amount (confirmed here by some casino reps earlier that it's trigger it) even though in for example these guidelines i posted link (you are under MGA license i strongly assume based on information you provided), only numerical amount is that 2k when ID etc.. need to be provided.

After that it's up to casino without any strict threshold amounts and most of people don't really have anything to raise their risk profile. You're using Skrill due to your lovely government (what latest tell from what country you are from ) trying to get gambling transactions blocked and banks are happy to block them, but also Skrill is completing their DD checks and money coming and going from there is monitored by them. Casinos in really rare occasions meet any money laundering or other criminal activity, excluding some unauthorized use of card or other payment methods which are not belonging to player but to company he/she is working or other way is stealing money etc... If somebody want to wash money through online casino, they most probably never would trigger any alarms or they would be stupid and yes, sure if somebody deposit like crazy and play roulette red/black (not rigged Evolution one ) and withdraw all to bank after wagered ones, it will be noted but if you manage to make that much black money, hard to be that stupid in laundering process but instead use small amounts, nothing suspicious and not many transactions per casino or account etc.. and you can make it, but online casinos are not very tempting for that as long there are much easier ways to do that.

 

[Slottery]

That was my first reply to them: it is illegal for me to send their ID's away, and most of them would never ever accept it. An impossible situation.
Casumo replied with: sorry m8, that is the only way.

"Where a licensee notices that a customer’s account Page 14 of 37 activity is not in keeping with what it knows or expects from the customer (e.g. activity not justified on the basis of a customer’s source of wealth or not in keeping with the average profile or account activity noted to date, activity does not reflect a customer’s usual transactional patterns etc.), the licensee has to question this unusual activity and, where necessary, establish what is the source of the funds used for the said activity.

So they are trying to understand who these persons are and why you receive such transactions to your account. It's sometimes in these checks that all but your salary arriving to your account is at least suspicious if not criminal.....