For reasons of space I've put Bella Vegas in the title (as the specific example below is from them), but this complaint refers to all of their partner casinos: Grand Bay, Lake Palace, Jupiter Club, Fortune Junction and Jackpot Wheel.
Until recently they struck me as an exemplary group of MG casinos. They offered a number of weekly & sometimes twice-weekly bonuses with the format: deposit x amount and get 25% up to x free. The deposit could be played on any game & the bonus on slots only. Usually you'd lose the bonus on slots, of course, but their CS were polite and helpful and any winnings were paid quickly.
In the last couple of weeks, however, their promotions have descended into chaos. They've changed the wr on the bonuses (it could be 15x bonus, 20x bonus or 15 or 20x d+b), added a requirement to deposit $20+ between deposits that receive bonuses & restricted the games that can be used to wager the deposit. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, of course, except that the players weren't informed (despite each promotional e-mail having a "terms and conditions" link which you might expect to help).
The trouble is that even if you still think to check all the terms on the website (despite having played similar offers for months), they're a total mess. At many of the sites the terms are split into those for different bonuses, but none of the headings apply to the particular bonuses in question, or some of the terms contradict each other. It requires eagle-eyed reading to spot some new terms (e.g. depositing between bonuses), while some are artfully hidden away. One player had a term quoted to him by Lake Palace and was told he could find it by: 1) Going to the download page (why would you go there after having downloaded long ago!?), 2) click on terms and conditions, 3) click on "9 Other Conditions" then 4) see term 21, which had obviously just been tacked on to the end a day or two previously.
The net result: a large number of players will have lost money under false pretences. I'm not sure the CS have a much better idea what's going on, but someone's definitely exploited the situation by offering some bonuses requiring much higher deposits just after the terms were changed.
My advice to players: be extremely cautious with these casinos and read all the fine print on their websites (even in places you wouldn't expect to look) before depositing.
My advice to the casinos: if you're not trying to trick your players then have another look at your websites and try and organise them to be clear and informative rather than utterly perplexing! You have a link in your promotional e-mails for terms and conditions: use that to summarise the terms and conditions for the offer in question. The only additional info you need to include is: restricted games for wagering the deposit, restricted games for wagering the bonus and the wagering requirement for the bonus. As it is the player has to go to a huge amount of effort to try and work it out & often just relies on trial and error.
Sorry this has ended up so long-winded, but anyone who's experienced this debacle will understand the frustration! For some light relief my next post is the e-mail correspondence I had with Bella Vegas after they decided not to credit a bonus I deposited for (& remarkably met all the convoluted terms for) last Friday.
Until recently they struck me as an exemplary group of MG casinos. They offered a number of weekly & sometimes twice-weekly bonuses with the format: deposit x amount and get 25% up to x free. The deposit could be played on any game & the bonus on slots only. Usually you'd lose the bonus on slots, of course, but their CS were polite and helpful and any winnings were paid quickly.
In the last couple of weeks, however, their promotions have descended into chaos. They've changed the wr on the bonuses (it could be 15x bonus, 20x bonus or 15 or 20x d+b), added a requirement to deposit $20+ between deposits that receive bonuses & restricted the games that can be used to wager the deposit. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, of course, except that the players weren't informed (despite each promotional e-mail having a "terms and conditions" link which you might expect to help).
The trouble is that even if you still think to check all the terms on the website (despite having played similar offers for months), they're a total mess. At many of the sites the terms are split into those for different bonuses, but none of the headings apply to the particular bonuses in question, or some of the terms contradict each other. It requires eagle-eyed reading to spot some new terms (e.g. depositing between bonuses), while some are artfully hidden away. One player had a term quoted to him by Lake Palace and was told he could find it by: 1) Going to the download page (why would you go there after having downloaded long ago!?), 2) click on terms and conditions, 3) click on "9 Other Conditions" then 4) see term 21, which had obviously just been tacked on to the end a day or two previously.
The net result: a large number of players will have lost money under false pretences. I'm not sure the CS have a much better idea what's going on, but someone's definitely exploited the situation by offering some bonuses requiring much higher deposits just after the terms were changed.
My advice to players: be extremely cautious with these casinos and read all the fine print on their websites (even in places you wouldn't expect to look) before depositing.
My advice to the casinos: if you're not trying to trick your players then have another look at your websites and try and organise them to be clear and informative rather than utterly perplexing! You have a link in your promotional e-mails for terms and conditions: use that to summarise the terms and conditions for the offer in question. The only additional info you need to include is: restricted games for wagering the deposit, restricted games for wagering the bonus and the wagering requirement for the bonus. As it is the player has to go to a huge amount of effort to try and work it out & often just relies on trial and error.
Sorry this has ended up so long-winded, but anyone who's experienced this debacle will understand the frustration! For some light relief my next post is the e-mail correspondence I had with Bella Vegas after they decided not to credit a bonus I deposited for (& remarkably met all the convoluted terms for) last Friday.
So I replied to K that I hadn't played any of those games and to K2 that the terms and conditions are as K said and don't oblige you to play slots or keno.
So I explained that poker pursuit was certainly not a form of video poker, wasn't included in the video poker section of MG casinos, had a much higher house edge & was usually called something like "Let it ride".
