BresBet - Can A Casino Lie To You To Keep Betting?

[herc83]

Again, I'm fully expecting abuse for being open about my gambling addiction. I am also aware I'm possibly chasing losses now via another method but I'm preparing to take several cases to the gambling commission to make sure that casinos have treated me as fairly and legally as they are supposed to.

At the height of my gambling addiction (I'm now on gamstop, dont gamble and won't return to this life) I made a desperate £70k bet on one table of Blackjack with Bresbet. So £10k per hand across 7 seats. I won and instantly I got a pop up message saying my account had been suspended for the ridiculous bet and I was locked out.

Fully expecting that it was it for me, I emailed BresBet with; "I believe my account has been suspended and I'm guessing you're about to close it.

Can you let me know the amount of money that was in my balance and how much you are withdrawing to my account?"

They told me 30 mins later that my account had been suspended because of an error on the Live Dealer Suite and it would be fixed by the morning. Nothing to do with suspension because of a high bet.

I woke up the next morning with my account restored and spent the rest of the day losing what I had won and then endured heavy losses chasing it.

Whilst going through my accounts I asked them for an SAR and on the internal notes they have for me they have mentioned internally that the account was indeed suspended because of the large bet and no mention of a glitch. It also says DO NOT UNSUSPEND on the date of the heavy bet. Then below, undated, it says Account reactive, Blackjack removed (though it wasn't as this is where I lost money again).

Is this something this casino is allowed to do? Like lie to a customer about the reasons behind a suspension? Are they allowed to say "glitch" to shrug off/sidestep potential gambling problem when in reality, internally, they have flagged me as a potential problem. Surely at that point I had indications of a gambling problem and they should have had a conversation with me?

Their SAR data is quite complicated and I'm trying to work out if they even did POF check before that bet. I believe their SAR is claiming they had verified my funds on a sister site they use. Then they closed my account a month later because they say I failed AML... though im not sure exactly where I did that. Whether it was with BresBet or a separate sister site.

Asking them direct questions just goes nowhere. They just keep saying they won't comment unless I get a solicitor.

 

[mulven]

Unlike the other posts you've made this one seems to actually highlight a severe RG violation knowingly made by the operator and you haven't violated any terms or anything so don't need to get into any of that again! The SAR revealing the "DO NOT UNSUSPEND" is pretty black and white.

I'll let jason hit you with his UKGC/ADR expertise, although again the time between the event and the claim could be an issue.

 

[jasonuk]

This is a more curious case...

The problem is that a lot of this will come down to finger pointing internally - and unless they are the legal team, they are unlikely to be the one making the final call.

The front line person (e.g. customer service) may not have all of the information available, so they will make something up or give you a generic response such as "technical issues".

Regarding the "DO NOT UNSUSPEND" comment, the opinion of one staff member isn't necessarily the opinion of the company - as demonstrated when the decision was overruled later on and the account reinstated.

It does highlight concerns about your playstyle though, and a £70k bet is more than enough to trigger every flag available. The temporary suspension does seem deliberate, because it prevents you from withdrawing and then allowing you to carry on the next day as if nothing happened - and as with most people caught up in gambling addiction, they found the games before they found the withdrawal button.

The one thing you don't mention here is a timeframe, so whether ADR is an option or if it's legal action at this point (which is beyond the scope of the forum, and could be expensive). It is noteworthy that if their lawyers are telling them to shut up (by mentioning solicitors) then they know they're not on the safest ground legally.

Casinos lie all the time, so the question is whether they could or should be held to account for it - and that's a much tougher question to answer.

 

[herc83]

This was Feb 2023. I started investigating all this Sept23 time and pursued them for a few months with SAR requests and complaints but then just gave up when they put up a brick wall. And it all just brought up more gambling impulses until I went to Gamstop in Jan 24 and tried to forget about all of this stuff.

Then more recently doing my tax return, I've been re-looking at everything. I'll examine again at what checks they did on me etc. Just hard with casinos that operate with multiple brands as they sometimes put all the data together and its not easy to see what belongs to what

 

[johnnymcc1966]

In response to the actual question 'Of course they can. It's their whole business model.' In reality,if there are no legal sanctions they break then they can do almost as they please. It's why places like Casinomeister were formed,to find the diamonds among the huge piles of horse shit. It has succeeded in the main but there are many more sharks in the water nowadays.

 

[SlamRoyale]

Yeah I would make separate judgments on the notes, and the actual action done by the casino. Notes and messages from frontline, customer support, that is, the ones you talk to for immediate responses can't really say much as they don't have the information. To me, the notes only tell us what they're either trained to respond to, or what their opinion is. The final decision might be on actual different, conflicting, or untold information.

Regarding OG question I believe the real question is that are casinos legally required to check for addiction, and then if so, are they legally required to take action. To my small knowledge, only certain US states have these laws, and I think in Europe also but not sure.

Look at this very current case, very interesting to follow:

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[conker]

Look at this very current case, very interesting to follow:

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This is an interesting piece, well worth reading. However, the fact that it is related to the US, rather than UK makes it a bit tenuous.

The US is going through a cycle at the moment. They had their gold rush, then the blitz of advertising to establish market share and they may have just got to the consequences stage, which is all the cases of problem gambling that occur from the unfettered marketing of gambling products with no guard rails in place. It is likely we will see a bunch more of these lawsuits in the US over the next two years.

RG will become the hot topic in the US starting in 2025, you heard it here first.

 

[SlamRoyale]

This is an interesting piece, well worth reading. However, the fact that it is related to the US, rather than UK makes it a bit tenuous.

The US is going through a cycle at the moment. They had their gold rush, then the blitz of advertising to establish market share and they may have just got to the consequences stage, which is all the cases of problem gambling that occur from the unfettered marketing of gambling products with no guard rails in place. It is likely we will see a bunch more of these lawsuits in the US over the next two years.

RG will become the hot topic in the US starting in 2025, you heard it here first.

Yes, its very rare to find such a lawsuit, even more rare to find such details of the plaintiff. I guess it had to happen in the US first, but if it is successful I think man more will follow and we all know EU is always going to copy parts of it.

This happened with banking, at least, guard rails for naughty behavior was in place but only now the law is punishing for pushing people over those rails.

 

[Elise25]

I can’t say for certain whether a casino would lie to keep you betting, but I do think it’s important to be cautious and stay informed when gambling online. Personally, I make sure to play at licensed casinos with good reputations and fair policies. It’s also a good idea to read reviews and understand the terms and conditions before you start. I’ve found services like *spam* helpful as well. They don’t deal with casino policies directly, but they focus on ensuring the games offered are genuine and fair. Knowing the games are legitimate gives me a bit more peace of mind when choosing where to play.