gxmble casino allowing me to register even though UK players are banned

[richardh]

Hi
I was sent unsolicited text messages to my UK registered mobile phone
They allowed me to sign up for an account by choosing UK in the dropdown menu and allowed me to put in a UK address
They were happy to accept 7 transactions over a month from a UK bank account

Whilst playing last night a game crashed and after waiting to see if it would sort itself out I refreshed the page and when I went back on the game the at least 8 euro winnings had not been credited as the game crashed mid tumble, my stake had been reduced back to 20p instead of 40p and the spin never completed so whilst looking how to contact them I came across something in their terms which said "Country is not one of the following Restricted Countries: USA, Netherlands, France, United Kingdom" etc so I sent them an email to ask if UK players are banned and if so I want my deposits refunding as there was never any chance I would take a penny back out once id deposited it and they should not have allowed me to register in the first place

I got this reply
Hope this email finds you well

Upon reviewing your account, it was determined that there was a violation of the terms of use because you registered from a country that is on the banned list. We do not advertise or promote anywhere that we accept players from the UK (if this is the case why is the UK an option in the drop down list? it could easily be removed, be greyed out or have a disclaimer on the sign up page to say we don't accept players from x,y,z)

The terms of use are clearly written and accepted by you; unfortunately, we cannot influence your decisions. (Who has time to read streams of terms on every site and it never even occurred to me that id not be allowed to play when UK is an option to select)

Furthermore, we do not state anywhere on our website that we accept players from the UK. This should have been evident from the fact that the currency used on our site is Euro.

A refund on played funds is not an option. I'm sure you understand this. ( I 100% do not accept this)

Additionally, I've taken the initiative to ban your account and blacklist your email address, as well as the credit/debit card used for deposits, to prevent any further discrepancies. (Great so they have now cut off any way I can contact them)

Furthermore, your phone number has been removed from our system, ensuring that you will no longer receive promotional SMS messages. To unsubscribe from promotional emails, please use the unsubscribe button located at the bottom of the promotional email. (Isn't that great that I will no longer get text messages and I can unsubscribe from emails for a company I could never play with)

We are sorry for this situation and wish you all the best in the future

Best regards,

I have reported them to my bank in the hope of at least stopping the last 2 transactions made last night

Surely this is not acceptable to allow someone to register from a restricted country in the first place, happily take their money but had I won anything at this point I would then have found out I'm in violation of their terms and they are closing my account and that's the end of it. We will keep your winnings and anything you have ever deposited too

 

[jasonuk]

Oh dear... and this is why the scammers keep sending bulk junk text like these.

The site mentioned no country of operation, mentions no license, and it triggers a lot of red flags (fiat deposits alongside crypto, ridiculous and deceptive sign up offers, extremely low withdrawal limits of €2500/week...)

So yes, it is a scam, and unfortunately you have been scammed.

You should talk to your bank and see if it is possible to charge back, but given the number of deposits and I suspect you have confirmed these transactions with one-time passwords (SMS, banking app etc) then that makes things more difficult. The bank will be the one to make that decision - and unfortunately they have been toughening up on such claims given the increased number of them in recent years.

Unfortunately there isn't much you can do beyond that - the site is clearly fraudulent, they're not based in the UK so there's no UKGC oversight (so no meaningful escalation, ADR etc) and any legal action would be ridiculously expensive assuming you can even find where they are actually based, with limited chance of success (and also way beyond the scope of this forum).

--

Edit: I know people don't like reading terms and conditions, but this was the clue you needed to run away very quickly:

1.2. The Company is licensed.

If they can't tell you who they are licensed by, that means they're not licensed.
If you can't verify that license, either they're not licensed or it's a worthless license.

 

[richardh]

Oh dear... and this is why the scammers keep sending bulk junk text like these.

The site mentioned no country of operation, mentions no license, and it triggers a lot of red flags (fiat deposits alongside crypto, ridiculous and deceptive sign up offers, extremely low withdrawal limits of €2500/week...)

So yes, it is a scam, and unfortunately you have been scammed.

You should talk to your bank and see if it is possible to charge back, but given the number of deposits and I suspect you have confirmed these transactions with one-time passwords (SMS, banking app etc) then that makes things more difficult. The bank will be the one to make that decision - and unfortunately they have been toughening up on such claims given the increased number of them in recent years.

Unfortunately there isn't much you can do beyond that - the site is clearly fraudulent, they're not based in the UK so there's no UKGC oversight (so no meaningful escalation, ADR etc) and any legal action would be ridiculously expensive assuming you can even find where they are actually based, with limited chance of success (and also way beyond the scope of this forum).

--

Edit: I know people don't like reading terms and conditions, but this was the clue you needed to run away very quickly:


If they can't tell you who they are licensed by, that means they're not licensed.
If you can't verify that license, either they're not licensed or it's a worthless license.

Thanks for the reply, I tried to do a longer 1 but kept getting told there is a server error yet this 1 worked

 

[richardh]

Oh dear... and this is why the scammers keep sending bulk junk text like these.

The site mentioned no country of operation, mentions no license, and it triggers a lot of red flags (fiat deposits alongside crypto, ridiculous and deceptive sign up offers, extremely low withdrawal limits of €2500/week...)

So yes, it is a scam, and unfortunately you have been scammed.

You should talk to your bank and see if it is possible to charge back, but given the number of deposits and I suspect you have confirmed these transactions with one-time passwords (SMS, banking app etc) then that makes things more difficult. The bank will be the one to make that decision - and unfortunately they have been toughening up on such claims given the increased number of them in recent years.

Unfortunately there isn't much you can do beyond that - the site is clearly fraudulent, they're not based in the UK so there's no UKGC oversight (so no meaningful escalation, ADR etc) and any legal action would be ridiculously expensive assuming you can even find where they are actually based, with limited chance of success (and also way beyond the scope of this forum).

--

Edit: I know people don't like reading terms and conditions, but this was the clue you needed to run away very quickly:


If they can't tell you who they are licensed by, that means they're not licensed.
If you can't verify that license, either they're not licensed or it's a worthless license.

I didn't take any notice of the ridiculous welcome offer I simply deposited 40 euro which was tripled to 120 I then did 30 euro which was doubled to 60 and then I left it. The other deposits I did after that I selected no bonus as I couldn't be bothered with the wager requirements. The low withdrawal didn't bother me either as the chance of taking out 2500 would be nice but 99.9% unlikely - All that's irrelevant when I never had any chance of taking a penny of it back in the first place

I've contacted the bank so I'll see what they decide to do. Its not a huge amount of money around £230. I did do a little research before signing up and there are articles written about the casino from well know sources that say its legit including Correct casinos, online casino dollar, ask gamblers, casinofy, casino.help....

Casino provides eGaming services and it is officially licensed by CIL master gaming license nr.5536/JAZ. This casino is owned and operated by GROUP GAEM B.V., (company number: 163083) registered and regulated in Curacao with address in Julianaplein 36, Curacao. Payment agent of GROUP GAEM B.V. is GAEM LIMITED (HE445101) registered at Archiepiskopou Makariou III, 84, Office 1, 6017, Larnaca, Cyprus which acts according to the Service Agreement, dated on the 1st of April, 2023.


They even have a page called gxmble.co.uk/review with reviews from UK player. All the branding matches the .com site - at the bottom it says Copyright ©2024 gxmble.co.uk All rights reserved. This website is owned and operated by Non Videri B.V., registration number: 165762, registered address: Abraham de Veerstraat 9, Willemstad, Curaçao. Payment agent of Non Videri B.V. is GAEM LIMITED (HE445101) registered at Archiepiskopou Makariou III, 84, Office 1, 6017, Larnaca, Cyprus which acts according to the Billing Agent Agreement, dated on the 19th of December, 2023. - Gamble Responsibly. 18+

I then looked at the terms on the UK site to be told UK is a banned country you couldn't make it up

Why have that if you are not even allowed to play in the UK? Totally shady and deceptive

 

[jasonuk]

I've contacted the bank so I'll see what they decide to do. Its not a huge amount of money around £230. I did do a little research before signing up and there are articles written about the casino from well know sources that say its legit including Correct casinos, online casino dollar, ask gamblers, casinofy, casino.help....

Affiliation is in the toilet now-a-days, the number of sites that will happily promote a shithole casino (tm) as "legit" is terrifying...

I've looked at dozens of these threads in the past year, and seeing such review sites award a high safety rating to a site with no published address and no published license is jaw-dropping dishonesty.

Casino provides eGaming services and it is officially licensed by CIL master gaming license nr.5536/JAZ. This casino is owned and operated by GROUP GAEM B.V., (company number: 163083) registered and regulated in Curacao with address in Julianaplein 36, Curacao. Payment agent of GROUP GAEM B.V. is GAEM LIMITED (HE445101) registered at Archiepiskopou Makariou III, 84, Office 1, 6017, Larnaca, Cyprus which acts according to the Service Agreement, dated on the 1st of April, 2023.

Interesting... because I couldn't find any of that where I looked...

They even have a page called gxmble.co.uk/review with reviews from UK player. All the branding matches the .com site - at the bottom it says

(highlighted) and now we've found the trap. On the .com site, when reviewing the T&Cs earlier I was getting deja vu of other sites that had previously operated in Curacao but since moved to weaker licenses.

So their .co.uk site can claim what it wants - whether it's malicious or accidental, whether it's out of date or flat out wrong - none of it matters because that's not the site you register with.

Not that the 5536/JAZ sub-license means much, the master license holder hides in the shadows and little is known about that company, they tend to be hands-off with their operators (which is a problem when they are scamming customers) and they rarely respond to player concerns or complaints either - assuming you can find a way to contact them in the first place!

New-style Curacao licenses cannot accept UK or US players (plus a few more) because of the threat of a FATF grey listing for money laundering offenses. That license would also be displayed throughout the website - which suggests they're either operating illegally within Curacao, or they have left Curacao but still using that situation to scam UK and US players.

Why have that if you are not even allowed to play in the UK? Totally shady and deceptive

It gives legitimacy to the scam - you broke the terms, rather than they were going to rip you off from the start.

Hopefully your bank can bring you some good news - and be glad it wasn't more money... we've heard some horrible tales of people depositing tens of thousands of dollars into these sites based on bogus recommendations, with the same predictable outcome.

 

[Mark_Lottomart]

Sorry to hear you have fallen victim to this company, I strongly suggest you report this to the GB Gambling Commission:

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

Mark

 

[dunover]

Sorry to hear you have fallen victim to this company, I strongly suggest you report this to the GB Gambling Commission:

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

Mark

Yes, good advice, although it's a bit like reporting a school prowler to Gary Glitter.

 

[jasonuk]

Sorry to hear you have fallen victim to this company, I strongly suggest you report this to the GB Gambling Commission:

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

Mark

Absolutely agree. The UKGC need to wake up and deal with this stuff happening under their noses (because they can act to confiscate or block the .co.uk domain), so any reports may help nudge them along.

Also bravo for the technically correct name - as the "UK"GC doesn't regulate Northern Ireland.