I've Seen This.....

chipper1973

Dormant Account
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
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@ my PC
in virtually EVERY Terms & Conditions online for an online casino.....

"The XXXXX Online Casino is for sole use on an individual basis for personal entertainment only"

Does anybody know what that means from a legal standpoint ?

Cheers
 
As a lawyer, my personal opinion (not legal advice) would be that casinos might have a hard time to fully enforce this clause in a court of law. They might have a better chance to rely on the "for sole use on an individual basis" -part as a requirement for a user to have only one account, and that the user may not allow others to use their account. Usually this is clearly stated in other parts of the contract (T&C).

Since the business of casinos is to provide games and accept bets made with money, it's pointless to add "for personal entertainment only" -purpose to that clause. The purpose of a casino is to make profit, and their clients try to win money with their bets. The reason why wagers are made is a moot point. I'm willing to bet (;)) that this part of the clause would not be held enforcable in any reasonable court of law.
 
thxs for the reply ternur :thumbsup:

So are you saying that "for personal entertainment only" means to the casino you cannot play there "professionally" ?
(for want of a better phrase)
 
thxs for the reply ternur :thumbsup:

So are you saying that "for personal entertainment only" means "to the casino" you cannot play there "professionally" ?
(for want of a better phrase)

I'd say it doesn't really have a lot of weight as a stament per se. The reason why a player plays is something in the player's head, and a casino would be in an impossible position to prove their client's reason to play in the first place. One might argue that betting patterns, strategy etc. are indications of "professional play", but a reputable casino will make sure that their T&C clearly state, which type of wagering will not be allowed. The reason why any particular type of wagering would not be allowed, is solely in discretion of the casino.

To have a clause stating that a accepted reason of play can only be "for entertainment" has little legal significance in its own.
 
Everyone knows that a professional gambler is luckier than a regular Joe. :cool::eek2::p

Players who join up in teams (et al syndicates), could be considered "professional" players, but the casinos have clauses for them as well.

They just want you to have fun and lose your money entertainingly. If you're a professional, don't admit it. :p
 
Well obviously I'm not a professional player, but that T&C sentence has just interested me as I've seen it so damn often.

At another forum I read that WH had asked a player for bank accounts & tax references/forms before they would pay him &
I wondered if it was that original sentence I posted in operation.
 
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I think it means that you can't play with the intention of winning, but must play and expect to lose. Of course, surely EVERYONE intends to be the lucky SOB that hits big and gets paid, as if people were told they could never ever withdraw winnings, but that they would just win the right to have more "entertainment" time with the extra coins, they would have a sharp fall in deposits. It wouldn't fall to zero though as some Facebook slot apps allow coins to be bought with real money, and there is no means to actually win and withdraw any real money, yet people still pay to play.

The term does seem to get used to confiscate winnings due to "professional play" or "playing style", and is often used to shut down sports betting accounts.

What about poker though, this is pushed as a game of skill, and one with "professional players", and poker operators have tried to legally argue that it's a game of skill in order to stop it being classed as "gambling" by places like the USA, and thus banned.

Despite this, they then try to argue that there is such as thing as a professional slots player, professional roulette player, etc because a few lucky players manage to have an extreme run of luck that is unbelievably close to the end of the distribution tail, so the casino starts to believe the snake oil salesmen and claim such players "abused patterns in past results" or similar BS in order to generate such luck. They then slam into reverse when it is suggested that a very BAD run of luck is down to the games being "compensated" in order to preserve profit, or "rigged" in some other way.

Simply having some odd terms can suggest that casino operators don't trust the random nature of their games, but they should realise that it works both ways, PLAYERS will question the fairness of the games if they see terms that appear to protect casinos against something that isn't possible with a random suite of games.
 

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