Tips Metroplay / 666BET license suspended

[vinylweatherman]

The media group sold the site to 666BET sometime last year, so as far as I know they have nothing to do with them as a company, although still uses the logo so maybe they were being paid image rights or had permission to keep it. Maybe Bryan or max know more on that.

My withdrawal was pending for a week, but I harassed them after 3 days and was told my account was unverified - which was of course a lie as I withdrew around £400 last summer after the world cup.

Obviously I was a bit annoyed as it took them 5 days from my initial withdrawal request to tell me my account wasn't verified. I emailed 3 times and contacted them on twitter. I sent them some documents on Wednesday, and needed a more up to date bank statement so went to my bank on Friday, got them to print a statement for me and stamp / sign it for me. Sent this through, then got an email later on saying your payment has been reversed!!!!!

Not looking good from what has happened so far.

It looks like they saw this coming at least a week before it happened, and it does rather look as though they were struggling to hide a cash flow problem from the UKGC and players during that week. If they hadn't been aware of this, then they would have been on "business as usual" right up until they were taken by surprise by the UKGC by having their licence suspended.

I also feel the UKGC should crack down on the dishonesty of lying to players that this is purely a maintenance outage, and should impose a requirement upon operators to post on their website a standardised statement and link to the announcement from the UKGC.

It does appear that they have no intention of paying the outstanding balances as they have been stalling and reversing withdrawals for a week, and have now sent all staff home so that there is no way for players to seek recovery of their balances.

As for Metroplay, they are going to be tarnished because their branding is still being used, the general public don't really care for any excuses about them no longer being involved. After all, the INTENT behind keeping the branding was to mislead customers into believing they were still playing at a site operated by the "trusted" Metroplay.

 

[dunover]

Alderney Notice Issued.

So, why have withdrawals been reversed?????

 

[cncas123]

I believe it's also the number that all the numbers on a roulette wheel add up to...

Now thats why I never win on Roulette!! I think I will stick to slots from now on, less spooky!!!

 

[Matti]

Good. I think its show its teeth by suspending the licence with immediate effect. The funds will be ring fenced in a suspense account and frozen, so everyone should get their money. Criminal charges will mean that all Metro's merchant providers wont touch them with a bargepole now.

Dodgy casino operators your days are truly numbered. Had they had a maltese licence then this could be a very differant story for the British players with outstanding funds.

I'm sorry to say but I don't think this is the case. UKGC has NO control over accounts that the casino holds. It might have been easier for them if they demanded that all player funds should be in escrow, or in a british bank, but they don't demand that. In this respect there is no difference between a Maltese or a British license.

 

[lord flashheart]

I'm sorry to say but I don't think this is the case. UKGC has NO control over accounts that the casino holds. It might have been easier for them if they demanded that all player funds should be in escrow, or in a british bank, but they don't demand that. In this respect there is no difference between a Maltese or a British license.

True. Its pointless having part of the license agreement stating that customer funds must be segregated and kept in a separate account if the licensing body has no control over where these funds are kept

 

[Jono777]

Never thought about it or knew that. But indeed they do add up to 666.

Having worked in a land-based casino you'd often hear it referred to as 'The Devil's Game' - at least once a week.

Used to make up all sorts of weird and wonderful BS stories and spooky tales to the young new/trainee dealers, even had one girl insisting the once from now on she would only work BJ tables or Card Room (Poker) as she was now 'scared' of roulette wheel

 

[SpinUk]

Yes, but if you have this as a statute of the licence then not adhering to the terms of segregating player funds then becomes a criminal offence rather than a civil one.

This means that funds and assets can be seized much more quickly to pay these funds out to customers than if in the case of a civil judgement. This offence would be very differant to the alleged tax offences which you can spend years on arguing backwards and forwards with expensive lawyers if you have the resources to do so.

 

[lord flashheart]

As 666BET partially use the everymatrix platform (not sure about metroplay) I guess the most optimistic hope is that jetbull take over their customer base - they have a record of acquiring previous everymatrix sites that have gone bust.

 

[cncas123]

Reading all this stuff about 666Bet makes me glad that I got pissed off with their delays on payouts last October/November, and closed my account with them because of it. When I did play there/bet there, they didnt have any horse bets, maybe they should have stuck with the football and left the horse racing to the other longer established companies.

 

[lord flashheart]

Reading all this stuff about 666Bet makes me glad that I got pissed off with their delays on payouts last October/November, and closed my account with them because of it. When I did play there/bet there, they didnt have any horse bets, maybe they should have stuck with the football and left the horse racing to the other longer established companies.

I used them during the world cup last year and got slightly worried after accumulating some funds and then seeing the large amount of payout complaints. Personally I never had a problem with payout delays then as I kept pressing them via email. I approached them after making my withdrawal over KYC and and emailed everyday to get confirmation / payment updates. Got my payment then 2 days after their maximum withdrawal time stated.
All the complaints back then did stop me from playing again. I heard about the acquisition of metroplay, although the article I read at the time made it sound as if metroplay bought them or they merged. Only recently did I see that it was 666BET that purchased metroplay.

After this occurred all the complaints completely dried up and made them look pretty trustworthy, so I used them again during Cheltenham as they had decent offers on. Turns out to be a bit of a mistake on my part. Had the payout complaints continued like the bet butler scandal then I would have avoided them.

Luckily for me my balance was less than £100, so while annoying if I don't see it again it's not damaging like it will be for some people - most likely metroplay players as there will almost certainly be some huge balances there.

I checked the metroplay twitter feed to see if anything was posted there by either them or players, and someone won a jackpot this month, if they have monthly payout limits I feel sorry for them - not sure if the jackpot was a progressive or how progressive payments work, but if the progressive jackpot is paid to the casino by the software provider as a lump sum and then paid in instalments by the casino then that player is going to be pretty pissed off right now

 

[cncas123]

My first withdrawal was paid within 3 days, but my second withdrawal, which was for just over £1K, took between 8 and 10 days and this set the alarm bells ringing for me, particularly as I was emailing everyday and getting the same response - issues with payment provider, will be sorted in the next 24 hours. If that was the timescales that they were at lately for their payments, there must be a multitude of players waiting on payments coming through, as apart from the slow playing I didnt have any issues with the site or the games.

 

[lord flashheart]

My first withdrawal was paid within 3 days, but my second withdrawal, which was for just over £1K, took between 8 and 10 days and this set the alarm bells ringing for me, particularly as I was emailing everyday and getting the same response - issues with payment provider, will be sorted in the next 24 hours. If that was the timescales that they were at lately for their payments, there must be a multitude of players waiting on payments coming through, as apart from the slow playing I didnt have any issues with the site or the games.

I actually think that was true when they stated payment provider issues - as a white label site I believe the payment processing is done by the platform provider, so they migrated from whoever it was to betconstruct and everymatrix. They probably started as an affiliate type white label where by they received xx% of the funds generated and then migrated to a platform where they had full control / profits.

The owners do appear to be involved in lots of companies, most of which have zero capital and appear just to be holding companies.

Metroplay limited was only incorporated as a UK company 2 weeks ago, so something very odd about that

 

[JackTenOff]

Signed up for 666bet during Cheltenham for there £25 per day free bets and ended up withdrawing £250, not sure if it has hit my account yet though as can't check for a while

 

[lord flashheart]

Signed up for 666bet during Cheltenham for there £25 per day free bets and ended up withdrawing £250, not sure if it has hit my account yet though as can't check for a while

Good luck - that's the offer that tempted me as well. Although my withdrawal status never changed from pending, had to do KYC again despite having previously done it. After sending my final document, ended up with an email stating my withdrawal had been reversed!!!

Did your withdrawal status ever change??? Or did you not check?

 

[JackTenOff]

Good luck - that's the offer that tempted me as well. Although my withdrawal status never changed from pending, had to do KYC again despite having previously done it. After sending my final document, ended up with an email stating my withdrawal had been reversed!!!

Did your withdrawal status ever change??? Or did you not check?

Unfortunately I didn't check, I had so many pending withdrawals after Cheltenham from various places it slipped my mind, the strange thing is I signed up while I was abroad and played fine without ever getting a KYC request, yet my friend signed up in the UK from his home address and his account got suspended before he could even deposit requesting that he send in docs.

I'm just glad I didn't promote them on my sites ,I was never 100% sure about them.

 

[lord flashheart]

Unfortunately I didn't check, I had so many pending withdrawals after Cheltenham from various places it slipped my mind, the strange thing is I signed up while I was abroad and played fine without ever getting a KYC request, yet my friend signed up in the UK from his home address and his account got suspended before he could even deposit requesting that he send in docs.

I'm just glad I didn't promote them on my sites ,I was never 100% sure about them.

Perhaps they knew UKGC action was imminent and thought nothing of their license governing ROTW. Could be something more simple such as they ignored your IP you signed up from, but are on the electoral roll. If your friend wasn't then documents would have been required.

 

[JackMack]

Good info

I recently joined them and had been having trouble with them and their site.
Very unresponsive CS and live chat never worked.
In the promo I took I should have had 100 free spins credited which never were.
After a while they said they had credited them but only credited 25.
I sent them a message to correct it or just keep the spins and close my account and send me a confirmation email.
Didn't hear anything and then found the site was down.

I now wonder if I would of been paid had I won.
It is at least good to see the UKGC act swiftly, it actually adds a little credibility to the industry which let's face it, is full of shady characters and organisations.
Makes me wonder why some people are so deluded when it comes to the idea of some Casinos cheating.
It is not all rotten but to assume it is all above board and curse anyone who says otherwise has me questioning their motives.

I could list some very good casinos as well though.
I tend to play lots of them just for the sake of it but ideally if you find a good one you should stick with it and even if you lose at least you will be giving better casinos your money instead of some flea pit.

 

[lord flashheart]

I recently joined them and had been having trouble with them and their site.
Very unresponsive CS and live chat never worked.
In the promo I took I should have had 100 free spins credited which never were.
After a while they said they had credited them but only credited 25.
I sent them a message to correct it or just keep the spins and close my account and send me a confirmation email.
Didn't hear anything and then found the site was down.

I now wonder if I would of been paid had I won.
It is at least good to see the UKGC act swiftly, it actually adds a little credibility to the industry which let's face it, is full of shady characters and organisations.
Makes me wonder why some people are so deluded when it comes to the idea of some Casinos cheating.
It is not all rotten but to assume it is all above board and curse anyone who says otherwise has me questioning their motives.

I could list some very good casinos as well though.
I tend to play lots of them just for the sake of it but ideally if you find a good one you should stick with it and even if you lose at least you will be giving better casinos your money instead of some flea pit.

You're right in saying their customer service was terrible. Live chat would always fob you off saying to leave a message and they'll get back to you - even if there was only one person infront of you in the queue. Email support was always about 2 days for a reply, even then it seemed as if they only half read your email!

In regards to getting paid - maybe about 1-2 months ago, yes you probably would have been had you won..

I did notice on their twitter feed that metroplay started offering a £700 sign up bonus approximately 2-3 weeks ago - although not an uncommon bonus for a large casino, it has made me think they were trying rake in as much cash as possible before this closure / license suspension.

 

[itheboss]

I reported them to the Gambling Commission 2weeks ago after they stole 7k GBP from my account. They suspended my account on the 17th of February with a message that my bets are under "investigation". A couple weeks later I got another message where they stated I was cheating:

"666BET is committed to keeping betting fair for all. We accept bets in good faith on condition that customers use our Services in a fair and honest manner. Having reviewed your betting transactions, we have reason to believe that you have taken unfair advantage of our in-play tennis markets through the use of prohibited software and/or otherwise exploited a delay, loophole or error in our Sportsbook; this activity resulted in bets being accepted at a time when the result of the betting market was beyond reasonable doubt. As a result, your winnings from all in-play markets are considered illegitimate and have been voided."


obviously this was a lie, there were no errors, no late bets, 99% of my bets were placed on the AUS OPEN while watching it on the telly and placed the bets at the bookie who offered better odds for the outcome and I had a lot of lost bets as well. They must be stupid anyway, as all bets are time stamped so It is pretty clear to see that all the bets were placed way before the result was known and also all the bookies were updated at the same second so their system worked perfectly. They are nothing but a scam.

 

[lord flashheart]

Not entirely true, bookies update their odds at different times, even bookies using the same platform. Inplay betting has been "scammed" before. I use scammed in quotes as it was people taking advantage of slow updating. The bookie in question (I'm referring to) was William Hill. They used to accept bets immediately inplay, and if you were either "courtside" or had a non delayed stream people were able to get bets on before the markets were suspended.

This also happened years ago with inplay cricket in coral shops. People made a fortune on type of next dismissal markets because of delayed odds updating.

Anyway the point I was trying to make was despite bookies using certain software platforms to offer sports betting, it isn't always controlled by the provider. Some have traders working for them and have full access to odds they offer on that platform. For example TitanBet use oddsmatrix, and their traders update their odds incredibly quickly in comparison to other oddsmatrix users. GUTS, for example were incredibly slow at updating their odds and got hammered when they introduced horse racing. You would regularly find between 0.5 and 1.00 difference in odds on a regular occasion.

If what you were betting on was inline with other odds offered at the time then good luck with your complaint. 7k is an awful lot of cash to have in a relatively unknown bookie. For that amount it would seem you knew something was up and was exploiting it (my personal opinion) maybe you were a genuine player and were scammed but I always find it strange that people leave such huge amounts In bookies.

 

[itheboss]

This is not the issue, I'm a fair and honest bettor, I never made advantage of slow updating or reversed odds as I know those will be voided. I placed bets for example match winner at 3-3 first set, or set winner before the set started, or 8.game winner even before the 7. game started, I was not exploiting any loopholes nor placing late bets thats why I reported them to the GC. The reason I had so much money in there because I simply could not withdraw it despite sending verification documents 2-3 times. I was only with this bookie for 2 weeks, after seen their adverts on the TV also seen their banner running around premier league matches, so I gave them a try. They also cheated their own TC's when voided my winning Match betting. This was in their TC's:

"The following general rules apply to tennis betting markets:
If a player withdraws after one set has been completed the player progressing to the next round will be deemed the winner of the match, all other bets will be void unless a result has already been determined."

The other player retired in the 3rd set, so 1 set was clearly completed, but instead of settle the bet as a winner it was settled as VOID.

And when I complained I got this message:

"I have been back and forth with trading regarding this and they are sticking to their guns and saying its a void bet"
"The reason is due to that as we use a 3rd party trading company their rules with certain sports and markets do conflict with ours but it is being worked on a dealt with as we speak to try and make it so were all on the same page."

So they just dont care about TC, what they decide over the phone that is the new TC. Obviously If my pick retire that would be settled as lose.

 

[dunover]

Well, at least the BS about 'undergoing maintenance' has been removed now, and they apparently have an 'internal issue'?

What is that? A stomach ulcer? Irritable Bowel? Halitosis?

 

[vinylweatherman]

Well, at least the BS about 'undergoing maintenance' has been removed now, and they apparently have an 'internal issue'?

What is that? A stomach ulcer? Irritable Bowel? Halitosis?




View attachment 53731

It's a further stalling tactic. The UKGC requires the IMMEDIATE return of player's funds, but they are now using this issue to explain why this process has to be delayed. It's hardly an "internal issue" either, it's an EXTERNAL decision by the UKGC to suspend their license.

Maybe they don't have the funds, and are relying on current player balances being lost in order to cover pending withdrawals. Now that they are unable to process any bets, they cannot hope to cover their liabilities in this way, and need to find the money up front.

This could end up being an embarrassment for the UKGC if weeks pass with no sign of either players funds being returned, or this "internal issue" being rectified so that players can again access the site and their accounts. This is one of the bigger branded names, not some obscure casino who's brand means nothing other than to regular players.

 

[Deeplay]

If in this kind of scenario with a casino going down and players loose funds and the UKGC do nothing about that issue or pass the buck then in effect the UKGC would totally useless from the perspective of players and player protection. This will be an ACID test for the UKGC with many im sure watching how they handle this. Already there own set regulations of players funds needing to be immediately disbursed is actively being flouted. Not a great start for the UKGC with the first major issue they have had to face. At the moment I would not be confident if I had funds locked in Metro Play. This whole situation is starting to stink!

 

[pmutts]

I never knew that either . . .

Having worked in a land-based casino you'd often hear it referred to as 'The Devil's Game' - at least once a week.

Used to make up all sorts of weird and wonderful BS stories and spooky tales to the young new/trainee dealers, even had one girl insisting the once from now on she would only work BJ tables or Card Room (Poker) as she was now 'scared' of roulette wheel

I had no idea that all the numbers on Roulette added up to 666. In all of my years of casino play I have never heard anyone refer to Roulette as the "Devil's" game or anything like that.

Perhaps that is because I have never been into the game as I actually find it to be quite boring. I have never had a significant win on Roulette but I also never had a significant loss on the game.

It simply is not my game--maybe because deep down I knew there was something evil about it. LOL. I like Blackjack for tables and Video Poker for machines. Slots when I'm not in the mood to think too much. Craps once in a blue moon on a lucky streak after a number of cocktails.