Royal Panda - Bonus fixing or just plain poor?? Avoid at all cost1

Mouse75

Experienced Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2018
Location
Southport
Rant time - fair to say I am not impressed!

Royal Panda - which i note is an accredited casino with excellent customer service.....

On Monday evening, I deposited £100 with 100% bonus, 35x wagering on bonus amount only (£3500) with the slightly unusual quirk that only real money wagering counts. Knowing the score I updated proof of ID, proof of address, and payment card details before starting to gamble - same docs used for a few other casinos with no issues whatsoever.

Lost the £100 with wagering on a rather poor 14.9% - so no real chance of unlocking the £100 bonus - however this is available to use but will not count towards wagering.

Thought to myself - may as well spend this and see what happens, down to the last £5 - bonanza on a £1 as its all over.... no I get a £204 win - still locked in bonus money though - and wagering still only at 14.9%.
Can I manage to cash this - so deposited a further £25 - wagering up to about 25% before busting, another £50 in wagering now on 46%.

Now - looks like I can get this for around about £250 in total deposits - given that I had written off the 1st £100 this seems quite reasonable....

£50 in today - and a bit of luck, £55 win on DOA and then caught Starburst in a good mood - over 500 spins at 30p and a balance growing,
I reach the stage of
Wagering 61%
Real Balance £155
Bonus Balance £225
So as it stands, need to wager £1400 to get any real money left, plus the £225 bonus money, total deposits are £225 at this point, so a break even or small profit is looking distinctly possible. I start flicking through games, get a bonus and move on - pretty enjoyable and I make a few extra quid.

I get a decent bonus on BarX megaways - and combined balance just under £400 when I am logged out. At the same time I get an email from a sister site advising i have self excluded??
More sinister, via Cookie usage, Royal Panda have blocked their Live Chat, and Contact number from their home page if associated with my email address.
I speak to the sister site Castle Jackpot, who eventually after trying to hide behind Leo Vegas's T&C's, advise the exclusion has come from Royal Panda - and they will not give me a contact number!
Using a different Browser - i got Royal Panda's contact details and called them to discuss.

I was told that apparently after a thorough investigation, my account had been summarily closed and they would not be discussing further, they were not prepared to confirm time scale for return of outstanding balance, were rude and insolent, were insulting me when phone was "on hold" to talk to a manager and eventually terminating the call.
(I assume they are claiming some kind of bonus play issue - but surely customers are allowed to play for a bonus - and as i must of played 25-30 different slots, hardly like i am just trying to hit wagering. ( including a bonus on Irish Megaways with 22 spins trigger paying a disgusting 10x with 18 dead spins))

Subsequently i have been advised 1-3 working days - however no one seems to know if this is outstanding balance or deposits in full.

TO SUMMARISE

Royal Panda - happy to take 4 deposits off me with usual timescale of approx 15 seconds
A clever bonus scheme designed - not unfairly - to encourage customers to make additional deposits
When it looked like bonus was achievable and they would be out of pocket - account terminated
Customer service info deliberately blocked from customer to make contacting as difficult as possible
Happy to take money - if I had bust the bonus they would of had the original £100 - but very unhappy to pay out.
Shocking and blatantly unacceptable customer service with no resolution offered
Delay and refusal to return players funds.

This is akin to theft / fraud - and has left a bitter taste to say the least - i also contacted Leo Vegas - their umbrella company - who were also dismissive and unhelpful.

My experience has led me to believe their Bonus scheme is a con, and my advice is to avoid at all costs.
I am very surprised this is an accredited casino - maybe this should be reviewed?

For the Rep - I have two questions only - why is my money not returned at the same speed as it was taken?
Please can I have a confirmation of time scale?
If you chose to close accounts - so be it - however treat your customers fairly and with respect

Lesson learned - and unfortunately CM accreditation does not prevent some casinos from being rogue.....
 
Considering the recent complaints about the group, and no rep replies, and Melvin not being here since May, I feel you may be being a little optimistic ;)
Reported to @LadyJelena our Account manager to see if we could get some feedback from them...
 
Disgusting, this is why you stick with large uk bookmakers this sort of thing rarely happens and if it does you have a proper contact support system.

Have you ever used support on most of the larger bookies? Ladbrokes/Coral are great, you get to repeat the problem 35 times until they finally understand your simple problem, then tell you they will escalate it, and you will get an email, which years later you are still waiting for. William Hill are pretty close behind for their stellar fast support.
 
Have you ever used support on most of the larger bookies? Ladbrokes/Coral are great, you get to repeat the problem 35 times until they finally understand your simple problem, then tell you they will escalate it, and you will get an email, which years later you are still waiting for. William Hill are pretty close behind for their stellar fast support.

Yes I know what you mean but if you explain to them they resolve it, but your right they have no clue half the time.
 
Disgusting, this is why you stick with large uk bookmakers this sort of thing rarely happens and if it does you have a proper contact support system.

Indeed - so you can wait 12 days to be called a liar is my experience with Coral - although they did refund me in the end,
Will Hill - i have never had any issues with and very fast resolutions - always in my favour.
(this is probably as i played all my poker through them - so although overall i am £40k in profit from them - it is from the poker players - not the slots,)
 
Update of sorts...

RP emailed me today advising account closed - no reason given - cash balance to be refunded in 1-3 days
Have a ROYAL day and enjoy our site, - they have also managed to send me two marketing emails today - impressive.

Looking into it further - it would appear as i hit big on my £1 spins (99% of the time my ma bet is 40p - i wont even play 50p minimum games), they will claim this is an unusual staking pattern and therefore bonus abuse!
What exactly are you supposed to do with the last fiver of a £200 starting balance.

Will update further next week
 
If you don't receive something you consider satisfactory, I suggest you PAB.

Since max bet with a bonus is usually @$5, I would not consider $1 stake (yes, I know pounds, but NA keyboard) out of the ordinary.

If you are a UK player, I believe your cash balance should be withdrawable at minimum, although I know that would leave you down overall. However, there is no guarantee that you would have met wagering in order to convert the bonus funds to cash.
 
If you don't receive something you consider satisfactory, I suggest you PAB.

Since max bet with a bonus is usually @$5, I would not consider $1 stake (yes, I know pounds, but NA keyboard) out of the ordinary.

If you are a UK player, I believe your cash balance should be withdrawable at minimum, although I know that would leave you down overall. However, there is no guarantee that you would have met wagering in order to convert the bonus funds to cash.
They have a clever little Claus that you cannot build a bonus balance using unusual staking, and as £1 for me is unusual, I think that is their excuse.
As far as hitting wagering, the bonus would not of disappered, so even if the current cash of £175 was not sufficient, 1 or 2 more small deposits would of seen me home.
Hence they knew they were in a losing position, hence the account closure.
Lesson learnt, I will stick to the more open and infinitely more honest sites such as Casumo and even Sky Vegas.
 
Royal Panda have today confirmed a refund of my outstanding balance of £173,

Whilst this leaves me £50 out of pocket, that is better than when i was the original deposit of £100 down so will accept this.
@Melvin - Panda thank you for any assistance you may have been in putting this to bed.

My opinion of the casino, and the hiding of the customer service contact details, along with what clearly appears to be a bonus scam have not changed.

Thanks to all who replied and shown an interest in this thread
 
Just going to pop this in here, how misleading is this

2019-09-19.png

Its only when you read the T&C's that it spells out that the spins are only worth 20p
Now obviously I know you aren't going to get 20 x £2 spins for a £20 deposit, but if they make a big deal out of the royal spins being £2 at the top, they should do the same with the 20p ones. I can pretty much guarantee people will deposit expecting £2 spins not 20p ones

T&C's

  • Deposit up to £99, get 20 free spins, £100-£199 for 40 free spins, or deposit £200+ for 20 Royal Spins on 19 September before 23:59 CEST.
  • Players can only qualify for one reward.
  • Free spins and Royal Spins added to account at noon CEST the following day.
  • Free spins value: £0.20 per spin.
  • Royal Spins value: £2 per spin
  • Free spins and Royal Spins expire after seven days.
  • Free spins and Royal Spins winnings added to bonus balance.
  • Free spins and Royal Spins winnings wagering requirement x35, must be met with cash balance bets.
  • Max bonus bet restrictions apply.
 
That's the reason I never take a bonus with royal panda or sister brand casinos, no offence meant but if you can't wager with the bonus money then why bother giving bonuses.
 
Just going to pop this in here, how misleading is this

View attachment 114267

Its only when you read the T&C's that it spells out that the spins are only worth 20p
Now obviously I know you aren't going to get 20 x £2 spins for a £20 deposit, but if they make a big deal out of the royal spins being £2 at the top, they should do the same with the 20p ones. I can pretty much guarantee people will deposit expecting £2 spins not 20p ones

T&C's

  • Deposit up to £99, get 20 free spins, £100-£199 for 40 free spins, or deposit £200+ for 20 Royal Spins on 19 September before 23:59 CEST.
  • Players can only qualify for one reward.
  • Free spins and Royal Spins added to account at noon CEST the following day.
  • Free spins value: £0.20 per spin.
  • Royal Spins value: £2 per spin
  • Free spins and Royal Spins expire after seven days.
  • Free spins and Royal Spins winnings added to bonus balance.
  • Free spins and Royal Spins winnings wagering requirement x35, must be met with cash balance bets.
  • Max bonus bet restrictions apply.

To be fair to them. Everything is explained in the first 4 sentences of the offer.

Nothing is hidden away in the t&c's
 
To be fair to them. Everything is explained in the first 4 sentences of the offer.

Nothing is hidden away in the t&c's

No its not, it states up to 20 royal spins, where does it state the other spins are 20p in the first 4 lines? Plus '20 royal spins' in bold but nothing about the 20p ones in bold or anything. Where else does it state the spin value apart from in the T&C's?

As I said, I imagine most on here would know, but I will bet a lot of casual players see royal spins and free spins mentioned and think they are the same.
 

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