TawniVirtualAce
I-Gaming Industry Representative
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2013
- Location
- Worldwide
It’s time to address the concerns surrounding the lengthy withdrawal times at Ace and Virtual. It’s being discussed here, in the America the Beautiful section because much of this has to do with US processing.
This is not an easy issue to discuss without laying down a little groundwork, so please bear with me.
The Virtual Group uses a very different business model than other casino groups. Virtual offers bonus far exceeding those of other groups and although we have more than our fair share of critics, we do enjoy thousands of loyal players who look forward to these large bonus offers, each and every week. Regardless what our critics may say, the fact is that we cater to these players who continue to play with us BECAUSE of value, higher chances of winning and in general, longer entertainment time. These players are willing to do so, understanding the longer withdrawal/processing processes.
With these large bonuses comes some hurdles, particularly given the fact that 95% of our players hail from the U.S., where payment processing is such a difficult task. We have limited processors to use to disperse payments and we have had to endure MANY seizures over the past few years (like most other US-facing brands). I’m sure processing has been discussed here, ad nauseum, however, it’s still important to stress how we have to deal with this.
With only a few processors at hand and the ability for these processors to accept only a limited amount of cash at any given time, this creates a backlog of player payments for the company of our size. This has become a slow and arduous course for us. When you add in funds seizures, here and there, the backlog gets deeper. Don’t forget, when a seizure occurs, we not only get the cash confiscated, we also lose another processing venue, which leaves us short and scrambling for another processor. Another pain point is most times we don’t even know a seizure has occurred until the customer complains that either a check was returned or a wire was not received. In the ‘old days’ processors were plentiful and in current times, we find ourselves sitting on our hands to a point, waiting on another processor to open its doors.
Without getting too deep, Virtual has a much narrower profit margin (per player) than most, due to our larger bonuses. Because of this, we are reliant on volume. With volume means greater numbers of withdrawals, which in turn means a larger backlog waiting to be processed. This is essentially the reason behind the long wait-times on our withdrawals.
FWIW, it should be pointed out that our processors handle Virtual and Ace as one client, so this is why Ace ends up on the slow end of things, as well. We do give priorities to Ace withdrawals and that is the reason behind Ace getting paid faster than Virtual casinos. Obviously, it would be ideal if our processors could separate the two companies and process for each, individually. Unfortunately, because of the limitations on the amount of cash each processor can handle at a given time, this is just not possible.
In situations when players have exceeded the 30-day total withdrawal time, this mostly occurs as a result of seizures or players having multiple/larger withdrawal amounts within our own group. I’m not going to say that a ball doesn’t get dropped here or there, but in truth, it IS because of a seizure or a snafu with the actual processor, which we have no control over.
No doubt, many of you will be wondering why we continue down this path of larger bonuses if processing is so difficult. It’s quite simple, really. It’s been successful for us and there is a clear demand for it. Because we have made the commitment to improve, we are making an attempt at shortening things up, but we need to do this with a cautious approach. The last thing we want to do is to push things to a point where we are unable to fulfill our promises.
I hope this helps all of you to understand our circumstances. For our side, we would love nothing more than to be able to facilitate these withdrawals in a quicker way, as we know this will mean a better player experience and certainly greater profits.
This is not an easy issue to discuss without laying down a little groundwork, so please bear with me.
The Virtual Group uses a very different business model than other casino groups. Virtual offers bonus far exceeding those of other groups and although we have more than our fair share of critics, we do enjoy thousands of loyal players who look forward to these large bonus offers, each and every week. Regardless what our critics may say, the fact is that we cater to these players who continue to play with us BECAUSE of value, higher chances of winning and in general, longer entertainment time. These players are willing to do so, understanding the longer withdrawal/processing processes.
With these large bonuses comes some hurdles, particularly given the fact that 95% of our players hail from the U.S., where payment processing is such a difficult task. We have limited processors to use to disperse payments and we have had to endure MANY seizures over the past few years (like most other US-facing brands). I’m sure processing has been discussed here, ad nauseum, however, it’s still important to stress how we have to deal with this.
With only a few processors at hand and the ability for these processors to accept only a limited amount of cash at any given time, this creates a backlog of player payments for the company of our size. This has become a slow and arduous course for us. When you add in funds seizures, here and there, the backlog gets deeper. Don’t forget, when a seizure occurs, we not only get the cash confiscated, we also lose another processing venue, which leaves us short and scrambling for another processor. Another pain point is most times we don’t even know a seizure has occurred until the customer complains that either a check was returned or a wire was not received. In the ‘old days’ processors were plentiful and in current times, we find ourselves sitting on our hands to a point, waiting on another processor to open its doors.
Without getting too deep, Virtual has a much narrower profit margin (per player) than most, due to our larger bonuses. Because of this, we are reliant on volume. With volume means greater numbers of withdrawals, which in turn means a larger backlog waiting to be processed. This is essentially the reason behind the long wait-times on our withdrawals.
FWIW, it should be pointed out that our processors handle Virtual and Ace as one client, so this is why Ace ends up on the slow end of things, as well. We do give priorities to Ace withdrawals and that is the reason behind Ace getting paid faster than Virtual casinos. Obviously, it would be ideal if our processors could separate the two companies and process for each, individually. Unfortunately, because of the limitations on the amount of cash each processor can handle at a given time, this is just not possible.
In situations when players have exceeded the 30-day total withdrawal time, this mostly occurs as a result of seizures or players having multiple/larger withdrawal amounts within our own group. I’m not going to say that a ball doesn’t get dropped here or there, but in truth, it IS because of a seizure or a snafu with the actual processor, which we have no control over.
No doubt, many of you will be wondering why we continue down this path of larger bonuses if processing is so difficult. It’s quite simple, really. It’s been successful for us and there is a clear demand for it. Because we have made the commitment to improve, we are making an attempt at shortening things up, but we need to do this with a cautious approach. The last thing we want to do is to push things to a point where we are unable to fulfill our promises.
I hope this helps all of you to understand our circumstances. For our side, we would love nothing more than to be able to facilitate these withdrawals in a quicker way, as we know this will mean a better player experience and certainly greater profits.