Casinomeister Forum Highlights – Week Commencing 23rd Jan 23

By Dave Sawyer, Last updated Apr 17, 2023

Are the UKGC ‘Out of Touch?’

The last week of the first month of 2023 sees a variety of topics being discussed here on the Casinomeister Forum, with yet another fine being handed out by the UK Gambling Commission to the operator In Touch Games.

In Touch Games with headquarters in Halesowen in the West Midlands of England, operate several online casino brands and were deemed to have been found to be in breach of Anti Money Laundering and Social Responsibility regulations after an investigation performed by the UK Gambling Commission.

This was not the first such instance that In Touch Games had been sanctioned by the UKGC and commenting on the latest action, the Gambling Commission’s Executive Director of Operations Kay Roberts said: “Considering this operator’s history of failings we expected to see significant improvement when we carried out our planned compliance assessment. Disappointingly, although many improvements had been made, there was still more to do.”

“This £6.1m fine shows that we will take escalating enforcement action where failures are repeated and all licensees should be acutely aware of this.”

The news of the action against In Touch Games subsequently provoked quite a bit of debate on the forum, with  Webzcas stating: “My spidersense is off kilter on this one and without delving into the details of the investigation, I am inclined to feel a tad sorry for In Touch Games here.”

While forum member Interlog questioned the fact that In Touch Games have been taken to task by the UKGC for not questioning the hours a player was playing at one of their casinos, commenting: “In a 24hr society, surely there are no unsociable hours?”

A comment that Mr_Slot5 picked up on, when posting this response: “Yeah, when I play I mostly play at night due to pretty much the same thing…late shifts.”

“Not sure what tree the UKGC are barking up with that one, but whatever tree it is it’s the wrong one.”

 

Another Day in Paradise?

Forum member Phoenix43 started a thread last Thursday just gone titled Paradise8 denying cash out, with a complaint about the Rival powered online casino denying him his withdrawal. Phoenix43 goes on to explain the issue: “Anyway, I wanted to cash out and contacted live chat to check if there are wager requirements as I couldn’t find the information anywhere online.”

“Eventually someone replied to me to say that because I haven’t made a deposit, I am therefore unable to cash out. Screenshot attached.”

Forum old timer KasinoKing responded with: “I have played at and promoted Rival casinos since they first appeared in 2006, and they have all ALWAYS asked for players to have made a deposit before they can cash out from a free chip.””This is for age and ID verification purposes and to prevent fraud.”

As at the time of going to press with this article, it looks like Phoenix43 is no nearer getting his hands on his withdrawal….

Thousands Locked Down!

Forum member zreb started a thread on Friday just gone, bemoaning the fact that they have two large sums of monies locked in Ignition and Cafe casinos to the tune of 6 figures! Expanding on his problem, zreb further elaborated: “So I had some big wins on Cafe Casino and Ignition casino over the past half year, mostly from their progressive “Hot Drop Jackpot” slots they love to promote so much but also some from virtual blackjack.”

“My accounts have been locked down for a little over 3 months now, but some of the winnings were from even longer ago than that. This is actually the *second* time my accounts have been locked.”

“From the very beginning when I won at Cafe Casino they were drip paying out $2500 at a time, which obviously is not an amount of money to sneeze at but this is a casino group which is constantly running up 6 figure progressive jackpots that they should be able to pay out, especially since cryptocurrency is an option.”

“It’s felt like they’ve been fishing for any possible kind of excuse this entire time – i.e., hold your money for months while they look for any possible reason not to pay. The next few months of delays feel like a continuation of this process.”

Dave Sawyer
ConnectConnect

Dave has been involved in the Online Gambling industry for 20 odd years now. With experience working for an operator based in Gibraltar, where he headed up the IT team at Ladbrokes, to running his own iGaming affiliate websites until 2019.

Dave now writes for Casinomeister and sister site Casino Gazette. You may also see him on the forum from time to time, where he goes by the handle Webzcas.


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