Before I start this article I want to point out that this is not something used by all online casinos. Most operators today will honor your winnings and pay you in full and on time. In this article iam talking about rogue casinos. With such a big competition in the online gambling industry today it’s bad business not to pay players their winnings, as you will be labeled as a rogue casino across all gambling forums and eventually go out of business.
But there are still some operators which use a variety of stalling tactics in order to make the player reverse and play back his winnings to 0. In most cases this is used on newbie players and most of the time it actually works. So in this article I want to show you what some casinos are ready to do in order not to pay you your hard earned winnings.
Stalling tactics used by rogue casinos
In most cases when a rogue casino doesn’t want to pay you they will use a variety of stalling tactics in order to delay the payment. As I mentioned earlier this is done in order to make the player reverse and eventually lose his withdrawal. Just to mention from personal experience 9 out of 10 times when you reverse a withdrawal you will lose down to 0. Don’t know why this is so (i suppose it has to do with the gamblers psychology), I only know that each time I reversed a withdrawal I ended up with nothing. So today when I make a withdrawal at a casino I see it through until it’s processed. The best advice I can give, never reverse your withdrawals. Now let’s start with the stalling tactics.
Account verification for newbie players
This is the oldest trick in the book when it comes to stalling the withdrawal of a new player at the casino. In the past it was something I had to deal with on every withdrawal. The casino will ask you to send in your documents and it usually takes 24 hours for the verification process to be done. You send them in, wait patiently for 24 hours to pass, only to find out on live chat that one document was blurry or it’s missing a corner.
The best excuse I’ve heard was the required document is over 1mb, which is the maximum allowed size. Seriously? So the verification process can turn into a battle where you end up going to a professional photographer to take pictures of your documents so you can satisfy the casinos criteria. One thing to note here is that the UKGC brought in the latest changes just for this. Now you have to verify your account before you make a deposit, get your bonus and play, in order to avoid these exact issues.
Problems with the payment provider
Also another well known stalling tactic. You made a withdrawal request at the casino, let’s say, by using Neteller. The payout timeframe is 24 hours and after 24 hours you see the funds back on your account. So support tells you that they are having a problem with their payment provider or bank or whatever, and that you will need to wait.
What’s funny here is that you can make deposits with Neteller but you can’t withdraw?? Again, seriously? The trick here is to use another payment method if you can, if not you just have to wait it out until they sort out the so called problem and process your payout.
Additional Verification
So, you’ve been playing at some casino on a regular basis, you had a few smaller withdrawals and you hit a big payday. You’re not worried about anything since your account is already verified and your previous withdrawals came in with no problems at all.
Everything will be OK and you’ll get paid on time, right? Wrong!
Out comes another trick from the book of tricks, the old additional verification. So why are they doing this now and can they do this? Well they can since it’s stated in their T&C and they’re doing it to stall the payout. The best way to go is keep cool and comply with their demands. That is until they ask for your first born and you know it’s time to take the matter to a higher authority.
How to deal with casino stalling tactics?
Basically you just have to be ready to deal with everything the rogue casino throws at you. The best way to keep your winnings when you encounter a stalling tactic from a casino is to use a little something called Cool Off. This is a button which every casino has, basically banning you to play at the casino for a period of time.
It can be 1, 2, 7 days or even up to 6 months. So when you hit the cool off button you can deal with the requirements made from the casino, while your withdrawal stays safe from being played down to 0. On the other had if you see that the casino is simply refusing to pay you, you need to make a complaint on some reputable gambling forum or post a legitimate complaint to their issuing licensor.
This way you can rest assured that your case will be looked at by a higher authority and if the casino is found to be at fault you will receive your hard earned winnings. The thing is that in cases like this if you do file a complaint to their licensor the casino risks getting a huge fee or even losing their license. This is why in most cases these matters are resolved before it even gets to that. It’s all just in knowing how to make the right threats at the right time.
