Bitcoin Forum

Fair Warning: I've posted on a few other forums, but seems like this is one that Fairlay actually responds to, so apologies if you've already seen


I’ve been an established user of Fairlay for the last 7 months, VIP level 5, and have generally had a great relationship with them (even reporting bugs several times and also suggesting site improvements that were implemented)

Around 12 days ago, I submitted a deposit and it was not credited to my account, I had been using the site consistently day to day for the months prior. I reported the issue and what seemed to be a bug, eventually they said that my account was flagged.

My coin is all legit, never used a dark site in my life, I always bet so no question of money laundering (the only scam I’ve seen reported was bc someone was depositing and not betting), and no funny business in terms of betting. Also my most recent deposit was straight from an exchange so, I know specifically there’s nothing wrong with that deposit. Additionally, it feels especially questionable as they could have warned me before I deposited and locked up my money if my account was flagged, this way it looks like they intentionally were trying to wait for a next deposit.

They stopped responding to me over a week ago, and they’ve never told me what I’m getting flagged for, which is the worst part. All was said was that an “external party” flagged my account. That in itself is questionable, how could a third party even be involved? I’ve been patient, I’ve offered to help, and I’ve done everything they’ve asked (they asked for a number to reach me). I hate blasting them, and have waited a long time to do so to give them a fair chance, but it’s looking increasingly like nothing is happening so I’m trying to lever pressure for at least a response or explanation.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I am so very confident that I did nothing to violate their terms and conditions, and they seem to be violating clauses in their t&c and faqs themselves

I am not aware of this casino.
And I wonder if anyone else is...
Just don't make installments on casinos that do not exist for a long period of time or they have at least one negative review. If they have even one negative review... then something goes wrong with them.

I'm a pretty avid fairlay bettor actually, though generally only on straight out underdog bets or for picking tourney winners. Never had a problem with them and I'm only up 1 level... First time I have heard of this.

Did you try out all the contacts including the vip email noted in the faq?

Best post in the official thread and link this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=673475.560

I'd be really surprised if that's the only reason or reply...

Which exchange lets you withdraw to native segwit btw? Curious!

Well you say they "respond here", so where is their official thread? Usually most gambling sites open their own official thread. I did a quick search for Fairlay here in the Gambling area but nothing came out, what is the name of their site again?

Do try, in fact, remove; any copies of this post. If you have done cross-posting, you might get yourself in trouble with the forum. Stick to a single post about this matter in a single place. Maybe here or in Gambling Discussion if this is a gambling site. Otherwise service discussion i think. Cross posting not only does not make your message more read, it might in fact trigger mod reaction and you will get the opposite effect. Don't say sorry, just don't do it, you already know its bad.

I would also like to know why you are flagged and what "third party" system is in place for flagging people. Authorities? Is there a database somewhere of stolen coins exchanges and casinos are diligently checking funds against?

He doesn't have to remove the post, he just needs to give a source if possible.
Though in this case, he already prefaced his post saying that he posted this on multiple forums, I think it's clear he's not plagiarizing.

Now, OP, you really need to reach out in as many public channels as possible. I hope you've already contacted them in Twitter as well? Maybe even reddit?
If you're telling the truth, it's plain and simple theft they're committing. 

I did tweet, I don't know about a Reddit - they claim a 3rd party has allegations against me but I can't think of what it could be. I know it's not source of where I sent my deposit, as I am still fine.

Do you have other forums/places I should be posting on?

Reading Fairly Thread, I see there so many problems for their service with :

• Match
• Wager
• etc.

Also, some people say their service support was really hard to contact. But the weird thing you need to pay some mBTC only to contact their support VIP, Don't know what the difference with the support service VIP or Non-VIP. Because of that, I suggest to everyone better avoid this service.

The account of fairlay, inform us of their "Text Account" don't contact them at here. I think you will not get response from them at here.

I think you should move this thread (or make a new one?) in the Reputation board of this forum. This is where suspicious cases belong, and this is where they receive attention and get investigated. If you go with moving the thread, just scroll till the end of the first page and look near the left bottom corner, it should have a 'Move' button.
I don't think I even heard of Fairlay, but it seems to be a casino with normal reputation. At least, even though back in 2017 there was a scam accusation thread against them, their bitcointalk account does not have negative trust feedback. The profile has not been active for weeks, unfortunately, but I guess there's a chance they'll respond to a reputation thread if you make it. I hope the matter will be peacefully resolved, and you'll get your money in case you did not violate any of the casino's rules. You can also try to attract their attention by posting something in their ANN thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=673475.0
Good luck!

Back then contacting them or their support was an issue because there would be times when their chatbox isn't active. Other than their official email, the chatbox is the only way to get in contact with their support if you have a problem. But those problem you'll see in the thread are old problems and no one's complaining about their service recently until now.

You could try sharing your issue here in this subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/sportsbook/). A user who had a similar issue (confiscated funds) posted his problem there and it gained a lot of attention. 

Definitively these. Move this thread to Reputation (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=129.0) board, AND make a post in their official thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=673475.0). That's what i meant in my previous post, good find kryptqnick :)

I would wait for the response from their support first
Fairlay has a good reputation and I never had any problems with them
as for the possible reasons it could be the tainted coins you got from an exchange or your IP flagged
it is not like the bookie wants to steal your coins - they got an alert from the security team and then it all goes "we check and do not tell you what it is"
leaving a polite reminder in their topic here and nagging support usually helps more than any confrontation
but if it results in nothing good for  you and your money are held , open a scam accusation topic , but for now I would suggest waiting for a response
sometimes false positives happen , errare humanum est like our Latin friends used to say

I can attest to their reputation and also i dont have any problems with them as veleten suggested this would be the best
thing to be done now where you should wait up for some response on the team and give out some specific time.If things goes
already long to wait then thats the time to open some accusations.

If tainted coins are the problem he would have a problem with the exchange as well.
But he stated that he has no issues with his account at the exchange where
the funds were coming from.

I´m really curious which 3rd party Fairlay is talking about here. Given the fact that
Fairlay is not licensed anywhere in the world I don´t really understand why they would
work with a company like Chainalysis (I suspect that the 3rd party that they talk
about is one of these blockchain analytics companies).

And where is the central authority to learn what coins are tainted and not? What makes you think that particular exchange used the same source as them? As far as i know that space is pretty much chaotic, victims of theft have nowhere to go beyond their local authorities (which more often than not do nothing), and there are also victims of false accusations or who bought the coins without suspecting anything.

One advantage of mining your own coins is you have 100% proof they are clean, unfortunately as time passes less and less coins will come from mining and more will be the same ones re-circulating, and ultimately some of those will come from dubious origins. Also i would like to know how the few recovered coins get cleared again. This might not seem important now, but it will become more and more important as time passes, because freshly mined coins will become more and more scarce.

Hard luck on the lock up of your coin. Have you had any email from them prior to the incident. We can get emails that moves straight to spam messages or Trash without going straight to our inbox.

OP disappeared it seems, either his issue was solved or he had no case at all ( things like that  happen ,sometimes people come and try to mess with a casino they hate ,smearing its reputation )
3rd party could be one of the analytics companies or the exchange itself , we don't know , but I don't see Fairlay holding coins without a good reason
if they are AML compliant ,  they are forced to react to the queries
even if they are not licensed , they could get in troubles with the authorities and they would not want their business paralyzed because of some dude

This isn't the right place to post. Go to the scam accusation section and post with valid proof. Never hear of fairly but did a quick google search using the term "fairlay legit" and "fairlay scam". Looks like some of the other people also faced the same problem. Their coins were held with no slow response from them with almost no intention of giving it back. Even if you did something wrong, they shouldn't ignore your completely. Lets see what they have to say. You have the right to challenge their  "flagging" of your account.

Try checking their rules and regulations with regards to their security. Maybe your account has been hacked and they want to make sure that you are the real owner of it since they have detected a third party that flagged your account.

I think Op should try getting them on their official ANN and also raise a thread in reputation board since he seem not to understand the situation anymore, maybe somebody can raise something that will help him. Good luck.

Hello, this is unfortunately still unresolved, I do not normally post here hence the inactivity, if any interest of more detailed progression you can look at SBR, but otherwise I still have not been told what the allegation is, who the third party is, and then I have also not heard anything from any other parties regarding what this could be. Lastly, I did not violate any Fairlay policies so it doesn’t make sense to me for them to be the one to be holding onto the funds right now

While this site may be good for certain things, this should raise red flags for you right there.

If people aren't operating as a legitimate reputable business, one which has easy lines of communication between people -- then there's something shady going on. That's not normal at all to only have support through a chatbox, espically when you're dealing with online gambling where hundreds of thousands of dollars are crossing hands.

I'd continue to try to flag someone down -- as well as taking this as a lesson to only trust reputable sites.

I like the decent manner in which you are dealing with this issue. I am pretty surprised that Fairlay has still not resolved your issue(Provided you didn't do anything wrong) since they did resolve any issues I had with them in the past quickly.


You are partially right. These are some serious red flags, but I have been using Fairlay for quite sometime and have never faced such issues since it is the best BTC exchange with decent liquidity out there.

This is sad and it seems your account is being blocked unnecessary, if it is not a scam casino site and you can verify it is legit! I am coming across this Fairlay for the first time and the whole thing seems strange to me.
I have transfer bitcoin to my stake.com account before and I did not have intentions to used the coins to play dice or for gambling purpose and later I move the coin back to the exchange where I trade. I don't know why this your own should be different.

That is strange, I think. If we don't have any problem in the past, and suddenly we have this problem, it's too suspicious for me. Because we know that they are legit so far, and that makes us deposit to them, and we use them to playing gambling. Maybe they have something that they don't tell us, but I hope that this problem can be resolved and you can get your account plus your money back to you.

As other people said, you should try to send an email to them, contact their support system in the online chat or whatever you need to do to get the answer.

As everything is happening through the internet, everything we do is upon the trust. When something negative takes place, it is a must to try the possible ways to get it rectified. Further it is always good to have a prior analysis about the site before using it. Trust rating will help in staying away from such websites.

they only deposit and not playing a gambling ? but whats their point of  doing it ?  did they get any benefiits like interest  , rewards and simillar to this ?  but i dont really think that it was a scam .  i did also do it on the past where i deposit coins on freebitco because they have an investment feature where you can earn interest  but i dont also play gambling on them   .


maybe they are just busy   . some support respond over a week and two  .  why dont you just give them more time to resolve your account ?

Actually, we can prevent that bad thing happen by reading from here or another website so we can know which website could be trusted and which is not. We can choose only recommended gambling website to deposit and playing gambling so we don't have to worry about the bad things that might happen later. The problem will not appear to us if we can be careful in selecting the website. I am sure that we can find more than 1 recommended gambling site.

And related to this, we need to be more careful in selecting the site because we don't want to get the same things as the OP. Besides that, choosing from the rating could work as we can see how many people who recommend those site to gamble.

The best course of action is probably to reach out to them on their public social media pages and hope that your posts get a bit of attention.
These things only tend to get resolved fast if their reputation is actually at stake.

Sending more emails to their support obviously doesn't do any good.

This issue can only be solved by talking to the site directly.You need to verify yourself fully if as you say you have nothing to hide.I wonder why you deposit and play in a kind of more of a betting exchange than a real sport bookie.I hope your issue is resolved soon but only by talking to Fairlay officials the issue can be solved.

Based on some of the comments here, there seems to be some confusion. I've had plenty of contact with support and even the CEO. However, they are refusing to give me the proper information. They also asked me for a phone number to call and at first I was uncomfortable but upon second ask I gave it immediately and never received a phone call.

Additionally, they have informed other parties about what is going on but have still told me nothing. Almost every medium I've researched in terms of "seized funds" end up returning the deposit/funds to their customers, even in violation of terms and policies - and I have violated no terms and policies. Again to be clear, the apparent allegation has nothing to do with my conduct on Fairlay and the company has made no claims that I was ever a bad customer - in fact the contrary - they've claimed that I was a great customer even publicly.

The main point is to beware of usage of this site as regardless of what happens there has apparently been plenty of data and information leakage and yet no information given to me. In fact I could guess that the third party is someone phishing for information on my transactions and they could've provided inappropriate information about my account.

Fairlay should not only return the frozen funds, but also provide compensation if it was done in their error:

-failure to communicate to customer while communicating information to other channels
-said they will give a phone call, but didn't
-have arbitration listed in TOS, but don't actual provide it
-didn't provide any information to the cause and nature of the incident, nor a timeline for resolution

They will need a very solid explanation for the lack of transparency in their actions.  Most services and exchanges return funds for violation of TOS, and just ban the account.  Even then, unless an exchanged is defrauded (via hack or other means), freezing money indefinitely and keeping it is stealing.  It would only be acceptable to transfer it to the damaged party or the legal system jurisdiction overseeing the manner.

Agreed, they also seem to not have any clue what is going on with this supposed allegation. I would just say that I was a solid customer and if they can just so quickly abandon me and treat me like this, it can happen to anyone.

Yes this is abundant and people are agree to keep holding as holding is truly beneficial BTC is on trend to increase so this can lead to the next most expensive crypto for gambling in different casino people prevent to use their bitcoin and they prefer to gambling with fiat only and hold BTC after recognising the sensitivity of matter.

I'm not sure what you mean

We'd like to publish the following update on the degen1 case for anyone interested:

 Decision has be made to return the roughly 100K USD deposit  of degen1 to the address it was sent from. Degen1 could not rebut our presumption that the funds are of questionable origin.  We therefore decided to reject his deposit and close his account permanently. Degen1 is not allowed to use our site again. The address his deposit is returned to belongs to an exchange.

 All involved parties have been notified that the transaction will be released to the Bitcoin network on September 20th giving everyone time to make necessary preparations.

Without knowing all the details of the case, it is good to see some kind of resolution, even if it took more time than OP wished. To be fair, operators must take their time to ascertain facts in these situations, especially with these kinds of sums involved. Otherwise the operator can make the situation worse. Props to the operator for a simple, clean post once they were ready.

It is not always easy to meet everyone's expectations as an operator. We understand this from our experience on both sides of the fence.

I want to write a final bit to point out what eventually most people who care should see, and I don’t want Fairlay to be fully excused for handling this terribly from the beginning:

#1) I asked them to return my funds to any address that it had been deposited from, I asked that and it had been suggested by everyone here and SBR for the last 6 weeks, to do this now while pretending they did nothing wrong is absurd

#2) they still never provided any information in terms of what I was accused of or who the third party was. They seem to continue to leak information without giving me any further insight, compromising security of my transactions to an unknown third party

#3) given that they still have not provided me any additional information, their comment that I was “unable to rebut” their assumption is false bc they never even gave me an opportunity. I was also never presented with any evidence

#4) there’s still no evidence that a law enforcement agency was involved, especially given the fact that all my information was handed out to a troll box, to SBR and to a third party

#5) it’s hypocritical that Fairlay has asked me in their emails to not disclose anything in public when they are not even guaranteeing a safe return of my funds to me, and that they are providing false information to the public to clear their name and save face (primarily that I wasn’t able to rebut anything. They asked for a phone number to reach me and when I gave that they did not call me, nor provide any further detail).

#6) didn’t they claim that I have no access to an exchange, and if my funds are of questionable origin, how do they know that they are returning to an exchange? And if it’s an exchange how is it a questionable origin?

#7) for them to give further information and further complicating me securing funds to other parties that may not be true is not their place

#8) I was just asked a few days ago about my identity and other personal details, so how could they even have been so sure that this third party had the right person..

Whether you believe me or not, the above is based on facts and logic. Even SBR has confirmed a lot of what I have complained about, including the fact that no information was given to me.

In my opinion this is no real solution for me as the customer, and it’s also not absolved them of their wrongdoings themselves, including potentially disclosing details on a supposed law enforcement investigation

First of all, having a high amount of deposit like 100K is definitely a large amount that could be considered anything. It's not like everyone has that kind of money. degen1 deserves his money back, with all the facts considered.

I'm just not sure I quite understand returning to the sent address wouldn't be ideal. If it came from an exchange, it might have come from the cold storage that the exchange has and if you sent it there, it wouldn't go to degen1's account right? Is there something I'm missing? Or maybe wrong? Does degen1 own an exchange?

It seems that this thread has become attention of many people which raises a variety of pros and cons. I myself have not found a clear reason why site acts like that and where did @degen1 get money. I think this is one of fairlay efforts to eradicate money laundering, I am sure third party intended by @degen1 has informed them that the address owned by @degen1 is suspicious and is involved in a crime case. Well, I think fairlay only want to do their best and avoid money laundering. The following is clarification from their support team, so there is no longer any reason that fairlay is suspending @degen1 money because they have returned it now.

They did not actually send back the bitcoin yet as they said they would. Also sending back to the exchange would not guarantee a return of funds to me. This would be like if I sent an envelope of cash to a bank branch that I knew you took cash out from.

Mr. Degen please post the transaction ID so we can examine your claim sir.  Also where did you send this from? why would you send 100K from a wallet you do not control is also a viable question for my curiosity

Could this be you?  https://www.ccn.com/100000-bitcoin-loss-bitgo-engineer-sim-hijacked/