Mbit Exploited Problem Gambling and Instructed to Knowingly Break their TOS.

Let me apologize ahead of time for the length of this complaint, but in order to be as thorough as possible, I try to detail everything to the best of my ability.

I have been a player at MbitCasino since December 19, 2016.

Throughout the years, I have made many deposits, as well as some withdrawals. I wish I could include the exact numbers of these amounts, but Mbit has closed all communication with me, and they have instructed the live chat support agents within the website itself to do the same. They cut off communication and disabled my account, immediately after I requested a copy of all of our conversations, transcripts and emails.

The only thing I can conclude from this is that they are ignoring me, assuming that I don’t have any evidence of the claims I am making, which is not the case. I simply wanted a more organized and easy to read printout for myself, but I have luckily saved everything from the day my account was opened.

Calling myself a gambling addict might be a bit of an understatement. In the past five years, what started as an expensive habit, quickly snowballed into a multi-year tailspin, where I successfully managed to find new ways of destroying my life financially, and learning each week that what I previously thought was rock bottom, actually can go much further.

I have never blamed anyone for my gambling, and I take full responsibility for this complex addiction which still makes no sense to me whatsoever.

That being said, I feel as though an important responsibility of a casino, and certainly something every site claims to be vigilant about, is providing players who find themselves in the group of gamblers who cannot stop, the ability to exclude themselves. Especially when multiple pages of their site are dedicated to their commitment to giving players these resources, and just how seriously they take this matter.
It is a dark side that comes along with territory, but it is far darker when these casinos not only ignore players attempts to ban themselves from these platforms, but when they actually exploit these addictions for their personal benefit.

I understand that these are some strong accusations that I am making, but in the case of MbitCasino, that is exactly what has been done to me.

When I realized how bad this addiction had become, I did the only thing that actually is effective in trying to curb the problem. I contacted the casino’s and told them this, and that I wanted my account closed permanently. Every casino I dealt with was both understanding, empathetic, and extremely professional about this. Casino Extreme being what I consider the gold standard with their actions matching their claims.

This is a stark comparison to MbitCasino.

The first time I attempted to close my account at Mbit was on August 23, 2019. I had lost all of my money to my name, and frustrated and finally wanting a way out of this lifestyle, I explained that I had been depositing more money than I wanted to think about, and that the money I was losing was something that I could not afford to lose. I explained how none of this was fun to me anymore, and I ended the conversation with, “Please Close My Account.”

Rather than acknowledging the fact I was clearly struggling with gambling and out of control, or even taking my request to close my account seriously, they instead responded with informing me about a slot malfunction that I never asked about, and let me know that there was 100 Free-Spins in my account, and asked me if there was anything else they could do for me
https://ibb.co/88r3MyH
https://ibb.co/88r3MyH

For anyone that doesn’t understand how the psychological aspects of gambling addiction works, Mbit would likely be able to provide the most insight on the subject, since they clearly are seasoned at directly exploiting it.
Something as simple as the 100 free-spins is enough to get that dopamine flowing, and you instantly can start connecting the illogical dots that these spins may somehow be able to help you recover from the loss you have now already forgotten about. Say what you will about Mbit, but hats off to their marketing team for knowing how to keep clients.

I understand a business is a business, and at the rate I was losing money, they were protecting an investment.

Fast forward over a year of the continuously worsening of my gambling, where I am trying to chase losses that occurred years ago. I messaged the in-chat support three separate occasions, asking how I could permanently close my account. I stated the amount of money I have been losing is out of control, and clearly made it known that I had a gambling problem, and I needed to stop, and I needed to cut ties with the only source making this possible

They informed to to send an email to Support@mbitcasino.com, and "any feedback would be greatly appreciated."
https://ibb.co/br6Wngf
https://ibb.co/vBddtp5

I sent an email, and I was extremely upset, depressed, and exhausted at this point, and I was confused why I was back at in this situation. Why had I still been able to play here, why was my account not blocked, and why wouldn't they let me self-exclude myself. The email I sent to them showed this frustration.
https://ibb.co/5n4WKW9 > I edited for the language

I was cursing throughout the email, but never directing any insults at the support or anyone specifically. I had reached a breaking point, and since my previous attempt to shut down my account were all but ignored, I thought that I was making it much more clear this time of my mental state that I was at, since in all other conversations, I have been very polite, even when things were not going my way. I was trying to burn the bridge between us, since they refused to close it down on their end.

I do not know how I could be any more clear, the subject of the email was “Close my Account.”

I was angry, but I felt relieved that I could move forward from this living He** I have been living in. I quickly saw an email notification in less than an hour since sending, and was excited to see this chapter of my life closed.

I followed their instructions and sent this to the support email address like they instructed, but for some reason, the VIP host responded to self-exclusion request.

"Darling, I didn't know you felt this way. We're here to take care of you. We reached out to you so many times on email asking if there was anything at all we can do
for you. You only need to let us know, and we will do our best for you. What kind of bonuses are you more interested in? If the current VIP program is not to your liking, we can take you off of it and put you on a more customized deal. Please let us know what bonuses you would like and sure we can customize something fro you. Looking forward to hearing from you."
https://ibb.co/pv173ZL

Are you kidding? What new bonuses do I want? Do I want to be dropped from the VIP and create a tailor made program with incentives I can choose from? Nothing else from that attempt of a cry for help registered with anyone?

This is a direct exploitation, and taking advantage of a player who clearly cannot stop gambling, and is attempting to utilize the resources you have dedicated entire pages and FAQ sections to.

The hardest part of an addiction is supposed to be recognizing you have one, not trying to escape the grasp of the people supplying the incentives to keep you from leaving.

I do not believe that Mbit should be allowed to have this on their site, because it creates an illusion that your gambling addiction may be recognized, recognized, or even helped. I would actually advise anyone looking for the best promotional offers they have seen to just tell support you have a gambling problem. You inbox will not be able to keep up.
https://ibb.co/2KJ2FPS
https://ibb.co/FbTFxvd

I feel as though as soon as I gave them any hint that I was not in control while gambling, I had a target placed on my back.

At this point, I believe I finally found rock bottom. In between the embarrassment of not being able to just stop myself from self imploding, even though logically I knew how every gambling session will end. It never changes.

I deposited in increments of $1,000 and went through about $9,000 in less than two hours. This once again was money which I could not afford to lose, and Mbit was even nice enough to not make me wait for it to be even confirmed on the block chain, since my betting behavior was well known at this point.
I could have cashed out multiple times with a profit. I had my balance over 300 mbits around ten different occasions, but I didn’t see what the point would be.
(I would provide proof, but Mbit is literally nowhere to be found)

It genuinely scared me how little emotions I felt during this. No anger, upset, confusion, nothing. The lack of feeling anything was a sign that I needed to report what was happening to me to someone, or anyone that I might be able to save from falling into this same kind of trap.

I emailed the usual support@mbit.com and politely requested copies of all the communications between us over the years.
https://ibb.co/4dgQ8Fx

I don’t think it had been five minutes since I requested this, that my account was disabled. That was last I would ever hear from Mbit.
I even sent a follow up email explaining more in depth on why I felt like what had happened was not only unethical, but completely against any of the moral obligations they claim to uphold
I do want to note that I originally was only requesting what I lost that night back due to all the factors in play. This is no longer the case.
https://ibb.co/vJ5ncsS

This is when part 2 of my complaint comes into the picture.

While looking for more information on who I can contact regarding complaints, and the protocol in order to do so, while reading through the terms of service, I noticed something that had never once been brought to my attention, or even considered a possibility in all these years
https://ibb.co/tb9jrhs

Excuse me? Players from the United States are what? Not allowed to play with real money? What does that even mean?

If you were to sign up for an account at Mbit Casino account today, you would need to check that little box of their terms and conditions, which tell you that they are in way responsible for you not knowing your own jurisdictions and the laws involving it.
https://ibb.co/Z1d3mkk

Even though most of the online casino’s with United States restrictions in place, you are blocked before you can even load the loading page, this seems like a bit of questionable approach.
https://ibb.co/PtSVkSc

However, this was not the case when I signed up for my account. Thank you to tools like The WayBack Machine, you can use it to visit cached copies of websites from the past, which are preserved in time by Archive.org
https://ibb.co/9yf8bjr

I was allowed to sign up, no checkbox was required, and it was an open registration with no required agreements.

On top of this, the folks at Mbit knew from day one that I was located in Minnesota, which falls in the middle of the United States of America. The first time I ever requested a payout, in order to prove their was no multi-accounting or other prohibited actions being done on my part, I was asked to submit
1) Drivers License (front and back)
2) Bank Statement
3) Passport
4) Utility Bill
5) Screenshot of my home IP address
https://ibb.co/jbtH8Mf
https://ibb.co/YcPZNYz

They were very fast with the process and I had my withdraw completed and was on my way. Never knowing that this entire time, I would technically have been considered someone who was gambling from a jurisdiction which was not allowed.

Randomly, a year or so later, when I attempted to make a withdrawal, but it failed multiple times while trying to submit it. Confused, I contacted support

The problem was that I needed to update my profile, because there was information now missing or something, along those lines. I went to choose United States, and to my surprise, my country was not listed as one of the available options. Confused, I messaged support again, and informed them that I am trying to update my profile, but my country is not listed as one of the options.
There response was, “That is fine, just choose any other one instead.”

https://ibb.co/9qC7Mm0
https://ibb.co/DV5J8bW
https://ibb.co/7KFpR2T

At the time, I never thought anything of it, I assumed it was a glitch or they were still updating a new system they were putting in place. Curious for answers, I went back through the terms of service and noticed the section 9.3 in their Terms of Service:
“The payment team at mBitcasino reserve the right to carry out additional verification procedures for any payout exceeding the equivalent of 1 BTC."

Despite massive and consistent deposits, I never had that big of wins. I think it came down to the fact I played either blackjack, or not the greatest slots, but the largest win I ever had was for around $4,000. (I understand it is a good win, but in the scheme of things, not really)

I have no doubt that if I were to ever have had a substantial win, that this would have all come to haunt me. I would have been not only only accused of being a player from the US (which to be fair, I am) but also have been accused of changing my country to lie about my location.

Is this a common casino practice for casino’s under the Dama NV group, or ones licensed by Antillephone N.V?

It is a direct breach of your license/terms, to instruct players to change their location, to something other than what is their factual location, in order to make a loophole for them to continuing to deposit and play, or am I not understanding something?

What (if any) protections do players who have fallen victim to this have when they hit a jackpot, or even something as small as requesting a copy of transcripts between themselves and the casino?

I am quickly learning the answer to that. This is why I have not been able to get a single response from MbitCasino, even though last week this time, I was averaging an email every few hours from them.

I have been exploited from day one with Mbit Casino. I understand there is always a house edge, and that comes with the territory and something I accepted.

However, I have been exploited by Mbit for a gambling addiction they refused help which would have been a few strokes of on their keyboard.

On top of that, I have also been on the loosing end as a player from a jurisdiction that is not allowed according to their updated terms of service. I do not believe I would have been paid if the amount was high enough. As long as I was depositing massive amounts at my own expense, and withdrawing much smaller amounts infrequently, I worked into their algorithm perfectly, and I was extremely profitable for them.

They never took action, until I questioned what was happening. This was from day one, and as such, I am requested that all of my deposits I made to this casino be returned.

I am requested again for my complete transaction history, and based on your own terms and conditions, this is something which you still should have easily available.
https://ibb.co/DV5J8bW