Stake.com blocked my account and is withholding my balance of $5000

[aega]

Stake.com is blocking my account and not returning the deposited money quoting false compliance reasons. Are they even allowed to withhold user's money ? If compliance was an issue they should never have let user deposit money without proper checks in place. They first let the user deposit the money and then block the account. This amount to stealing. And this looks like a pattern across accounts with balances.

At first, I was uncomfortable sharing the amount of documentation that was requested by them. ID proof, Address proof, Source of funds proof. I'm not even sure if they are going to safely dispose that information off after verifying but then I was desperate since my money is stuck. I submitted the requested documentation. The submissions were rejected multiple time quoting ambiguous reason - please upload a clear selfie with acceptable id that clearly shows your details. I have submitted acceptable IDs with HD resolutions each time and yet they reject the verification each time.

What should my course of action be from here?


Also, are they not making enough money off the casino ? Why steal user's money ?

[acroman08]

You should provide evidence supporting your claims, like the conversation you've had with their support team.

just curious, when did you create your account on stake.com? because if I remember corerctly or at least I have read from posts here in the forum that they have updated their policy and new accounts needs to do KYC verification before being able to create an account.

What should my course of action be from here?

you can try posting this on casino.guru or askgamblers.com. stake.com hasn't addressed issues posted here in the forum for a long time now so they most likely won't reply to this thread too.

[JeromeTash]

First thing you have to do to is create a proper scam accusation. You haven't shown screenshots of your blocked account, the balance in there, the transaction IDs of your deposits, the screenshots of your chat with the support etc

Also, which kind of games did you play. Was it casino like games? There could be an alternative of using another platform to settle down your dispute with the casino in case you feel like you are being treated unfairly.

[aega]

Proofs that the money is withheld:

https://imgur.com/a/w66iefj

Chat history:

https://pastebin.com/LU38a4fG

Rejection email: https://imgur.com/a/nXwkeaa

Funny thing about the rejection email is that they sent me this response after I submited my invoices for the last 3 months. They asked for payslips but I said I'm a freelancer and I send invoices to my clients and I backed it up with my bank statements where the invoice amount was credited. What could be deceiving about an invoice that I create myself on behalf of my own company!!!

TLDR: I have submitted all kinds of proofs including tax statements, investment documents, invoices, bank statements. I wonder if I'm applying for a passport or gambling at a casino!! Even after all that, they rejected my KYC stating that I've submitted deceiving documents. Every verification level was a nightmare to deal with. But I managed to get 3 levels verified and the 4th level, they rejected. Result: 5000$ stuck in the account. Tried AskGamblers but they said they don't help with KYC related queries. Feeling dejected and hopeless. I went to the casino to let some steam off but this is what I got in return!! Well done stake!!

[BlackyJacky]

What does the Curacao Gaming Control Board say?

They gave a license to the website stake.com

[JeromeTash]

I have read through the conversation, and it must be painful going back and forth with no positive outcomes for you. I know these services do have terms and conditions, but I sometimes don't understand why they would just hold onto the customer's money for let's say failure to verify. A better approach would be to block the user's account, except the withdrawal function. That way, if the user fails to verify, they can just withdraw the money the deposited and have the account closed

Have you tried casino.guru? The KYC verification dispute is very sensitive and requires a mediator that has access to the documents presented by the accuser and the evidence presented by the casino. That is pretty hard to solve here.

[aega]

Thank you for your empathy!! It was indeed very painful waiting for days to get an outcome and resubmitting the documents again and again. The worst part is that I've submitted the same utility bills every time and finally I had to explain to them that the bill issued was from a credible provider and point to their website to get them approved.

Their KYC process is questionable to say the least! Also, who does manual KYC in this age of realtime verifications. The whole KYC process is intentionally designed to make user go through a painful process and deny funds in the name of rejection.

[Mahdirakib]

Thank you for your empathy!! It was indeed very painful waiting for days to get an outcome and resubmitting the documents again and again. The worst part is that I've submitted the same utility bills every time and finally I had to explain to them that the bill issued was from a credible provider and point to their website to get them approved.

So, what is the current situation of your issue? Have you completed all the steps of KYC verification successfully which they requested? According to the chat history and the email screenshot, your account has been deleted/blocked permanently, and that's their final decision. I can see that 'JeromeTash' has already suggested you to submit a complaint at CasinoGuru. Stake team usually replies to KYC related complaints on CasinoGuru. You can try your luck there if your issue hasn't been resolved yet.

[aega]

It hasn't been resolved. I've raised a complaint on casino.guru, thanks to your suggestions. I hope to get an answer there!!

However, I believe this is such an illegal practice!! I guess this is why they register in countries like Curaćao where there is no proper enforcement of the law.

[JeromeTash]

It hasn't been resolved. I've raised a complaint on casino.guru, thanks to your suggestions. I hope to get an answer there!!

However, I believe this is such an illegal practice!! I guess this is why they register in countries like Curaćao where there is no proper enforcement of the law.

I suppose the complaint you raised hasn't been approved and published yet?

I saw another recent case similar to yours, only that the other player has $45K in the accounts. They blocked his account, kept asking for KYC over and over again and keep giving the same reason of falsified documents. Let see how it gets solved, and hopefully yours also gets published soon.