Not Listed but Still Banned, Who’s at Fault?

[Outhue]

Both the casino and the gambler is at fault, the casino shouldn't have allow the deposit to happen, there are online casinos that won't even open to banned locations, some will welcome you with "your location isn't supported" and you will have to find another, this is why I believe that the casino isn't a good one.

The gambler should have known better, even if the banned country isn't on the list of unsupported ones on the casino he should have used a VPN or find a online casino that supports the use of VPN and start gambling, and now that the mistake have happened I expect the casino to accept that they also made a mistake and let the gambler withdraw what he have left of the casino, this is one of the few ways to know which online casino can be trusted or not, OP is this just a made up story or it happened for real? You should share the name of the casino of this really happened.

[acroman08]

On the other hand, casinos always say it’s the player’s responsibility to know local laws. Fair enough, but then what’s the point of publishing a restricted countries list if it can be ignored anytime?

It's not that it is ignored, it's just that those countries are specifically restricted based on the license's regulations. Also, I think the "it’s the player’s responsibility to know local laws" is there to protect themselves from possible legal liabilities from gamblers who are from a country where gambling is illegal, but gamble at the casino.

Should the casino at least allow withdrawal of funds before closing the account, or is confiscation justified?

From a gambler's point of view, allowing the withdrawal before closing the account is what should be done, but we all know that is not what is going to happen most of the time.

[noorman0]

-snip-

The gambler checked the rules and wasn’t listed as restricted. The casino allowed registration, deposits, and betting without any issue. If access was not allowed, why wasn’t the country blocked from the start?

Offshore casinos don't operate under the laws of the player's country. Nearly all offshore casino Terms & Conditions include a clause that reads something like:
"Players are solely responsible for ensuring their activities are legal in their respective jurisdictions." I don't know how they determine these restricted countries; whether they actually study each country's regulations or simply get a rarely updated T&C template from somewhere. Regardless, if players with the conditions you're referring to sign up to any casino, they're playing with fire. They're wrong based on their preferences.

[Byebyebtc]

At lest they should give him the money in his wallet, you can't just close a casino like that, at least there should be some warnings concerning the banning of the casino, I think the fault came from the casino,

Meanwhile we all need to understand that not everything else see online is correct, so we should be very cautious about stuffs like these, especially when it has to do with money

[Cointxz]

On the other hand, casinos always say it’s the player’s responsibility to know local laws. Fair enough, but then what’s the point of publishing a restricted countries list if it can be ignored anytime?


Interested to hear your thoughts about this scenario.

They only put list of restricted country based on their license and I believe having a general terms to check for your own country law is fair since you are the one residing on your country which means you should be familiar on your own law.

Should the casino at least allow withdrawal of funds before closing the account, or is confiscation justified?

They should refund the deposit in my opinion.

[Text]

for me the bigger fault leans toward the casino if a casino clearly publishes a restricted countries list & a country is not included it’s only natural for a player to assume they’re allowed, most regular players aren’t legal experts, they rely on the casino’s own filters, KYC checks & country blocks if the casino can accept registration, deposits & bets then suddenly claim your country is illegal only after the fact that feels unfair. I strongly believe confiscation is not justified if there was no fraud, bonus abuse/cheating at the very least the casino should allow withdrawal of the original deposit & any legitimate winnings before closing the account, anything else looks like using local law as an excuse only when it benefits the casino.

[bubilas]

Imagine you’re a gambler from a country where gambling is totally banned, offline and online. You look for an offshore casino, check the restricted countries list, and your country isn’t there. You sign up, deposit, gamble, maybe even win.

Then one day, the casino suddenly bans your account, saying gambling is illegal in your country.

So who’s really at fault here?

The gambler checked the rules and wasn’t listed as restricted. The casino allowed registration, deposits, and betting without any issue. If access was not allowed, why wasn’t the country blocked from the start?

On the other hand, casinos always say it’s the player’s responsibility to know local laws. Fair enough, but then what’s the point of publishing a restricted countries list if it can be ignored anytime?

Should the casino at least allow withdrawal of funds before closing the account, or is confiscation justified?

Interested to hear your thoughts about this scenario.

I think in this case, both the online casino and the gambler are at fault. After all, before starting to gamble, both should know the laws in the gambler's country. I think almost every reasonably intelligent citizen knows the laws in their country of residence. As for the casino, they should have a database that allows them to effectively filter out those visitors to the casino site who are not allowed to gamble. And they can do this, since casinos have sophisticated tools to detect VPNs of any kind.

Therefore, I believe both are most likely at fault.

[YOSHIE]

So who’s really at fault here?

In this case, VPN is clearly at fault, because the application allows gamblers to freely enter casinos, which is clearly declared illegal.

In cases like this, users register and play at a casino where their country is not available/illegal, this situation the user only relies on the trust between the casino and its users, For this reason, it is important to use a casino that is reputable and responsible for its use, regardless of prohibited areas.

Sometimes, I see users who gamble a lot in restricted areas, actually online casinos know, users with their IP dominate in certain areas, that's the importance of casinos being fair and responsible towards their users, regardless of region, unless users do multi-accounts that's another story.

[VashaUdacha777]

Of course, you’re 100% right and you’re not at fault in any way. If I were the casino owner, I’d give you your money back — I think any honest person would do the same. But the casino probably won’t want to return the money, because that could mean breaking the laws of your country. I don’t mean to offend you, but from their point of view it’s probably better to lose one player than to expose themselves to possible legal claims from your country.

[joeperry]

The gambler checked the rules and wasn’t listed as restricted. The casino allowed registration, deposits, and betting without any issue. If access was not allowed, why wasn’t the country blocked from the start?

On the other hand, casinos always say it’s the player’s responsibility to know local laws. Fair enough, but then what’s the point of publishing a restricted countries list if it can be ignored anytime?

Should the casino at least allow withdrawal of funds before closing the account, or is confiscation justified?

This is a nice topic and a tricky question and I'm not sure if this scenario exist. Personally, I think the one that's in fault here is the gambling site first of all they allowed a user to register and to deposit money, second thing is they didn't include his country in the list which is a good basis or evidence, lastly the gambling site can't say that he is not allowed since he is in a country which doesn't allow gambling site, if I am not mistaken only those gambling sites that was regulated by that said country and not a gambling sites offshore (correct me if I'm wrong). But I understand the gambling site since the player can't really gamble and he is covered with that law in his country.
 
For what I see, the gambling site only questions or make a delay since the player wins or try to withdraw big money. The only solution I can see, since both have a mistake is to refund the player's deposit and ban his account.

[danherbias07]

The gambler sure has a fault here. I don't believe he is innocent about the rules of their country, considering there are no available online or offline casinos in their country. That means he is forcing himself to gamble, and he did try to find a way, even though he is knowledgeable about the facts.

Now, there's a chance that an offshore gambling casino missed one or two country to their restricted list. If not, they are also at fault here. Still, it all started from the gambler who looked up what online casinos are not restricting in his country, so it's his fault in the first place. I highly doubt he have no idea about the national rules, especially if everyone near you doesn't gamble at all.  

[TopTort777]

Imagine you’re a gambler from a country where gambling is totally banned, offline and online. You look for an offshore casino, check the restricted countries list, and your country isn’t there. You sign up, deposit, gamble, maybe even win.

Then one day, the casino suddenly bans your account, saying gambling is illegal in your country.

So who’s really at fault here?

The gambler checked the rules and wasn’t listed as restricted. The casino allowed registration, deposits, and betting without any issue. If access was not allowed, why wasn’t the country blocked from the start?

On the other hand, casinos always say it’s the player’s responsibility to know local laws. Fair enough, but then what’s the point of publishing a restricted countries list if it can be ignored anytime?

I think casino isnt completely fair with their customer in this case. If gambler has checked everything and his country was not in the list among restricted countries to gamble, then why casino ban his for gambling from a country where gambling is not allowed? I would say that casino violated their own rules. It would be gamblers fault only if casino made an update on rules, sent global warning about rules change, but gambler ignored that. Or gambler isnt saying full truth.

Just think about: you are from Utah (gambling is illegal there) and they dont let you visit Vegas and play there. Moreover they first let you book hotel, then kick you out because gambling is illegal in your home state. That would be an absurd.

[michellee]

I am wrong in this situation because I break the casinos rules. I know that my country ban gambling but I still gambling. I could not feels mad, sad, or even complain because that is the risk I should take it.

Casinos let all people to register, deposits, and betting but they will check members before they process the withdrawal.

That is the temptation to people not to gambling if they know they are come from the country that ban gambling. If they can thinks and be wise, they will not playing gambling.

Casinos should allows those members to withdraw their deposit without the wins money. But casinos can reject the request for deposits withdrawal if that is list on their T&C.

[EluguHcman]

Imagine you’re a gambler from a country where gambling is totally banned, offline and online. You look for an offshore casino, check the restricted countries list, and your country isn’t there. You sign up, deposit, gamble, maybe even win.

Then one day, the casino suddenly bans your account, saying gambling is illegal in your country.

So who’s really at fault here?

Obviously the gambler is at fault to be blamed. While of us here may come to say it is the casino because they are expecting that the player would not been allowed to be registered on the site and even made the deposit in the first place when they (casino) knows that the region of the user is restricted but they will not consider that the player maneuvered to access the site.

Yes the casino may watch you playing all the smart moves and waits for you to just make deposits or make some wins then at your disposal to make withdrawal they bans your account.
Of course the have all rights to do so and even though the casino is regulated and you take them to the court, I am sure it will turn stupid of you haven trying to explain how you smuggled to create the account and definitely the casino will be backed by the law that states your regional restrictions on the casino.

I am also sure you won't let me penalized by your own government over going against her policy of banning gambling.
Some gamblers actually put themselves in trouble due to ignorant of not abiding to policies then finds it means to lay false accusations on the casinos.

[cryptoaddictchie]

This is quite a case indeed. But I think a fair middle ground is shared responsibility and the player should know local laws, but the casino must also enforce its own rules consistently. If the country wasn’t restricted and the casino allowed full access, confiscation feels unjust, and at minimum withdrawals of legitimate funds should be allowed. The restricted countries list should mean something, otherwise it becomes misleading and damages trust to potential gamblers.

[rdluffy]

In my opinion, in an ideal scenario, the user should ask the casino BEFORE depositing, betting, and withdrawing if their country is not on the list of prohibited countries
Only after receiving a response should they decide

In the scenario you mentioned, the correct thing to do would be for the company to return the money, allow the user to withdraw, and then ban them however they want
but never without allowing the withdrawal

[aioc]

On the other hand, casinos always say it’s the player’s responsibility to know local laws. Fair enough, but then what’s the point of publishing a restricted countries list if it can be ignored anytime?

Should the casino at least allow withdrawal of funds before closing the account, or is confiscation justified?

It's not enough that you play in a casino; it's very important that you read, understand, and stay up to date on the terms of service for the casino you're playing on.
 Platforms like casinos change their terms of service from time to time to keep their platforms compliant and up to date with their license issuer.

Should the casino at least allow withdrawal of funds before closing the account, or is confiscation justified?

It depends on the situation: if registration, depositing, and playing are intentional even if the player is aware of the restriction and disregards the TOS, then confiscation is justified; but if the player was caught on changes to the casinos' TOS, they should let the player withdraw his earnings or remaining funds.

[Slow death]

So who’s really at fault here?

It is very clear that in this case the casino may have made a mistake, because they did not include the player's country in their Terms of Service  in the list of restricted countries when the player created the account.

Therefore, even if the casino had later updated the TOS and updated the list of restricted countries to include the player's country, it would be the casino's obligation to allow the player to withdraw their funds along with any winnings and then close their account, or to continue allowing the player to use the casino.

The gambler checked the rules and wasn’t listed as restricted. The casino allowed registration, deposits, and betting without any issue. If access was not allowed, why wasn’t the country blocked from the start?

They don't block countries because that list of restricted countries is constantly changing, so if casinos keep blocking, they won't remember which countries are no longer on the list and need to unblock them, which would bring much higher costs to the casino.

On the other hand, casinos always say it’s the player’s responsibility to know local laws. Fair enough, but then what’s the point of publishing a restricted countries list if it can be ignored anytime?

Casinos publish this list of restricted countries in their Terms of Service  to comply with the laws. If a government ever targets a casino, they will look at the casino's TOS first.

Should the casino at least allow withdrawal of funds before closing the account, or is confiscation justified?

The casino should allow the player to withdraw all the money they have in their account, even if it's both deposited money and winnings.

[davis196]

Imagine you’re a gambler from a country where gambling is totally banned, offline and online. You look for an offshore casino, check the restricted countries list, and your country isn’t there. You sign up, deposit, gamble, maybe even win.

Then one day, the casino suddenly bans your account, saying gambling is illegal in your country.

So who’s really at fault here?

The gambler checked the rules and wasn’t listed as restricted. The casino allowed registration, deposits, and betting without any issue. If access was not allowed, why wasn’t the country blocked from the start?

On the other hand, casinos always say it’s the player’s responsibility to know local laws. Fair enough, but then what’s the point of publishing a restricted countries list if it can be ignored anytime?

Should the casino at least allow withdrawal of funds before closing the account, or is confiscation justified?

The question is "Why would casino A care about the gambling laws at country B, since the jurisdiction of those gambling restrictions is limited to the territory of that particular country?" Is the casino afraid of being penalized by a country, in which gambling is already banned? That particular country(where gambling is banned) cannot impose any sanctions and penalties to any offshore casino.
Are casinos supposed to act as some sort of "babysitters" for all gamblers? If a gambler wants to gamble by using an offshore casino, he should be free to do so. I think that many casinos are simply using this "you are from a restricted country" rule for their own financial gains.
If the casino is really serious about these rules, then gamblers from those jurisdictions should NOT be allowed to create accounts and deposit crypto.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

Although I have not heard a situation like this where someone was a victim but if the casino didn't list a country where gambling is restricted, it might be a mistake but if they later restrict such player's account, they always have one thing in their ToS that can be used against the player, such as stating that the restrictions is not limited to a country which they might have failed to mention.

If you as the victim wants to sue them, you might not win because of the restriction of gambling in your country and you might also put yourself in trouble since you go against your country policy towards gambling.