Casino ban after TOS violation: can they freeze your deposit too?

[Nightwalker(NW)]

Quick question for discussion.

If you deposit in a casino and later they say you violated the TOS and ban your account, is it fair or even allowed for them to freeze your funds if most of it is just your deposit, not winnings? I get confiscating winnings in case of abuse, but keeping the original deposit as well feels questionable.

What’s your take on this?

If your is already locked and it happens that the gambling site is not a "no kyc gambling site" then there could be possibility but when you fails their ToS and they happens to collect kyc details before having access to your funds you must pass all these verification before you could have access to your money.
At this juncture, you should be seeing that all things boils down to not having a general access to gambling site and to that of  the funds you were having inside and even though it's yours you won't still have that access to your money.

[fullfitlarry]

Quick question for discussion.

If you deposit in a casino and later they say you violated the TOS and ban your account, is it fair or even allowed for them to freeze your funds if most of it is just your deposit, not winnings? I get confiscating winnings in case of abuse, but keeping the original deposit as well feels questionable.

What’s your take on this?

I think casinos will have to return the money and not confiscated it. That is if they have a refund policy in itself. But if we have to read some casinos TOS, They don’t explicitly mention deposit refunds, so mostly this is the catch here. So I guess it boils down again to us, to read the fine print and maybe ask their support staff about it before depositing to them.

It's better to be clear as we don't want our money to be confiscated because of technically. But in any case our funds are confiscated, it's going to be a long battle between us and the casino.

[qwertyup23]

Quick question for discussion.

If you deposit in a casino and later they say you violated the TOS and ban your account, is it fair or even allowed for them to freeze your funds if most of it is just your deposit, not winnings? I get confiscating winnings in case of abuse, but keeping the original deposit as well feels questionable.

What’s your take on this?

It depends but generally yes especially if you consider the gravity of the offense you violated.

As a general rule, online gambling casinos have the power and the authority to freeze your assets if you violated any of the provisions stipulated under their ToS. Depending on the gravity of the offense violated, you may or may not retrieve your funds especially if it involves account sharing, VPN services, etc. However, you can always contest this rule by reaching out to their CS agent if they decided to freeze your funds.

This is actually a very important discussion since it happens all the time here. I’ve seen a lot of scam accusations related to this, where a user gets caught violating some part of the TOS, whatever it is, the account gets closed and the funds are confiscated as well. Sometimes casinos start acting like they’re the government, but they shouldn’t, especially if the violation doesn’t logically warrant confiscation. It’s not that hard to understand, if they want to keep their reputation intact, they should be honest and not use the TOS to take advantage of gamblers’ ignorance.

Well, I would argue that whatever is stated on the ToS, the gambler should be bound by the rules even if the violation is not equivalent to the penalty sanctioned. At the end of the day, agreeing to their ToS is considered as a contract of adhesion- you always have the choice whether or not to register and be a member of their casino.

While this may be the case, reaching out to their CS agent would be the best course of action to at least reconsider their decision and allow you to withdraw your funds.

[coinlary]

I would say it depends on what was actually violated in their TOS, but let's be honest, there are some cases where I think only the account should have been banned. Winnings could be held too, as they come from the casino, yet I think they can just let the deposit go back to the gambler in cases like more than one account, VPN use, and some minor violations. I know rules are meant to be followed, but maybe if they can just let those be or probably make the violations reports be  more transparent, so there won't be vague accusations of casino's stealing gamblers' funds.

Nevertheless, there's  another thing to consider, as good as this might look, it introduce Zero risks to cheaters  and still gives room to more cheating attempts since they wont risk anything if they get caught.

[suzanne5223]

Honestly, this is also the situation of "not your keys, not your coins", and if you ask me. I will tell you that the casino has every right to freeze the deposited funds because the rules are set in stone, and if you must use a gambling platform, you must always respect their TOS. But we have a situation on this forum where some casinos give back the user's original deposited funds sometime ago (I don'tremember the brand name again), and I believe this is always a 1% chance though.

[Hispo]

Quick question for discussion.

If you deposit in a casino and later they say you violated the TOS and ban your account, is it fair or even allowed for them to freeze your funds if most of it is just your deposit, not winnings? I get confiscating winnings in case of abuse, but keeping the original deposit as well feels questionable.

What’s your take on this?

The assumption when comes to casinos and bookies is that having all the funds of the account frozen, both the initial deposit and also money earned from gambling. It pretty much depends on the casino itself and their policies on refunds and management of money on frozen/banned accounts.

The ideal scenario would be having our accounts to be set on withdrawal-onky mode, so we can get our money back easily, but that is not the standard from what I have read around on the internet.

[TastyChillySauce00]

As far as i know casino will still let you to withdraw even when your account is suspended by violating the TOS. Different casino, different rules. Some may give your money back, but there is also a casino that witheld its user's fund, though mostly of it's related to the deposit funds, not winning.

[Yaunfitda]

Quick question for discussion.

If you deposit in a casino and later they say you violated the TOS and ban your account, is it fair or even allowed for them to freeze your funds if most of it is just your deposit, not winnings? I get confiscating winnings in case of abuse, but keeping the original deposit as well feels questionable.

What’s your take on this?

And probably this is why casinos have TOS, to shield themselves in this of situation I'm not saying that this is bad, but most likely they have everything under their control here. They are the one that can only decide whether they will give back your deposit or not. Or maybe in their TOS, it's not very clear with regards to refunding gamblers that might have violated their TOS. Maybe the casino will give you a chance and ask for a KYC, nevertheless, I'm under the impression that since it violated their TOS, they have all the power to confiscate our money.

[Maslate]

Maybe the casino will give you a chance and ask for a KYC, nevertheless, I'm under the impression that since it violated their TOS, they have all the power to confiscate our money.

Sometimes people get misled into thinking that KYC can protect them from violations, but that’s not really how it works. If you violate the TOS, KYC won’t save you unless the violation is directly related to KYC itself. If it’s bonus abuse, value betting, arbitrage, or anything similar, your funds will still be confiscated, even if your account is fully verified, VIP level, and has passed KYC already.

[danherbias07]

It depends on the violated terms.

If a gambler violates the Anti-Money Laundering Act, then the funds will probably be frozen. You don't need to win just to do that. If there's no wagering requirement for withdrawal, then a gambler could just go in and out like washing his illegal money in exchange for clean money.
There's also the violation of dual accounts. It could be used for cheating and be used to take advantage of live games for the purpose of increasing the wagered amount, so they can get a higher amount of bonuses from the gambling site's promotions.

If it's a new account with no connection and all it has done is deposit money, then that could be questionable if the account was frozen.

[rojan]

Maybe the casino will give you a chance and ask for a KYC, nevertheless, I'm under the impression that since it violated their TOS, they have all the power to confiscate our money.

Sometimes people get misled into thinking that KYC can protect them from violations, but that’s not really how it works. If you violate the TOS, KYC won’t save you unless the violation is directly related to KYC itself. If it’s bonus abuse, value betting, arbitrage, or anything similar, your funds will still be confiscated, even if your account is fully verified, VIP level, and has passed KYC already.

I mostly agree with that view. KYC is not a protection layer against the TOS violations, it merely identifies identity. In case there is an example of bonus abuse, arbitrage or any other exploitation that a casino can demonstrate, they typically get to reverse win and even freeze deposit whether or not it is verified or a VIP. Qualified casinos must however behave in a transparent manner and in a balanced way. In most controversial situations it is the just course of action to refund the initial deposit and take the profits, not to take everything without any perusing facts.

[IvugeoEvolutionCoin]

Honestly, this is also the situation of "not your keys, not your coins", and if you ask me. I will tell you that the casino has every right to freeze the deposited funds because the rules are set in stone, and if you must use a gambling platform, you must always respect their TOS. But we have a situation on this forum where some casinos give back the user's original deposited funds sometime ago (I don'tremember the brand name again), and I believe this is always a 1% chance though.

I mostly agree with your view. After the money has been deposited, it is the casino that holds the money in custody, and thus not your keys not your coins. In case the violation of the TOS has been demonstrated clearly, it is normally in their rights to freeze even the initial deposit. Return of deposits is an exemption where the goodwill or reputation is concerned. They are not common and mostly rely on the seriousness and facts of the violation. It is necessary to read terms attentively and not to go through gray areas.

[CryptoYar]

Although it seems unfair to lose your first money when your account is locked, it usually happens to casinos in order to follow tough anti money hiding rules or as punishment for breaking their rules. Known and well ruled casinos will usually give back your money in case you simply made small technical error, but will keep your money in case they think that you have used fake ID, or have done serious cheating.

The fairness of case mostly depends on place of casino and if it is licensed one it can be challenged by high level law makers, while outside places usually keep money without any clear reasons. These tough rules are finally meant to scare people away from trying to cheat, but you must look into rules of the ruling group that your casino falls under to see whether you have chance of getting back your money.

[Kasabus]

Although it seems unfair to lose your first money when your account is locked, it usually happens to casinos in order to follow tough anti money hiding rules or as punishment for breaking their rules.

That’s not usually what we see here though. Most of the time it’s not really about KYC or anti–money laundering issues, it’s more about gamblers being accused of cheating. But if the issue is purely KYC-related, then I think the casino should also be questioned. In the first place, they already allowed the gambler to play, with no clear timing on when KYC would be required. The problem is the timing, because a lot of the time KYC only gets triggered after the player wins big. And then it’s not just basic KYC anymore, they start asking for bank statements and other documents, which is where things start to feel off for many players.

[fortunecrypto]

If you deposit in a casino and later they say you violated the TOS and ban your account, is it fair or even allowed for them to freeze your funds if most of it is just your deposit, not winnings? I get confiscating winnings in case of abuse, but keeping the original deposit as well feels questionable.

You have to be aware of the casinos' terms so you will not proceed with a deposit. Depending on the violation, you may not be allowed to register or deposit, so doing so will result in forfeiture of your deposit.
When you are not allowed to join, or you are located in a restricted location, and you used a VPN to cloak your location you are likley to get a ban and confiscate your deposit, so its possible that they will confiscate your deposit because if they allow you to withdraw it many will exploit this, this is a deterent for people who will try to challenge the rules.

[Samlucky O]

Quick question for discussion.

If you deposit in a casino and later they say you violated the TOS and ban your account, is it fair or even allowed for them to freeze your funds if most of it is just your deposit, not winnings? I get confiscating winnings in case of abuse, but keeping the original deposit as well feels questionable.

What’s your take on this?

i dont think if the casino have the right to freeze your deposited fund if you violated the rules or TOS. they can only freeze or confiscate your wining and deposit if the rules stated so and you fail the rule. but in the absent of that, they have no right to freeze your deposited fund. i have not fall victim of this, otherwise i would have had an experience to back it up.

[Darker45]

I'm afraid the common thing that happens is that the casino retains the funds. It could change depending on whether the user reaches out and provides a good explanation. If the user convinced the casino, the funds might be returned. However, it might also depend on which specific term in the ToS the user violated. Funds deposited from suspicious wallets or suspected to be proceeds from a crime might not be released.

Unfortunately, however, many casinos are probably treating locked funds as free money. Locking of accounts sometimes even appears arbitrary. Of course, that's unfair and illegal. But who sues them, anyway?

[tread93]

If it's just a deposit and you have not won at all or benefited from the casino, then they are not supposed to seize your fund; they should return it back to you and close your account forever depending on how strong the rules broken are.

Another thing again is having the person check the casino TOS and what their punishment for breaking it looks like, or they just pop up and decide to confiscate your deposit. If it's part of their rules, then it's a legal way of stealing, but if it's not and you are sure you have not benefited from the casino, then they are shady.

The question is what type of behavior would be considered grounds for totally closing your account forever? Like VPN into a casino that is only meant for a certain region that you are not in and they find out ? Or perhaps using a totally fake identity in order to gamble in their casino and then it doesn't pass the KYC and AML checks? To a degree the casinos depending on where you are are very strict with these types of things I have seen and read about here in the forum and it is unwise to conduct yourself in that manner. Bet within your means or else the casinos get mean!!!!

[yahoo62278]

Quick question for discussion.

If you deposit in a casino and later they say you violated the TOS and ban your account, is it fair or even allowed for them to freeze your funds if most of it is just your deposit, not winnings? I get confiscating winnings in case of abuse, but keeping the original deposit as well feels questionable.

What’s your take on this?

IMO if you knowingly broke their toS, you forfeit any money you deposited or won. If they wanna be nice and give you your deposit back, that's up to them. People breaking the terms knowing they will get their depo back in a worst case scenario doesn't stop them from trying over n over to break the rules. Has to be consequences.

[TypoTonic]

If you deposit in a casino and later they say you violated the TOS and ban your account, is it fair or even allowed for them to freeze your funds if most of it is just your deposit, not winnings? I get confiscating winnings in case of abuse, but keeping the original deposit as well feels questionable.

What’s your take on this?

I've said this once on a different thread before -- if you sign up/create an account to play in an online casino, you basically agree to all of their terms. So if it explicitly state that deposits will be confiscated in case of violations, then you can't really argue about that. But if it doesn't and the casino's terms are vague, then maybe you can fight against it.