Gov approved casinos are much worse than I thought

[m2017]

They subsequently closed my account end even confiscated my deposit claiming it was tied to bonuses and was "lost" while in fact it was a separate balance.

It's no surprise, because the casino makes its own rules. They can come up with whatever is convenient and beneficial for them, with absolutely no consequences (negatively) for the casino.

It's funny that they only cared about my account's legitimacy after I won around 200 EUR with their free spins.
My conclusion is to never play again at a full KYC government approved casino. They have so many disadvantages and the government just backs them up instead of actually regulating them.

This affaire you described could be carried out by any other casino, not necessarily one approved by the government casino only.

I just also learned the hard way that KYC is not a protective measure for the player but rather a huge security risk.

Maybe it's time to file a (public) protest against KYC?

[impulse709]

I just also learned the hard way that KYC is not a protective measure for the player but rather a huge security risk. Because how in earth is a casino going to claim to offer services to a single country's residence and then tell me they accept someone with a Philippino email address as the real me??? KYC just enables identity theft in these cases. Especially since someone stealing a certain nationality ID could earn a lot on unutilised casino promos.

Have you only recently come to this conclusion? You should never go through the verification process if you can avoid it or simply find another option. These days, no website can guarantee 100% that your personal data won't be leaked online. Even if the security system is high, people are the weak link. They'll sell your personal information database for money. This has happened many times in my country. Even bank employees hand over millions of their clients' accounts for a cash reward. So, you should think twice about this.

I believe that personal data security is a legitimate concern. But I'm not sure that KYC is completely worthless. But the fact is that some casinos don't secure the data they gather. Players should be careful about submitting sensitive documents, as they can leak anywhere, such as banks and large corporations. A lot of work should be done first before doing a casino verification to check the reputation and history of the casino. While government affiliation does not equate to trustworthiness. Operators with solid security measures and transparency are more. Likely to be considered safe than those lacking transparency or accountability.

[junder]

~snip~

I just also learned the hard way that KYC is not a protective measure for the player but rather a huge security risk. Because how in earth is a casino going to claim to offer services to a single country's residence and then tell me they accept someone with a Philippino email address as the real me??? KYC just enables identity theft in these cases. Especially since someone stealing a certain nationality ID could earn a lot on unutilised casino promos.

The experience you’ve had is exactly what I don’t want to go through myself, which is why I’ve never been interested in free spins, promotions, or anything else casinos offer for free. In fact, I’ve seen several cases where my friends, who were drawn to bonuses, free spins, or promotions, ended up having to deposit their own money and then lost everything, including their accounts.

I don’t know how to tell the difference between trustworthy and untrustworthy casinos other than by trying them out. While reading reviews can help, I think the best way is to actually place a bet at the casino. The bottom line is, in my opinion, we just have to be prepared to lose.

[hyudien]

From your description, it is clear that the casino is trying not to pay out your winnings for reasons that make no sense at all, it is strange that the government in your country approved such a casino to operate in your country. I don't know if you have tried legal action because with government approval there is protection for the players. But whatever it is, from this we learn that even if a government approves a casino to operate in its territory, it doesn't mean that the casino won't cheat, we have to be careful.

[mikel_012]

So what, are you going to take a casino to court over $500?
500 bucks isna substantial amount in both Greece and Brazil but if you lose this amount, the court also has fees which are expensive and it's not worth the money to start a case. Casinos know that most people are broke and that's why they steal little by little. If they steal a few dozen bucks from their millions of users they still become ultra rich.

Yes, this is exactly what I would do

In Brazil we have a court for smaller amounts that goes faster and can be solved cheaply. If it's not solved we can take to the main court

500 bucks is a lot of money in Brazil, this is pretty much the minimum wage that 80% of the population receives because we are a poor country. Everyone losing this in a approved casino will take to court

[moneystery]

That's basically a straight-up scam, because you've already explained that the identity is yours, so how is it possible that they're siding with that person in the Philippines and ignoring your KYC, even though you've already done a live face identification? They should have understood by now that the identity is truly yours. If they still avoid it despite these facts, then it is clear that their intention is simply to not give you the opportunity to withdraw, just using that unreasonable reason.

[DrBeer]

Now you know. There is really no big difference, because even if the casino has a license, if the regulators are not actively monitoring them to make sure they are fair to customers, this kind of thing can still happen.

A licensed casino will not have the confidence to scam if they know the government is serious in punishing those who scam gamblers. What the government really needs to implement is customer protection. If the license is just on paper with no real monitoring, then it has no substance. Casinos can still do random scamming, especially if the amount involved is not that big and gamblers will not think of going into a legal battle.

The existence of a criminal code within a country’s legal framework does not guarantee the absence of criminals. However, filing a report regarding a crime that falls under criminal liability is the solution. For example, I don’t understand—was a complaint filed with the regulatory authorities to verify the casino’s compliance with the legal framework and market regulator requirements? If not, who will then learn of the violation and take action? Simply writing in support of the casino in such a situation is like demanding that a criminal arrest himself.

[Grace333]

That's basically a straight-up scam, because you've already explained that the identity is yours, so how is it possible that they're siding with that person in the Philippines and ignoring your KYC, even though you've already done a live face identification? They should have understood by now that the identity is truly yours. If they still avoid it despite these facts, then it is clear that their intention is simply to not give you the opportunity to withdraw, just using that unreasonable reason.

These casinos knows what they are doing and this is a pure scam attack. I've heard of cases like this several times and when you trace the dots connection these casinos you'll discover that they are new casinos that hasn't gained much of a reputation. It's out duty to scrutinize before you engage in any gambling activity in a casino because what would be the benefit of gambling in a casino that won't let you withdraw if you win, besides the hope of every gambler is that they somehow find luck someday that will change their life and if casinos have malicious behavior like this then it a big red flag.

[LUCKMCFLY]

I can relate to this irony about corrupt government but with good regulated local casino.

We have the most corrupt government in my country history yet we also have much stricter regulation in gambling services because they are using it to generate taxes which will be used for corruption.

Most local casino here has PAGCOR license which they value since their business is on the line if they didn’t comply or if there’s complaints with their services even without losing just email complaints.

It's incredible how much sense things make in this area, that some governments take advantage of it for their own benefit, while others, even if they take advantage, are hit hard with taxes. This means that no matter how good a government tries to portray itself, it's not really interested in the progress of others; it's only interested in whether it can benefit them.

[allthebitandbobs]

Most likely, judging by their practices, they are simple scammers. Numerous facts point to this, but the majority of them are false and unfounded accusations. Personally, I am always wary of bonuses of any kind, as they are a constant source of danger. It is precisely the abuse of bonuses that forces casinos and bookmakers to tighten their rules and resort to strict and not entirely effective practices like KYC. This procedure does not guarantee 100% reliability, but it creates threats to our security.

I'm honestly scared to even submit my documents on these websites because who knows where the documents will be leaked or sold in the future. Every few days I hear XYZ casino's data was leaked and you don't want scammers or hackers to access sensitive data. Hacks and leaks aside, I'm sure some casinos actually sell the data behind closed doors.

Thankfully, the sites I play at atm now don't create much of a problem, perhaps because I'm always losing on the month. I can have 7 winning days but surely 20 losing days and it makes no sense to trouble a cash cow. Interesting to see what happens when I hit a jackpot or some crazy max win on one of those hacksaw slots I keep burning money at.

[rdluffy]

Brazil here
I saw on X a post from a user who won a good amount of money on a government regulated site, about 10k BRL, roughly equivalent to 2k USD
He requested a withdrawal and the bank closed his account

The bank says the deposit didn't arrive and won't provide any further information, and the betting site says it sent the money

I'll try to find the case here
But it's a legal company, theoretically the bank shouldn't have closed the account for that reason

[terrific]

This is an unfortunate event. I think I've seen a thread about the same thoughts before.
About making the users deposit first and when they lose, there will be no trigger to kyc.
But when they win, and they're about to withdraw, that's when the kyc happens and it's even worse on you because they said that someone has already verified under your name.
They can do better than that and do the better way of verification since you're proving them that it is you.

[Wakate]

That's basically a straight-up scam, because you've already explained that the identity is yours, so how is it possible that they're siding with that person in the Philippines and ignoring your KYC, even though you've already done a live face identification? They should have understood by now that the identity is truly yours. If they still avoid it despite these facts, then it is clear that their intention is simply to not give you the opportunity to withdraw, just using that unreasonable reason.

It does not make a sense when you continue to use a casino that don't really worth players' time and effort because this is the kind of outcome that often come out and it can be frustrating after you have left huge amounts on the platform hoping that one day you are going to withdraw it and use the rest to continue gambling. There are bad casinos that don't care of their reputable and they are ready to scam their users.

[AmoreJaz]

That's basically a straight-up scam, because you've already explained that the identity is yours, so how is it possible that they're siding with that person in the Philippines and ignoring your KYC, even though you've already done a live face identification? They should have understood by now that the identity is truly yours. If they still avoid it despite these facts, then it is clear that their intention is simply to not give you the opportunity to withdraw, just using that unreasonable reason.

These casinos knows what they are doing and this is a pure scam attack. I've heard of cases like this several times and when you trace the dots connection these casinos you'll discover that they are new casinos that hasn't gained much of a reputation. It's out duty to scrutinize before you engage in any gambling activity in a casino because what would be the benefit of gambling in a casino that won't let you withdraw if you win, besides the hope of every gambler is that they somehow find luck someday that will change their life and if casinos have malicious behavior like this then it a big red flag.

This is the reason why it is still better to play on trusted and proven casino and bookie. Because you will encounter some hiccups when it is small. You also don't know if your funds are secure or not and so you are agitated thinking that anytime they will confiscate your funds for no reason.

[alegotardo]

~~~

It is not very different from Brazilian laws... here you can always be right, but if the government intends to screw you over, it will hunt for any loophole in the legislation to use against you, and this starts at a police station and extends to a judge's final decision.

However, in the case of licensed casinos, I confess that here the laws have been well implemented and initially we received considerable protection and regulations in favor of users. Several large betting sites with a good international reputation have sought to adapt to Brazilian laws, so I can say that we have sports betting sites with a good reputation that comply with the country's regulations.