Coinbase freezing funds because there's no official documents of betting.

[o48o]

I found this from reddit:



This is one reason why one should keep a detailed spreadsheet of your betting history.

Let me start by approaching this in good faith and assume that user is not lying. Then only thing that would work their favor is to keep as detailed data of their betting history as possible.

I believe that in regulated casinos, you can ask for all betting data. At least EU citizens have law on their side and casinos are required to give all the data they have about the user activity if they choose to request it. That can take couple of months, but resolving these issues take time anyway.

Either case, imho the issue to resolve is with the casino, not with the exchange. Exchange is just following the law and won't be accepting vague data, because it's their license on the line.

But in this case, i genuinely believe this is about money laundering. Because why wouldn't the user contact to police or a lawyer if the money is legally theirs?

[Oshosondy]

Why did he keep up to $900000 on Coinbase? They will see the warning, but they will not listen until they are affected.

Another thing is that crypto users know that Coinbase is hostile against gambling sites. People always prefer avoiding sending coins to Coinbase directly from gambling sites even if the gambling site is legally operating, Coinbase have seized many like that before.

But in this case, i genuinely believe this is about money laundering. Because why wouldn't the user contact to police or a lawyer if the money is legally theirs?

Not having evidence still does not prove anything, but it could be the reason.

[Iranus]

Let me start by approaching this in good faith and assume that user is not lying. Then only thing that would work their favor is to keep as detailed data of their betting history as possible.

This user claimed to have won $900000 from offshore sportsbook.

However checking his past post history revealed the actual truth.

This guy had been betting from USA using VPN and fake ID!

Consequently no casino would provide him with official betting history and documentation. lol

[Hispo]

This is very bad PR for Coinbase, honestly. But also, let us be honest with ourselves. Who will have allowed to have so much money in a centralized exchange like Coinbase? All that money was supposed to be transferred to a personal wallet. Anyways, it is not the person's fault. It is Coinbase's fault. And also, I believe the casino should take some responsibility and give us some kind of report so we can justify our winnings through the years so cases like this doesn't happen anymore. It's only my personal opinion about this situation.

[Orpichukwu]

Another thing is that crypto users know that Coinbase is hostile against gambling sites. People always prefer avoiding sending coins to Coinbase directly from gambling sites even if the gambling site is legally operating, Coinbase have seized many like that before.

Exactly the part I went searching for reference to tell the op about; even if such betting history is saved and in place, there is a high chance the money will never be released to him because it’s from a place whose service prohibited its use.

Unlawful Gambling: Lotteries; bidding fee auctions; sports forecasting or odds making; fantasy sports leagues with cash prizes; internet gaming; contests; sweepstakes; or games of chance that are not sanctioned by a governmental body or regulatory authority.

[aioc]

But in this case, i genuinely believe this is about money laundering. Because why wouldn't the user contact to police or a lawyer if the money is legally theirs?

If it's money laundering, he will not post this online to ask for advice; there was advice on Reddit coming from someone with similar issues, but he did not ask for a lawyer's help because of the 25% cut and was advised to hire a lawyer on an hourly basis.

There is no other recourse here but to get a good lawyer, because he broke Coinbase's rule, even if he submitted data of his betting, it will not work, as Coinbase clearly stated in their term that they won't allow funds coming from gambling sites, he is lucky to get even half of his earnings, can't imagine someone with this huge amount and yet ignore the terms of the exchange.

[Cantsay]

This is one reason why one should keep a detailed spreadsheet of your betting history.

Will this really be of help to the gambler? Remember that this is a self-made spreadsheet and, as such, it holds no legal weight and can't even be used by the gambler in this type of situation.

If the money is genuine, then the gambler should contact the police, as you suggested, or a lawyer and see if they can figure out a way to help him get it, because, as it stands now, he will only just keep moving back and forth with the exchange and won't see any positive results, their hands are tied, like they said, unless he can prove it, which the casino isn't helping much with in that aspect as well.

[Churchillvv]

Coinbase already had enough suspicion about the source of his funds and not just on this single occasion maybe there has been some speculation about him before they locked the account but truth is that they would never have contacted him about it before the action. However, with the uncovering that he uses fake ID which that is supposed to be an offence he has no chance of getting that money back. But on the side of coinbase it very much a bad review for them because locking someone’s funds just because they don’t agree with the prove even though it exist doesn’t seem well with me since it just the fact that he can’t obtain for a year but has obtained a level of evidence it’s then unfair in my opinion.

[BALIK]

Are you referring to requesting data from casinos under EU law? lol

However offshore and unregulated casino do not operate under any licensed regulator.

They never provide you proper AML documentation any way.

Moreover it is nothing new that Coinbase consider the acceptance of fund originating directly or indirectly from unregulated gambling to be clear violation of its TOS

[coin-investor]

This is irresponsible handling of one's funds, keeping it from an exchange that prohibits funds coming from gambling platforms. Betting history will not help; his only option is to get a lawyer and exhaust every possible means to get the funds back, but I doubt if he'll get the whole amount. Coinbase has a good reason to withhold it, or they may send a portion of the funds for consideration, depending on how the lawyer handles the case.
This is another case of not reading the terms and not having a method to safely store funds coming from a gambling platform

[o48o]

This user claimed to have won $900000 from offshore sportsbook.

However checking his past post history revealed the actual truth.

This guy had been betting from USA using VPN and fake ID!

Consequently no casino would provide him with official betting history and documentation. lol

With the same freaking account? They aren't even trying anymore as every redditor knows that you can dig up deleted posts in reddit.

I thought it was probably money laundering, just because so many things pointed to it already. But i also thought it's not worth my time and effort to prove it, because surely they would try to hide it. But it was just lazy venting of criminal who got caught.
 
Anyway, thanks for the update.

[nelson4lov]

This is very bad PR for Coinbase, honestly. But also, let us be honest with ourselves. Who will have allowed to have so much money in a centralized exchange like Coinbase? All that money was supposed to be transferred to a personal wallet. Anyways, it is not the person's fault. It is Coinbase's fault. And also, I believe the casino should take some responsibility and give us some kind of report so we can justify our winnings through the years so cases like this doesn't happen anymore. It's only my personal opinion about this situation.

A lot of people does this thing where they use an exchange account as the primary holding area for their funds. My best guess is that he has been keeping funds on coinbase over the years and probably got too relaxed forgetting the fact that the size of funds starts attracting more scrutiny eyes when it's starts getting bigger.

The sportsbook provides history according to him just not official documents that states his winnings.

[Joy- maker]

Let me start by approaching this in good faith and assume that user is not lying. Then only thing that would work their favor is to keep as detailed data of their betting history as possible.

This user claimed to have won $900000 from offshore sportsbook.

However checking his past post history revealed the actual truth.

This guy had been betting from USA using VPN and fake ID!

Consequently no casino would provide him with official betting history and documentation. lol

At this point it is the user's fault, if his country was restricted from betting on the platform why use a VPN and fake ID to bypass the restriction? I don't know why people can't just respect the terms and conditions of a platform instead of trying to find their way around the restrictions.  Now that his funds has been frozen by coinbase, I'm sure he might have learned his lesson and will think twice before attempting to bypass such restrictions again.

[batang_bitcoin]

This user claimed to have won $900000 from offshore sportsbook.

However checking his past post history revealed the actual truth.

This guy had been betting from USA using VPN and fake ID!

Consequently no casino would provide him with official betting history and documentation. lol

This is another case that he shouldn't used fake IDs for verifying in that casino for kyc. But I think the most important part here that Coinbase doesn't want to release his money where in fact that they should have asked it just after the deposit. For that poster, he should have knew it as well that centralized exchanges are very strict with their rule that they don't like receiving funds from casinos. It can go into a long battle that requires good lawyer on the poster's side to take that money out of CB.

[o48o]

At this point it is the user's fault, if his country was restricted from betting on the platform why use a VPN and fake ID to bypass the restriction? I don't know why people can't just respect the terms and conditions of a platform instead of trying to find their way around the restrictions.  Now that his funds has been frozen by coinbase, I'm sure he might have learned his lesson and will think twice before attempting to bypass such restrictions again.

Because that user was laundering money. You can't really do that that by respecting terms and conditions. And this is not happening because of some Terms and conditions, but because of why those terms exist in the first place.

If that user would have legal rights for that money, why they would risk it trying to evade regulations in the first place?

[bhadz]

Because that user was laundering money. You can't really do that that by respecting terms and conditions. And this is not happening because of some Terms and conditions, but because of why those terms exist in the first place.

If that user would have legal rights for that money, why they would risk it trying to evade regulations in the first place?

I am of the same opinion. If I genuinely won that money from a casino then that I'd proceed with the next things about what they're asking me and will do everything I can just to provide it. But from the beginning, he used the casino to launder money. Provided fake IDs and thought that he can get away with it. He just placed himself in a bigger problem by using services like Coinbase's because gambling deposits are strictly prohibited by its management based on its Coinbase Prohibited & Conditional Use Policy.

You may not use your Coinbase Account to engage in the following categories of activity:

• Unlawful Gambling: Lotteries; bidding fee auctions; sports forecasting or odds making; fantasy sports leagues with cash prizes; internet gaming; contests; sweepstakes; or games of chance that are not sanctioned by a governmental body or regulatory authority.

[Joy- maker]

At this point it is the user's fault, if his country was restricted from betting on the platform why use a VPN and fake ID to bypass the restriction? I don't know why people can't just respect the terms and conditions of a platform instead of trying to find their way around the restrictions.  Now that his funds has been frozen by coinbase, I'm sure he might have learned his lesson and will think twice before attempting to bypass such restrictions again.

Because that user was laundering money. You can't really do that that by respecting terms and conditions. And this is not happening because of some Terms and conditions, but because of why those terms exist in the first place.

If that user would have legal rights for that money, why they would risk it trying to evade regulations in the first place?

The situation may involve more than simply violating the platform terms,  especially if it was an attempt to conceal the source of the funds.  IMO,  I will also suggest that we be more careful about assuming the user was doing laundering money without concrete evidence.  And if you see things from my perspective,  you will understand that simply using a VPN and fake to violate geographical restriction is already a serious violation and can create additional problems regardless of the reason behind it.  My own is that,  if a platform doesn't permit you to use their service, the safest approach is to respect the the restriction instead of trying to bypass it using a VPN and fake ID.

[uneng]

Such regulated centralized wallets/exchanges are well known for difficulting access between their customers and gambling platforms, so they should be completely discouraged for gamblers. For someone who has 900,000$ in holdings, it shouldn't be an issue to acquire a hardware wallet which he completely own the keys and access to the money. It would have saved him that fortune, besides avoiding the regrets, frustration and headaches which must have come in the sequence.

It's an important warning for everyone: be careful where you deposit your money, because you may be unable to retrieve it later...

[tread93]

Why did he keep up to $900000 on Coinbase? They will see the warning, but they will not listen until they are affected.

Another thing is that crypto users know that Coinbase is hostile against gambling sites. People always prefer avoiding sending coins to Coinbase directly from gambling sites even if the gambling site is legally operating, Coinbase have seized many like that before.

But in this case, i genuinely believe this is about money laundering. Because why wouldn't the user contact to police or a lawyer if the money is legally theirs?

Not having evidence still does not prove anything, but it could be the reason.

Yeah I mean who in their right mind would keep that kind of coin on an exchange if it wasn’t just to get in and get out or do a conversion or a transfer etc etc. Coinbase is definitely strict with this and it’s too bad that the Reddit OP didn’t think to just have these sent to his own wallet not tied to exchange. It’s a crying shame.

[yahoo62278]

My honest opinion is Coinbase is a shit site with too strict regulations. They are giving me a hard time over $1800, literally less than $2000 and they want all these 1040 forms, bank statement, proof of wealth bs. I told em kiss my ass and close my account if they want all that over 2k.

Now if this guy had 900k in his account, how did he not get any warning before building the balance to that amount? They were after documents from me within a week.