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

[$crypto$]

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

Keeping notes in spreadsheets will not be a proof to the platform except for personal notes.
I do not know if someone has the intention of laundering money through sports betting and stored on the exchange, but it makes no sense at all with the amount instead choose the exchange as storage.
As we know Coinbase is a super strict exchange rules they have, anyone who has constraints will not be responded quickly, regardless of the case is true or not, Coinbase is bad.

[FinneysTrueVision]

Coinbase would have easily known that the funds came from Stake, but seeing that the user was from a location where Stake isn’t available and they were depositing hundreds of thousands of dollars, it would have raised some major red flags. Coinbase wasn’t going to be complicit in their tax evasion. I can’t really blame them for restricting their account until he could provide evidence that everything was legit. The user should have known better and sought different means to cash out their winnings.

[Tungbulu]

Coinbase would have easily known that the funds came from Stake, but seeing that the user was from a location where Stake isn’t available and they were depositing hundreds of thousands of dollars, it would have raised some major red flags. Coinbase wasn’t going to be complicit in their tax evasion. I can’t really blame them for restricting their account until he could provide evidence that everything was legit. The user should have known better and sought different means to cash out their winnings.

It’s difficult to avoid running into these kind of problems when people withdraw huge funds into a centralized wallets. They could’ve simply just made their withdrawals to a self custodial wallet and then to whichever place they want from there. Anyone who’s been around the space for long should understand that these kinds of routine checks are normal for exchanges, especially when huge amounts are involved.

[xenomorfo]

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?

crazy, this is one of the reasons why it is absolutely better to never use exchanges
1 million is a lot of money!
I can't imagine how angry the user who suffered this theft is, as long as it's true
Nowadays there are many mythomaniacs who write invented stories for 10 minutes of fame.

[traderethereum]

Why he choose Coinbase to keep all of his money? If he thinks that he can sell it right away after he had the money on his account, might not a good decision to use Coinbase. He can save on hardware  or other wallet and keep there.

He already called lawyer but they asking about 25% for recovery. I think that is fine as long as he can get the rest.

The strange is he can't provide the document and say that the casino can't fills it. He can asks casino to send the document so he can provide that into his report so Coinbase can see that he trying to fills the requirement.

But we don't know the truth behind that story so we just assume many things. I don't know where this story will go but seems that he could be difficult to take the money.

[Bitcoin Smith]

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?

Even if the user didn't launder money and made deposits from any gambling site the coinbase will simply terminate that account because if we read the terms of coinbase where it will be mentioned clearly, deposits from gambling/betting platforms are prohibited.

But if someone made a deposit, they terminate the account and let the users withdraw the balance, not freeze it, we have hundreds of cases that closed their account so the user is simply lying here.

[TastyChillySauce00]

What a dumb guy. Donating almost 1 million of money to the coinbase just because he didn't read coinbase prohibited use and policy.

What type of activity is prohibited?

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.

https://www.coinbase.com/legal/prohibited_use

I don't think that guy will get his money back. Even if he's fulfilling all of data requested from Coinbase, and it seems his money potentially being considered as a money laundry.

[bakasabo]

What a dumb guy. Donating almost 1 million of money to the coinbase just because he didn't read coinbase prohibited use and policy.

What type of activity is prohibited?

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.

https://www.coinbase.com/legal/prohibited_use

I don't think that guy will get his money back. Even if he's fulfilling all of data requested from Coinbase, and it seems his money potentially being considered as a money laundry.

He is typical representative of most users who post casino scam accusation here. Cheating with casino rules additional not reading them, then going online to announce how unfair casino (or coinbase) is and how he got scammed. I think there is a high chance that he has used also fake ID to verify in Coinbase. Now the cherry on the cake - this so reckless to hold such a huge amount of money in CEX and hope to use those funds or withdraw them to bank account. 

[Abdul Sami786]

Coinbase would have easily known that the funds came from Stake, but seeing that the user was from a location where Stake isn’t available and they were depositing hundreds of thousands of dollars, it would have raised some major red flags. Coinbase wasn’t going to be complicit in their tax evasion. I can’t really blame them for restricting their account until he could provide evidence that everything was legit. The user should have known better and sought different means to cash out their winnings.

It’s difficult to avoid running into these kind of problems when people withdraw huge funds into a centralized wallets. They could’ve simply just made their withdrawals to a self custodial wallet and then to whichever place they want from there. Anyone who’s been around the space for long should understand that these kinds of routine checks are normal for exchanges, especially when huge amounts are involved.

Even in today's modern era, a large amount of money becomes a problem because many glitches occur, especially in casinos, because there are many casinos in which our withdrawal is stopped and people's trust are terminated.  We believe that problems arise, but in this way, a problem arises for a good and large amount of money, which is quite a risky task.  But still, they should also pay attention to this so that in the future, if such a large amount of money comes, they will also have to face the same problem, so it is better to find a solution to it.  Although some time may be needed so that it does not become a problem for them and those who have money should not be afraid for their money.

[SFR10]

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

Or make sure not to use an address from a centralized platform as if it's your personal wallet ^{[especially if it clearly mentions prohibiting gambling-related funds (referring to bhadz's post)]}.
^{- You should only use a non-custodial wallet for such things and as much as I hate Coinbase, ironically, they're offering one as well (screenshot), but I still won't trust them!}

[danherbias07]

Yeah. Why post it on social media or Reddit? That's a large amount. I bet many lawyers will be running to him to help claim it back because a large percentage of it will be their payment.

Even if he does not have physical receipts of the transactions, as long as the sports bookies are willing to help out and give him the information he needs or the history of his bets, then I think he can win his money back from Coinbase. But if it has a trace of illegality in it, then he should just forget about it. He will just be stewing himself in his own juice by doing that.

I just remembered how the local mobile e-wallet and cryptocurrency wallet also made me provide documents showing where my money is from. They do it regularly every year, and it's annoying, so I didn't use their service anymore.

[knowngunman]

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

Good catch but I need some clarification here.

If he played with fake ID and VPN, I think he has a question to answer with the casinos and they can freeze his account based on their own TOS. That's strictly between him and the casino platform.

Does that really have anything to do with coinbase holding his money? Is gambling winning illegal money? Which rule of coinbase did he goes against? Unless the money is from illegal sources, I don't think coinbase reserve the right to freeze the money. The casinos can punish him because he violate their TOS but not coinbase.

[DanWalker]

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?

Hmm, I also think this is money laundering. coinbase is not making any judgmental decision on its own.

According to US and FinCEN regulation, regulated exchange is bound to freeze those fund if they cannot submit any Source of Fund.
So, nothing to solve with Coinbase here. They won't release this money until his proper paperwork of $900k is submitted, as releasing would put the exchange's own license at risk.
Going to a lawyer or filing any formal complaint with CFPB or FinCEN risks getting himself into legal trouble. That is why he is trying to create public pressure on Reddy without going through legal route.

[mak013]

~
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?

The first rule is: "Money in a casino or on an exchange isn't your money."
In this case, the casino has no incentive to protect user data - they paid the gambler his money, and I believe they did it honestly. An exchange, on the other hand, may be interested in getting the user's money, especially if the user can't prove a clean history.
If the gambler isn't lying, I think he can get his betting history and withdrawal/transfer records from the casino. And in my opinion, it doesn't matter whether the casino is regulated or not. I suspect there are some facts the gambler isn't telling us - that's why the exchange froze his money, and he knows he can't get it back honestly.

[Hatchy]

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.

I don't know if he was just ignorant, foolish, or maybe both. If Coinbase clearly stated that gambling funds or deposits were not allowed, why would he still put such a large amount of money on Coinbase, especially on a centralized exchange?

I still think most of us here on the forum are among the few who actually practice self-custody. Some of the stories you hear online about people keeping large amounts of money on centralized exchanges can be shocking. I don't even know if getting a lawyer would help him at this point because it already appears that he violated several of their terms and was almost able to get away with it.

[Emjay24]

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 might still be a sarcastic reply he gave to those people that asked. Like someone asking you how to gamble when you're complaining that your account was frozen can be really annoying.

We cannot conclude because of that post, the guy who made that comment might still be one hired by Coinbase to troll him, anything is possible. We can only know the truth if we read a reply from official Coinbase account. Both the guy's claims and that of the person in the picture are still contestable.

[tsaroz]

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?

This is why you don't use custodial wallets to keep large funds. If he had kept it in a wallet he owns, he might have been able to cash out in small batches without triggering AML checks from Coinbase. 900K is a huge amount and Coinbase as a regulated exchange is ought to look for source of income. Many people even use gambling site to clean their coins using it as a mixer, so coinbase might have been more suspicious and user failing to provide enough proof of wagering or his deposit was huge, coinbase still would ask where he got the money from.

[verdinio]

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.

I don't know if he was just ignorant, foolish, or maybe both. If Coinbase clearly stated that gambling funds or deposits were not allowed, why would he still put such a large amount of money on Coinbase, especially on a centralized exchange?

I still think most of us here on the forum are among the few who actually practice self-custody. Some of the stories you hear online about people keeping large amounts of money on centralized exchanges can be shocking. i don't even know if getting a lawyer would help him at this point because it already appears that he violated several of their terms and was almost able to get away with it.

I don't understand why if it was good before, now it wasn't good anymore, they're clearly stealing the guy's money.
When i hear these things i don't really want to trade, if you have to be afraid that your money will be stolen it all becomes quite irrelevant in my opinion.

[Tungbulu]

The first rule is: "Money in a casino or on an exchange isn't your money."
In this case, the casino has no incentive to protect user data - they paid the gambler his money, and I believe they did it honestly. An exchange, on the other hand, may be interested in getting the user's money, especially if the user can't prove a clean history.
If the gambler isn't lying, I think he can get his betting history and withdrawal/transfer records from the casino. And in my opinion, it doesn't matter whether the casino is regulated or not. I suspect there are some facts the gambler isn't telling us - that's why the exchange froze his money, and he knows he can't get it back honestly.

Very true. Money getting frozen by exchanges isn’t something that’s new anymore, it happens all the time, and most of the times the user’s money are being released after passing the exchange’s routine check, so if truly the user has absolutely nothing to hide and that the funds were truly from the casino withdrawals then I don’t think there’s any case there, and proving it shouldn’t be much of a big deal, because even if he contacts the casino and explains the situation to them, they’d be willing to help him out the best way they possibly could.

[o48o]

-cut-
He already called lawyer but they asking about 25% for recovery. I think that is fine as long as he can get the rest.
-cut-

No he didn't, this was a comment from another user, and lawyer wouldn't have helped him to launder money.

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

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

Well that's where you are wrong.

Every offshore casino that i am using is regulated. And i was specifically talking about regulated casinos here.
In order for them to get a license to serve citizens of certain areas, there are regulations they need to comply with. Or why do you think that restricted areas vary in ToS of offshore casinos?