A casino paid £900,000 for delay of withdrawal processing

[Sanitough]

Imagine if this were implemented in crypto casinos, I'm sure this would result in withdrawals being processed on time, and there would be fewer unnecessary withdrawal holds due to investigations that are not always justified.

These are the issues found during the investigation:

1. Customers were only allowed one pending withdrawal at a time.
2. Some withdrawals were delayed because of additional verification documents that could have been collected earlier.
3. The operator failed to properly monitor some customers showing signs of problem gambling.
4. There were also failures in anti-money laundering procedures.

Source: L&L Europe Agrees £900K Settlement Over Withdrawal Delays and AML Failures

[Charles-Tim]

That is very good. This is the reason licensing and regulations can help customers at times. It is just like the ones that we have posted about before about customers not be required to do KYC during deposit, but be forced to do KYC when about to withdraw the money won. But you listed three other wrongdoings of the gambling site which are pending withdrawal that may be connected to the KYC during withdrawal, problem gambling and money laundering, while two are not about withdrawal issues.

[Joy_learns_crypto]

To those who may have this thought, the £900,000 is not to one customer, the payment is made for the settlement of multiple customers that were affected in this.
I concur to this strategy, delay withdrawal process is unfair, anyone who placed a bet legally and won do not deserve to be put through delays or distress for them to withdraw what they earned.

[Somegory]

But investigation needs to be carried out on money that's been deposited and withdraw from a online casino, they need to take their time at times on withdrawal just to make sure they are doing the right thing.

I don't expect delays on $1000 - $5000 withdrawal, anything more than this I would leave them to take their time before proceeding, I don't run online casinos myself but I believe that their are bad actors acting like gamblers too.

I understand that some online casinos are using withdrawal delays to their advantages and some are even going to scam or steal from you after you withdraw, it will never get processed but this is why we must avoid shady online casinos, better to go for reputable casinos.

[Swordsoffreedom]

Customers were only allowed one pending withdrawal at a time.

This is actually dirty trick.
Unscrupulous casinos want your withdrawal to remain pending, hoping that you will grow impatient and cancel that withdrawal and then lose money by betting it again.

Some withdrawals were delayed because of additional verification documents that could have been collected earlier.

Stake Casino requests KYC at the time of deposit to ensure smooth withdrawal experience later on.
Those with bad intention are very ones who don't provide such option.
It’s only when it comes time to withdraw your money that they suddenly ask, hey, provide proof of who you are!
This is precisely why UKGC took action against L&L Europe. Legit casinos should be required to offer pre verification option. So that player can get cleared in advance.

[noorman0]

This case is being handled by the UK Gambling Commission; this should be seen as a positive development, as it has been years since we last heard of a regulator getting directly involved in investigating an operator even regarding relatively minor instances of unfair practice.
It would also be beneficial if operators were given a strict deadline to conclude any such investigations and reach a final decision.

[Silverstonez]

This is actually good development, if it is implemented effectively I’m sure it will improve transparency and accountability in crypto casinos, ensuring fast withdrawals and unjustified holds.  Casinos are gradually making habit of delaying customers winnings without providing any reasonable explanation for their actions. There should be a clear rule and deadline for processing withdrawals and casinos should be held responsible whenever they fail to meet this obligations.

[stadus]

To those who may have this thought, the £900,000 is not to one customer, the payment is made for the settlement of multiple customers that were affected in this.
I concur to this strategy, delay withdrawal process is unfair, anyone who placed a bet legally and won do not deserve to be put through delays or distress for them to withdraw what they earned.

That even shows that the casino has seriously violated the terms, it's not just one person but many gamblers who have experienced delayed withdrawals. I'm not sure about the required processing time but I think it should be within 24 hours, but we gamblers want instant withdrawals, and that is already available in some casinos as we don't even need to wait 5 minutes before it's processed depending on the amount. That's what regulation does, but in crypto casinos it's more about reputation, those casinos that don't process withdrawals on time will not gain a good reputation.

[Questat]

This is actually good development, if it is implemented effectively I’m sure it will improve transparency and accountability in crypto casinos, ensuring fast withdrawals and unjustified holds.  Casinos are gradually making habit of delaying customers winnings without providing any reasonable explanation for their actions. There should be a clear rule and deadline for processing withdrawals and casinos should be held responsible whenever they fail to meet this obligations.

Good for big casinos but for small casinos this is a problem for them. There's a reason why they choose a licensing provider that is not so strict, but hopefully they will be fair to small gamblers like us especially if we win big. But at the end of the day, it's our choice where we want to gamble, whether it's at local casinos or offshore casinos, me I will choose offshore casinos all day.

[Cointxz]

This is actually good development, if it is implemented effectively I’m sure it will improve transparency and accountability in crypto casinos, ensuring fast withdrawals and unjustified holds.  Casinos are gradually making habit of delaying customers winnings without providing any reasonable explanation for their actions. There should be a clear rule and deadline for processing withdrawals and casinos should be held responsible whenever they fail to meet this obligations.

I doubt it will be implemented by an offshore license provider since they don’t have full control over all the operators using their license unlike UK regulator that involved here.

It will be good if this was implemented by crypto casino too since they are using blockchain technology to make transactions quicker and transparent while delay usually happening on their side of transaction approval.

[Pandu Geddon]

All this time we have only believed that casinos follow their procedures in conducting investigations related to accounts suspected of being problematic. They request KYC documents and go through a fairly long verification process. If the KYC process is done at the beginning, and the service provider performs its duties even while the gambler is playing, there should be no problem with withdrawals. It's like their alarm is slow to respond to something that is suspected. Their alarm only goes off when there is a notification of a large withdrawal.

[Betwrong]

Imagine if this were implemented in crypto casinos, I'm sure this would result in withdrawals being processed on time, and there would be fewer unnecessary withdrawal holds due to investigations that are not always justified.

These are the issues found during the investigation:

1. Customers were only allowed one pending withdrawal at a time.
2. Some withdrawals were delayed because of additional verification documents that could have been collected earlier.
3. The operator failed to properly monitor some customers showing signs of problem gambling.
4. There were also failures in anti-money laundering procedures.

Source: L&L Europe Agrees £900K Settlement Over Withdrawal Delays and AML Failures

To be honest, I'm against such things being implemented. A casino should process withdrawals on time, not out of fear of being fined, but because it wants to be better than other casinos in this regard. It wants to outperform its competitors and attract more users to its platform this way. But I agree with punishing casinos for failures in anti-money laundering procedures and for not properly monitoring customers showing signs of problem gambling. It seems legit to me. Maybe the £900K fine was mostly because of those failures?

[Ruttoshi]

It's clear that L&L Europe is taking advantage of their customers to spend more money in the casino than they intended which is unfair and lack of protection on gamblers to gamble responsible. Why will you delay withdrawals and still make it compulsory that you can only request for a withdrawal after the previous one have successfully being withdrawn.

Other countries gambling commission should also look into the casinos operating in their country to see that gamblers are treated fairly and not the other way round just like what L&L Europe did. Why is it that some casinos don't like customers to withdraw but they quickly accept your deposit.

[Don Pedro Dinero]

That is very good. This is the reason licensing and regulations can help customers at times.

Yes, but not just any licence or regulation – in this case, it’s from the UK, and there are loads of European countries with similar regulations and bodies. They put consumer protection above all else (after tax collection, haha!).

This is actually good development, if it is implemented effectively I’m sure it will improve transparency and accountability in crypto casinos, ensuring fast withdrawals and unjustified holds. 

Cryptocurrency casinos hold licences from Caribbean countries because they are cheaper and the regulations are much more lenient in this regard, so it’s not going to happen.

[mak013]

This is one of the reasons casinos register in Curacao.

For me as a gambler, it's a good thing when I can protect myself and the government helps me do so. The problem is that not many casinos are willing to follow such rules. As a result, I have to choose between a few casinos that follow the rules and many casinos where I'm not protected but get more choice in games, betting lines, better odds, and so on.

[GreatArkansas]

Customers were only allowed one pending withdrawal at a time.

This is actually dirty trick.
Unscrupulous casinos want your withdrawal to remain pending, hoping that you will grow impatient and cancel that withdrawal and then lose money by betting it again.

Some withdrawals were delayed because of additional verification documents that could have been collected earlier.

Stake Casino requests KYC at the time of deposit to ensure smooth withdrawal experience later on.
Those with bad intention are very ones who don't provide such option.
It’s only when it comes time to withdraw your money that they suddenly ask, hey, provide proof of who you are!
This is precisely why UKGC took action against L&L Europe. Legit casinos should be required to offer pre verification option. So that player can get cleared in advance.

Not always smooth for me, even if they ask KYC on deposit. I experienced one crypto casino before that locked my account and asked me to undergo KYC right after I deposited, not even on withdrawal yet. I don't want to do KYC that time, but they already have my funds so I had no choice.

[Maslate]

This is one of the reasons casinos register in Curacao.

But they will eventually move to Anjouan as Curacao regulation has become stricter now.

For me as a gambler, it's a good thing when I can protect myself and the government helps me do so. The problem is that not many casinos are willing to follow such rules. As a result, I have to choose between a few casinos that follow the rules and many casinos where I'm not protected but get more choice in games, betting lines, better odds, and so on.

No, they don't follow the rules because there were no rules, or if there were the implementation was not done well.
that's why when they say protection of gamblers, it's all on paper just for compliance but it's different with the UK Gambling Commission, they are actually doing their mandate.

[lovesmayfamilis]

All this time we have only believed that casinos follow their procedures in conducting investigations related to accounts suspected of being problematic. They request KYC documents and go through a fairly long verification process. If the KYC process is done at the beginning, and the service provider performs its duties even while the gambler is playing, there should be no problem with withdrawals. It's like their alarm is slow to respond to something that is suspected. Their alarm only goes off when there is a notification of a large withdrawal.

If every casino takes this experience into account, then its customers will have more trust, not to mention the fact that the number of players will increase. Some casinos are quite "trusting" of those who register on their website, giving them a lot of time before withdrawing their winnings. Of course, there are abuses on the part of dishonest players, but the withdrawal process for legitimate winnings should be seamless and prompt. Yes, we can agree that the casino should carefully check the players, but everything should be done before the start of the games, not after. Sometimes there are questions that the winners interpret as the casino's desire to refuse payment by any means.

[Ziskinberg]

If every casino takes this experience into account, then its customers will have more trust, not to mention the fact that the number of players will increase. Some casinos are quite "trusting" of those who register on their website, giving them a lot of time before withdrawing their winnings. Of course, there are abuses on the part of dishonest players, but the withdrawal process for legitimate winnings should be seamless and prompt. Yes, we can agree that the casino should carefully check the players, but everything should be done before the start of the games, not after. Sometimes there are questions that the winners interpret as the casino's desire to refuse payment by any means.

They will be strict as this will reduce the number of casinos operating, because they know they could possibly violate the rules and paying that hefty penalty might put them out of business. I think there's a major difference between fiat and crypto casinos when it comes to regulation, so we cannot expect crypto casinos to simply adopt the same rules as fiat casinos.

[Queen uloma]

That is very good. This is the reason licensing and regulations can help customers at times. It is just like the ones that we have posted about before about customers not be required to do KYC during deposit, but be forced to do KYC when about to withdraw the money won. But you listed three other wrongdoings of the gambling site which are pending withdrawal that may be connected to the KYC during withdrawal, problem gambling and money laundering, while two are not about withdrawal issues.

I agree that licensing and regulation can help protect customers from most of all this wrong doing. There are some casino that doesn’t ask for KYC when you deposit, but will suddenly demand it when you want to withdraw your winnings.

Although some of these issues may connect to money laundering and responsible gambling, others don’t have anything to do with withdrawal. That’s why proper regulation is very essential to protect players from unfair treatment.