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

[Joy- maker]

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?

I understand why you are not okay with it, but something must have  actually triggered this decision.  However, there is no point in putting casinos under pressure to process withdrawals on time if they already doing so.  IMO, everything should be done in way that encourages casinos to treat their customers well and maintain a good reputation, rather than simply acting out of fear of being fined.  As for punishing casinos for failing to comply with anti money laundering regulations, that is understandable because they have a responsibility to do so.

[KTChampions]

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

I don’t see anything good about this. I’m glad that, in this particular instance, the customers interests benefited - but for crying out loud, isn’t it obvious that points 2, 3, and 4 are simply the implementation of regulatory requirements? First, businesses are forced to accept some fucked-up requirements (what the fuck do I care if a client has an addiction or not, let them sit in a mental hospital if they do haha) then they are fined either for fulfilling them incorrectly or correctly, haha! All these fines are just an additional tax, not a sign of concern for customers.

[Swordsoffreedom]

I see the trick, if a pending withdrawal is under investigation, the funds are meant to be locked? Throughout the period of investigation, the gambler is supposed to be unable to gamble with the balance, isn't that how it is supposed to be? For a normal withdrawal waiting period without any investigation, any casino that takes more than 30 minutes to process a withdrawal is substandard, compared to other casinos that take less than 5 minutes.

Well, mechanics of all casino are not same.
Regarding what you mentioned, is standard practice at most online casino. Problem is that at many casino you cannot request any second withdrawal until your first one has been pending. Often some casino will use various excuse to hold up your withdrawal for days on end, hoping that you'll keep playing using your remaining balance.

Furthermore many casino even when keeping withdrawal balance separate but provide a Cancel button option. Their main intention is slowing down your entire flow of funds and payout traffic. So that you either get annoyed and contact support to manually cancel your previous pending withdrawal allowing you to place new one or out of frustration you decide to return funds to your main balance and start betting again.

[_act_]

I understand why you are not okay with it, but something must have  actually triggered this decision.  However, there is no point in putting casinos under pressure to process withdrawals on time if they already doing so.  

When gambling sites can process withdrawals within seconds or in less than a minute. Any gambling sites that are not like this, I can not use them. Fast withdrawal is a very good characteristics of a good gambling site.

The problem the gambling site is having is that it allowes people to register without completely KYC verification. Something that is very wrong if they require KYC, it supposed to have been demanded for during customers registration.

Such gambling sites only care about look for customers and not care about the customers feelings.

[yahoo62278]

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

Nothing would change, casinos delay payments to do the necessary checks according to their Tos and pray they find something so they can avoid paying out the wins. If they lose 900k or 900m it's worth it to them as they 1 stop the dirty money and 2 save 10x when they add up all they don't have to pay out.

[$crypto$]

I wouldn't be surprised if, in (a long) time, this ends up happening with cryptocurrency casinos. If you look closely, they're much more regulated than they were a decade ago, even though the regulations are more lenient than those in the UK or other European countries. I think that, little by little, they’ll be subject to more and more restrictions, and the day will come when they no longer offer a competitive advantage: right now, they can offer lower house edge and more promotions because they pay less in taxes, and they tolerate certain limits without KYC, but I think that in the future, casinos will be hybrid (fiat-crypto) and will require you to complete KYC before making your first deposit. Although I’m looking at least a decade down the road, and obviously I could be wrong.

In the next decade anything can change, I can't deny the increasingly strict rules where users have to pass KYC before depositing, this applies just like exchanges now.

What comes to mind later is --- who acts as this court? Casino licenses are now a lot in Anjouan, when there is a complexity of problems from users where should they complain? I think to Casinoguru or AskGambler is not a fair place a complaint, unlike the authority of a strong state court can put pressure on any company that is guilty by having to pay her compensation.

I think this idea is probably by me still inconceivable, whereas in the future we do not know its changes, it's just that with strict regulations means crypto casino users should be prepared with its mandatory KYC later.

[Fortify]

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.

It just goes to show that casinos are always ready and often willing to use many dirty tricks in order to throw up barriers to the process of players taking money back out. They'll make it as easy as possible to send money in, often requiring as little as a couple clicks before you're depositing cash. However you really need a strong and proactive regulator, one that actually tests these things at random, before they pay any attention. That's why so many crypto operators block the UK and set up UK specific sites, because the regulator is so much more rigorous. It's what the offshore jurisdictions that sell their licenses should be doing as well, but they spend all the license money and put very little back in to regulating the operators "based" in these small island nations. It also has to be worthwhile to continue doing business in the UK and it seems like they'll still be highly profitable even after paying this fine.

[Asiska02]

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.

This is a huge amount and I don’t think that this casino will ever fail to delay withdrawal again, others will as well learn from this because this is one of the features that a casino should have and attract users to them. Many people face this kind of problems, and their complains don’t always get through the best legal process to guarantee them justice. If more of this is being done, we will see reduced complaints on delay withdrawal and even upcoming and new casinos will take correction and make it a priority all the time in their service delivery.

[Nwada001]

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.

This is part of customers' right protection, and this should turn into a usual practice so that other casinos can learn. Some casinos endorse this practice just to delay the payout and force the player to play more and eventually lose the money back to the casino.

[retreat]

I think this is the UK regulators being so strict with casinos operating within their jurisdiction. The regulator works professionally to ensure that the casino's operations comply with their regulations and to ensure that users do not receive poor service from the casino. Users should be entitled to this level of protection; after all, the purpose of the regulator is to regulate the gambling environment so that it remains fair for everyone. If a casino provides poor service and users receive no protection whatsoever, then what is the point of having a regulator. But unfortunately we may not get this kind of protection at offshore casinos.

[obuoma]

If this is a levy on the casino for failing to process the wothdrawals of their customers instead deploying delay tactics,  I'm happy to hear that they were slammed this heavy fine. Some casinos use this strategy to make their players, especially problem gamblers, spend the money and never get a withdrawal. If we can see more of these penalties, then casinos will begin to sit up to avoid paying this kind of fines. Casinos should be able to do their business in a way that it will not bring harm to the player and those who are able to win should be able to get withdrawals without giving the money back due to the casino delaying process their payouts.

[alastantiger]

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:

I do not think this can happen with cryptocurrency casinos because how can we hold them accountable when there is no regulations guiding them which is making them to do anything that they like. Each cryptocurrency casino can choose to do anything and get away with it. I wish cryptocurrency casinos can get penalized like this so that others can learn and they will stop trying us like we do not have rights. Delay transactions happens very often and I have experience it many times that I am now used to waiting for my withdraws. Customers support also is not online most times and it is only AI that will be chatting with you. Only few casinos are trustworthy to not delay your time or treat you you do not matter because they want to keep a good reputation.

[danherbias07]

I can still remember how stressful it is when you withdraw money that won't be received for the whole day. It is too damned frustrating and also makes a gambler think that his money is gone.

They cannot do that to gamblers because it adds more problems for them. The winning part is already difficult, so the withdrawals should not be the same. If they needed KYC, they should've done that earlier when the gambler was depositing many times. But if they did it only because the gambler won, they should be punished for it.
It's unfair to the players, and I think many will agree with that.

[Webutxo]

I wish regulators here in our country were like this, fair and quick to respond to issues that arise that mak the gamblers lose their trust in casinos. There was a case in our country where a gambler won millions of pesos but had the win invalidated due to a glitch, and the regulator favored the casino.

I thought the regulators is to protect the gamblers and not the casino. Seems my country and yours has something peculiar to each other, ours looks like they are corrupted that I don't think they are doing anything unique for he customers. You see people crying over casino on their social handles to investigate and some of them will keep mute, they don't do anything until they afr been called out by an influencer to look into the a bet and mostly after investigation, the fault is from the casinos.

Withdrawal delays and non-payment of legit winnings are two reasons why gamblers lose trust in casinos and the bodies that regulate them.
The £900,000 processing of withdrawal is a good case, this will bring back the trust of gamblers to casinos and regulators in that region.

This one is even normal thing compare to what we do experienced here, you can have a running game and the casino will void your game. For no reason, they do it most often even if nothing affected the events. They planned this thing to reduced amount win by bettors. Sadly, there is nothing we can do, it's either you take it or leave the money, that's the two choice they have, regulators don't do anything about it.

[Floxynice]

I wish regulators here in our country were like this, fair and quick to respond to issues that arise that mak the gamblers lose their trust in casinos. There was a case in our country where a gambler won millions of pesos but had the win invalidated due to a glitch, and the regulator favored the casino.

I thought the regulators is to protect the gamblers and not the casino. Seems my country and yours has something peculiar to each other, ours looks like they are corrupted that I don't think they are doing anything unique for he customers. You see people crying over casino on their social handles to investigate and some of them will keep mute, they don't do anything until they afr been called out by an influencer to look into the a bet and mostly after investigation, the fault is from the casinos.

Apart from maybe the issue of money laundering which my country is taking seriously, the rest of the issues investigated and confirmed are just what an average gambler experiences here in my country and there are no proper regulations like these to check the activities and mode of operation of these gambling platforms. The gamblers have right to a smooth service with no unplanned issues attached to it. Alot of gamblers from countries with poor gambling regulators are facing same issue, they just have to help themselves by gambling more responsibly to avoid gambling problems. And then, use only platforms that are highly recommended.

[o48o]

Happy to see this if it is applied in crypto casinos called offshore casinos.
-cut-

L&L Europe is located in Malta, so couldn't that be considered as an offshore?

But this is the good side of regulated casinos. You know you will always have some sort of standing when it comes to your legal right, even with casinos who try to mess with you and with casinos you know nothing about.

Hopefully investigations like these act as a warning and keeps abuse of predatory casinos in minimum.

[Somto9Light]

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.

Sometimes I do wonder why a casino will even delay withdrawals but when it comes to deposit it's always done with speed. One thing I prioritise in a casino is swift withdrawal, as soon as I request withdrawal I want to see the money reflect in my wallet instantly or when it has to do with a huge amount latest it should take like an hour to process. If any casino delays my withdrawal that will be the end of me using that casino. It serves them right and they will now take caution not to allow a repeat of delayed withdrawals again. Any casino that can't release withdrawal as quick as possible don't even need to operate, they should close down their site and look for another business to do. £900,000 is a huge amount of money even though it will be distributed across all the customers that got affected but the casino must have learnt their lessons and other casinos will also try to avoid such experience.

[EluguHcman]

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.

I find the breach of terms in the highlighted number 2 very convince able which is even enough for any user who had been conditionally held of his withdrawal because of subjected or additional KYCs that the casino did not make visible in their ToS.
That is cheating in different dimensions that if there is true justice in the judiciary, such act of the casino is enough to take them to the court and the player will be at advantage of victory.

However, I am not surprised to learn that the casino is being personalized on this cheating mode for it has already disrupted their reputation and probably breaking the rules of their license agreements.
That was a justice well served so that the casinos can be enlightened more about transparency.

[Loyang]

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.

Sometimes I do wonder why a casino will even delay withdrawals but when it comes to deposit it's always done with speed. One thing I prioritise in a casino is swift withdrawal, as soon as I request withdrawal I want to see the money reflect in my wallet instantly or when it has to do with a huge amount latest it should take like an hour to process. If any casino delays my withdrawal that will be the end of me using that casino. It serves them right and they will now take caution not to allow a repeat of delayed withdrawals again. Any casino that can't release withdrawal as quick as possible don't even need to operate, they should close down their site and look for another business to do. £900,000 is a huge amount of money even though it will be distributed across all the customers that got affected but the casino must have learnt their lessons and other casinos will also try to avoid such experience.

Yes, I don't like it myself. However, the process of withdrawing money from a casino and depositing money into a casino is different. For example, when we deposit money, we only make a request and when the money reaches the casino, they add that amount to our account.

However, when we go to withdraw money, the casino may have to verify many things. For example, whether there is enough money in our account or not, when we ask for a withdrawal, they have to check it, etc. It takes some time to withdraw. However, there are some casinos that require a lot of time to withdraw, and I try to avoid those casinos as much as possible.

[lionheart78]

Sometimes I do wonder why a casino will even delay withdrawals but when it comes to deposit it's always done with speed.

There are several reasons, some are reasonable, but others are unreasonable.  The unreasonable act of the casino made the regulatory board penalized them with £900,000 ($1.2 million).

I understand that there are cases where a red flag is triggered, like multi-accounting or the need for manual verification due to a huge amount of withdrawals why withdrawal request is delayed.  But unfair reasons like the casino just wanted to hold the money and look for reasons to deny the player the funds.

One thing I prioritise in a casino is swift withdrawal, as soon as I request withdrawal I want to see the money reflect in my wallet instantly or when it has to do with a huge amount latest it should take like an hour to process.

Yeah, with instant withdrawal, the worries of not getting the fund is negated.  It also adds trust to the casino.  I just wants an instant withdrawal whether the amount is huge or small.  After all it is instant when the casino is about to receive a deposit.