Rogue casinos

But there are still some operators which use a variety of stalling tactics in order to make the player reverse and play back his winnings to 0. In most cases this is used on newbie players and most of the time it actually works. So in this article I want to show you what some casinos are ready to do in order not to pay you your hard earned winnings.

Stalling tactics used by rogue casinos

In most cases when a rogue casino doesn’t want to pay you they will use a variety of stalling tactics in order to delay the payment. As I mentioned earlier this is done in order to make the player reverse and eventually lose his withdrawal. Just to mention from personal experience 9 out of 10 times when you reverse a withdrawal you will lose down to 0. Don’t know why this is so (i suppose it has to do with the gamblers psychology), I only know that each time I reversed a withdrawal I ended up with nothing. So today when I make a withdrawal at a casino I see it through until it’s processed. The best advice I can give, never reverse your withdrawals. Now let’s start with the stalling tactics.

Account verification for newbie players

This is the oldest trick in the book when it comes to stalling the withdrawal of a new player at the casino. In the past it was something I had to deal with on every withdrawal. The casino will ask you to send in your documents and it usually takes 24 hours for the verification process to be done. You send them in, wait patiently for 24 hours to pass, only to find out on live chat that one document was blurry or it’s missing a corner.

The best excuse I’ve heard was the required document is over 1mb, which is the maximum allowed size. Seriously? So the verification process can turn into a battle where you end up going to a professional photographer to take pictures of your documents so you can satisfy the casinos criteria. One thing to note here is that the UKGC brought in the latest changes just for this. Now you have to verify your account before you make a deposit, get your bonus and play, in order to avoid these exact issues.

Problems with the payment provider

Also another well known stalling tactic. You made a withdrawal request at the casino, let’s say, by using Neteller. The payout timeframe is 24 hours and after 24 hours you see the funds back on your account. So support tells you that they are having a problem with their payment provider or bank or whatever, and that you will need to wait.

What’s funny here is that you can make deposits with Neteller but you can’t withdraw?? Again, seriously? The trick here is to use another payment method if you can, if not you just have to wait it out until they sort out the so called problem and process your payout.

Additional Verification

So, you’ve been playing at some casino on a regular basis, you had a few smaller withdrawals and you hit a big payday. You’re not worried about anything since your account is already verified and your previous withdrawals came in with no problems at all.

Everything will be OK and you’ll get paid on time, right? Wrong!

Out comes another trick from the book of tricks, the old additional verification. So why are they doing this now and can they do this? Well they can since it’s stated in their T&C and they’re doing it to stall the payout. The best way to go is keep cool and comply with their demands. That is until they ask for your first born and you know it’s time to take the matter to a higher authority.

Large volume of withdrawal requests at the casino

Another well known trick you can come across at some operators. You made a withdrawal, the pending and payout timeframe has passed and there’s still no sign of your winnings. So you go to live chat only to be told that they are experiencing a large volume of withdrawals and it will take a little longer for it to be processed. Of course this is just another stalling tactic which can last for days until you finally receive your winnings.

When rogue casinos refuse to pay

All that I mentioned before are simply stalling tactics which some casinos can use in order to delay your withdrawal and make you play back your winnings. You have to expect them and be ready to deal with them. But another problem you can come across is when the online casino simply refuses to pay you your winnings. There are basically two excuses the casino can use in this case:

Another account from the same IP address

This is a well known excuse a rogue casino uses when they simply don’t want to pay you. They simply closed your account giving you an excuse that you were in breach of their T&C by having multiple accounts registered at the same IP address. Of course this is pure nonsense and if you don’t fight for your winnings you will most definitely lose them forever.

Use of a Bot or other cheating software

This is another well known excuse which some casinos use in order to justify the closure of your account and the confiscation of your winnings. This excuse comes in handy if you are playing electronic versions of table games like Blackjack or Roulette. They simply accuse you of using a cheating software, which is enough to close your account and void your winnings.

Real life examples of cheated players

One of the most notable ones is from Pirateofc21. This dude won $1.3 million playing Caribbean 21 from RTG software. In the end the casino refused to pay him, claiming that he was using a cheating software in order to beat the game. But naturally this wasn’t true and there was an open dispute with the casino.

In the end RTG themselves had to intervene disclosing that the operator was in fact lying and that there was no way to track the mouse movements on the screen from the players game play. In the end the casino was closed down and the player was paid an undisclosed amount by RTG themselves. This is a clear case when the casino does everything it can not to pay the player, until a higher authority steps in and makes things right.

Now this story is something which happened to a friend of mine and something I truly regret seeing. To give you an insight of how things went down I’ll tell you that this was a regular guy who played only 1 game at 1 casino for about 2 months.

Over those two months he managed to win a lot of times, being that he played almost every day. So the end result was him winning 60k euros, at one of the most reputable casinos in the world. So like many times before he makes a withdrawal and waits for 24 hours for the winnings to be processed.

What happens next? After 24 hours the casino returns his winnings to his account saying that they can’t process them at the moment, without completing an internal investigation. Oldest trick in the book for stalling tactics. So what does he do next? Starts playing at 100-200 euros bet per spin and loses it all within an hour. You see the casino didn’t do anything illegal. They just counted on him to play back his winnings and with a simple trick they pushed him into doing so.

How to deal with casino stalling tactics?

Basically you just have to be ready to deal with everything the rogue casino throws at you. The best way to keep your winnings when you encounter a stalling tactic from a casino is to use a little something called Cool Off. This is a button which every casino has, basically banning you to play at the casino for a period of time.

It can be 1, 2, 7 days or even up to 6 months. So when you hit the cool off button you can deal with the requirements made from the casino, while your withdrawal stays safe from being played down to 0. On the other had if you see that the casino is simply refusing to pay you, you need to make a complaint on some reputable gambling forum or post a legitimate complaint to their issuing licensor.

This way you can rest assured that your case will be looked at by a higher authority and if the casino is found to be at fault you will receive your hard earned winnings. The thing is that in cases like this if you do file a complaint to their licensor the casino risks getting a huge fee or even losing their license. This is why in most cases these matters are resolved before it even gets to that. It’s all just in knowing how to make the right threats at the right time.