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Bitstarz - Entitled To A refund
Ruling
Found for the Player - Bitstarz has been accepting US players and failing to conduct proper or effective due diligence for years. These are facts that we have documented via numerous complaints. Sadly, there's nothing we can do to help this player.
Read our Bitstarz Casino Review.
Player's Complaint
Aside from the fact that I've been allowed to play even when the system should be able to detect that i'm located in the United States which is listed as a forbidden country,I've been allowed to continue playing after my old account was closed and i was permanently banned after making threats to inflict harm on myself. They told me i would never be allowed to wager at Bitstarz ever again and all I had to do was create a new account and I was able to resume play immediately. Even after logging into my new account on the same device i always logged into the old account on. How in earth is a person with a severe gambling addiction supposed to have any means to protect themselves from themselves when it is so simple to create a new account AND without ANY effort whatsoever from the casino to uphold their decision to ban a player due to that player displaying a lack of self control and making threats to harm themself? So then the casino claims that it is entirely the players responsibility to ensure that they enter the correct information when opening a new account and the casino is not liable in anyway if the player was banned previously for lack of self control??? So if the casino is not required to make ANY effort whatsoever to enforce their decision ban a player for life by detecting when the same device has been used or any other way to detect or verify a players identity,then please tell me what am I supposed to do to restrict myself from having access to any casinos because it seems hopeless to me at this point! i'll never be able to completely restrict myself from having the ability to gamble at any time day or night. What good is a self exclusion when all i have to do is create a new account? Please enforce Bitstarz to hold up the decision they made with my previous account to never accept money from me ever again by forcing them to refund me every penny i have lost since they made that decision that they made because they "Take responsible gambling seriously"! If they take it seriously then they would acknowledge a problem like this and they would actually hold themselves accountable by not accepting anymore money from a person they said was never allowed to place a bet with them ever again. The ability to allow players to play anonymously is the worst thing imaginable for people like me who have an extreme addiction to gambling. I ruin my life over and over and over again and no amount of protection or "self exclusion" can make it not be possible for me to gamble for as long as there's casinos operating who don't require a KYC verification in order to be allowed to gamble. Please make Bitstarz uphold their decision to never accept my money ever again by approving my refund request. I'm literally one foot off the edge about to end my life because i cannot stop myself from gambling and because the casinos on the internet make it impossible to be able to completely stop myself from having the option to gamble 24/7
6 Responses
i'd also like to make it known that I'm officially set to begin rehab on june 1st to finally deal with my gambling addiction. On that note, i'd also like to apologize to the casino operators for my inappropriate comments I made on several occasions. I work very hard for my money and I cannot bear to continue losing all of it day after day day and at the very least, if my complaint here is rejected, hopefully I can make enough noise on behalf of all of the gambling addicts who feel hopeless with the existence if casinos who allow people to play anonymously because. People like myself who have been dealing with gambling addiction since LONG before the era of crypto casinos have been able to maintain a significant amount of control over our gambling habits when things get out of hand by utilizing the self exclusion option that every casino offers as a solution for people who have lost control to protect themselves. For as long as their are casinos operating on line who do NOT require identity verification in order for a player to be allowed to play, it will ultimately make it seem hopeless for problematic gamblers if/when they decide while in their rational mindtstate that the only solution to make them stop gambling is to protect them from themselves via self exclusions. i hope for the sake of all gamblers who have lost control that somebody very soon it will not be so simple to participate in real money wagering on line without having to verify my identity first. That one simple requirement, if EVERY casino strictly enforced it, it would have an incredible impact in the lives of people with severe/uncontrollable gambling addictions. If you really take responsible gambling SO seriously like you say you do, then please start making a significant effort to prove that you do instead of just saying that you do. Thank you!
i'd also like to make it known that I'm officially set to begin rehab on june 1st to finally deal with my gambling addiction. On that note, i'd also like to apologize to the casino operators for my inappropriate comments I made on several occasions. I work very hard for my money and I cannot bear to continue losing all of it day after day day and at the very least, if my complaint here is rejected, hopefully I can make enough noise on behalf of all of the gambling addicts who feel hopeless with the existence if casinos who allow people to play anonymously because. People like myself who have been dealing with gambling addiction since LONG before the era of crypto casinos have been able to maintain a significant amount of control over our gambling habits when things get out of hand by utilizing the self exclusion option that every casino offers as a solution for people who have lost control to protect themselves. For as long as their are casinos operating on line who do NOT require identity verification in order for a player to be allowed to play, it will ultimately make it seem hopeless for problematic gamblers if/when they decide while in their rational mindtstate that the only solution to make them stop gambling is to protect them from themselves via self exclusions. i hope for the sake of all gamblers who have lost control that somebody very soon it will not be so simple to participate in real money wagering on line without having to verify my identity first. That one simple requirement, if EVERY casino strictly enforced it, it would have an incredible impact in the lives of people with severe/uncontrollable gambling addictions. If you really take responsible gambling SO seriously like you say you do, then please start making a significant effort to prove that you do instead of just saying that you do. Thank you!
Problematic Is an understatement! Im going to blow the whistle on these people and I wont stop until they are no longer able to operate this way for good. Never underestimate a person who's determined to do something after they've lost everything!
I am an American citizen who's been preyed upon by foreign agencies like bitstarz who carefully arrange the text in their "Licensed terms and conditions" to specifically make it possible for them to exploit people's addictions while making sure to protect themselves. Well, I wonder how many American citizens like myself are out there like myself and I wonder how much my government knows about what's happening and I wonder once they find out if they're going to do nothing about it. I guess I'll know soon enough because at this point I don't know of any other solution to be able to completely restrict myself from having access to EVERY casino than to make a fuss about this until they can no longer operate Anonymously like they have been.
Hi GAHopelessness,
I'm sorry to hear of your frustrations, but as stated above there's nothing we can do to assist you with this matter.
You may find our free Responsible Gambling app BetBlocker useful. It allows users to restrict their internet capable devices from accessing over 18k gambling operator websites for between 24 hours and 5 years. The BetBlocker restriction includes Bitstarz.
You can also find information on the various support agencies available to support you in your country in our Responsible Gambling Directory.
Sorry we could not be of further help.
ThePOGG
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Agreement
GAHopelessness consented for ThePOGG to act on their behalf and share the personal information that they provide to ThePOGG with the following agencies for the purposes of resolving their complaint:
- Bitstarz
- Curacao
- Dama N.V.
May 7, 2023
Hi GAHopelessness - welcome to ThePOGG.com!
Unfortunately there's nothing we can do to assist you with this matter for a variety of reasons.
Firstly - with regard to Bitstarz accepting play from US players in breach of both their terms and conditions and US law - this is a well documented practice on the part of this operator that we have highlighted numerous times. The intransigent position that the operator has taken with regard to this issue ensures that further dialogues about this matter will not result in any successful claims.
Next, with regard to you being able to sign-up again, even in highly regulated jurisdictions, when you self-exclude and then look to re-register, bypassing the automated restrictions by altering your details (for instance, email address), the operator would not then be considered responsible for your losses. The actions that the operator takes in this respect are to build the automated system that will a) stop you accessing your account and b) stop you from registering further accounts using the same details that you have already provided to the operator.
While we certainly view BitStarz model of only requiring an email address to register as highly problematic for a variety of reasons, ultimately where you're willing to provide altered data to get round a self-exclusion, there is no automated system that will be able to stop you.
Finally - with regard to KYC - currently we're not aware of any regulatory system that would require pre-play verification of the type you have in mind (i.e. the provision of documents to the operator). There are certainly some authorities that require non-invasive type checks, where the player's information is checked against open source data to verify certain information, but none that want full KYC performed at the point of opening an account.
Verification certainly should have been conducted long before you were allowed to lose as much as your claim asserts, but this is another matter that we have previously challenged this operator on - the fact that their verification team conducts effectively no verification until point of withdrawal and sometime not even then - but this likewise has been a non-productive line of discussion with this operator.
In summary, while we agree generally that some of the experience you describe is problematic, it's also been discussed with the operator a number of times over the previous years without any positive outcomes.
You may find our free Responsible Gambling app BetBlocker useful. It allows users to restrict their internet capable devices from accessing over 18k gambling operator websites for between 24 hours and 5 years. The BetBlocker restriction includes Bitstarz.
You can also find information on the various support agencies available to support you in your country in our Responsible Gambling Directory.
Sorry we could not be of further help.
ThePOGG