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Found for the Player - GR88 casino offer a misleading wagering tracker, then knowing that the player hadn't completed the required wagering requirement and without informing the player of the issue, held the player's withdrawal at Pending status until the allowed time for completion of the wagering requirement had expired.
This complaint has resulted in GR88 and associated venues being moved to 'Not Recommended' status.
Read our GR88 Casino Review.
On 31st December 2014 I deposited £270 to GR88 Casino and received a bonus. I played over the holiday period, and during the first week in January the GR88 website said I had met all wagering requirements. I then requested a withdrawal of £1,800.
On the 5th January I received an email from GR88 stating: “You Skrill withdrawal request was placed successfully”. I then waited patiently for my winnings. I waited patiently for several weeks but my withdrawal was never received to my Skrill account. In mid-March I emailed GR88 asking why I had not received my withdrawal, and they answered that I needed to send some documents. I think they could have asked for these documents earlier, and I am confused as to why they had emailed months ago that my withdrawal was placed successfully? Anyway I sent the documents and they were approved, I was told to wait a bit longer for my withdrawal.
On 10th April I received a message from GR88: “Please be kindly informed that your withdrawal of 1800 GBP have been canceled [sic] because you haven´t completed your rollover in time, your balance is now adjusted, you may continue playing or make a new withdrawal”. When I questioned that the website stated that I had met the rollover I was told: “Please note that as per rule 7.17 of the T&C of the website - Bonus calculator: Any onsite bonus calculator is a loose calculation of your bonus play as it pertains to completing roll over requirements to convert your bonus to real money. The calculator if used does not calculate the deduction of bets placed below the required odds or non-converting bets that are not allowed to be used in the calculation of your roll over play. All bonus conversion will be subject to the audit of the bonus audit team at GR88.com.”
My username is the same as my email address which is [EDIT]. Do you have an email address where I can send some supporting documents?
Nevermind, found your email address :)
Hi aburke86,
Just to let you know that I've now managed to get hold of someone at GR88 and will hopefully have a response for you over the next week or two.
Thanks,
ThePOGG
OK thanks for the update
I have not heard anything from GR88, have you received anything from them ThePOGG?
Hi aburke86,
I have had an extended conversation with GR88 about this issue. Unfortunately we do not see eye to eye. I've informed them that if I receive no further response from them by Monday the 6th of July this complaint will be closed as 'Found for the Player'.
ThePOGG
Thanks for sticking at it! Is it worth me trying to contact their regulator?
Have GR88 confirmed what percentage of the wagering I had completed?
Hi aburke86,
They've entirely ceased communication with me and haven't confirmed what percentage of the wagering you'd completed.
Unfortunately this group of casinos is regulated by Cyberluck in Curacao. Cyberluck are one of the Master License holders that are entirely unresponsive to player complaints. You can certainly try submitting a complaint, but I wouldn't expect any response and I can say with certainty that they won't respond to any communications from this site.
ThePOGG
Okay, GR88 have had enough time to respond to this issue and as stated above I'm now closing this complaint in favour of the player.
The fundamental issues are;
1) GR88 display a wagering requirement tracker that does not track the wagering correctly for all bets placed. This resulted in the player thinking they'd completed the wagering requirement before they had.
2) Thinking that the wagering requirement was complete the player submitted a withdrawal request which rather than being paid was left at 'Pending' status for an extended period of them.
3) When the player contacted the casino regarding the continued Pending status of their withdrawal the casino then enforced a term restricting the amount of time within which the player has to complete the wagering requirement for the bonus they received, seizing all winnings.
As far as GR88 are concerned they've done everything by the book. They have a term stating that the wagering requirement tracker is just a "loose calculation". They also carry a term stipulating the time frame within which the wagering requirement must be completed.
There are two significant issues with this argument;
1) Providing a tool to player then expecting them remember and defer to terms and conditions to disregard the displayed information isn't particularly good practice. This is akin to advertising an offer specifically to a country that is then restricted in the terms and conditions.
2) Point 1 wouldn't necessarily be a deal breaking issue as long as the casino made reasonable effort to inform the player before this misunderstanding caused other infractions.
Having discussed this issue in detail, GR88 openly state that this withdrawal will have been reviewed within 5 business days of submission and that they would have known at that point that the withdrawal would not be paid as the wagering requirement had not been met. However, GR88's payment team made no effort to convey this information to the player and instead left the withdrawal sitting at Pending status.
There's absolutely no way that this type of practice can be deemed in any way acceptable. Misleading a player, then knowingly not informing the player of their mistake at the point where the player could take any action to rectify the problem in our opinion comes very close to entrapment. Given this groups knowledge of all of the above and refusal to change their position, this leaves us with no choice but to find this complaint in favour of the player and move GR88 and their associated venues to 'Not Recommended' status.
ThePOGG
Is the sentence above supposed to read: "Okay, GR88 have had enough time to respond to this issue and as stated above I’m NOW closing this complaint in favour of the player."?
Thank you for taking the time to write up my complaint and your decision, it seems GR88 are pretty intent on not paying my winnings despite what an independent mediator tries to explain to them.
I know this will not make a difference to the outcome here, but I have just forwarded you an email from GR88, sent Jan 2015 which states: "Your withdrawal was successful. The amount of 1800 £ has been transferred to the requested withdrawal option."
It seems this email that they sent was also misleading, was my withdrawal approved in January or not? If it was approved why was it never paid? If I had not met the wagering, why was my withdrawal approved? I guess we will never know the answers to those questions.
I have just spoke to Live Chat at GR88 and they have kindly sent me the bet history of my account there. It turns out I had completed over 96% of the wagering over a period of a week. I would happily wager the remaining £364 if they gave me the option to!
Again, I can't see this changing their decision, but it does show how ridiculous their decision is :(
Hi aburke86,
I completely agree - for the sake of less than £400 of wagering this has all the appearances of a group looking for reasons not to pay rather than a group that have a secure justification for their decision.
ThePOGG
Hi aburke86 - welcome back!
Before I can do anything to help you I need you to provide me the username and email address you use at GR88.
Thanks,
ThePOGG