Gala - £8k Taken as 'Failed Security'

Hi CRPHILLIPPS - thanks for getting in contact.

Before I can do anything, I need you to provide the username and email address that you use at Gala casino.

I also want to alert you to the fact that it may take some time to get any information about this issue. It's now the Friday before Christmas and as such the contact at Gala I would usually go to with any issues is likely to go on holiday later today and probably won't return until after the New Year.

Once you've provided the information, I'll contact Gala casino and see what I can find out.

Thanks

ThePOGG

Hi CRPHILLIPPS,

I've managed to get hold of someone at Gala casino today. It would help me if you could tell me what games you played with your sign-up bonus?

Thanks

ThePOGG

Hi CRPHILLIPPS,

Thanks for your email stating that you played Great Blue and screen shots showing via google's cache that this game wasn't restricted.

The games played are only one aspect of the issues with your account (and I would note that Great Blue was not the game that Gala stated). There's no point in my discussing the larger issues if you have in fact broken promotional terms and conditions and unfortunately your screen shots do not match the results I'm finding.

When I received your screen shot of the google cache of the promotional terms and conditions which I'll include here;

I decided to look at the google cache for the same page. We can see from your screen shot that the time of the cache was 2 Dec 2013 07:30:09 GMT. I tried looking for the cache of the same page in 3 different browsers (in case this was a browser error), receiving the same time stamp from each browser as you received (indicating that the cache page comes from the same google data center), but in none of the cache's were the terms and conditions seen at the bottom of your screen shot visible on the page. See the below video;

I also had a friend from half the world away check the cache - to see if a different data center may have a different result - and they do not see the terms and conditions on the page in question

Alongside this, while I did not monitor the terms and conditions of the specific page in question, I do monitor the terms and conditions for the standard welcome offer and can state that the specific term restricting Great Blue has been in place on their standard welcome offer since at least the 6th of October.

I decided to look for similar promotions (many affiliates will have the same improved promotion) and see if I had and greater success replicating your results with other pages. As such I did a galacasino.com site search in google for the term "The amount you entered into the pop up will be matched by 100% up to a maximum bonus value of £1000" which would be specific to this promotion. You can see the results and the corresponding cache page in the below video;

As you can see above, I managed to locate a promotion that matches the one you claim exactly and the cache page - date stamped 03 Dec 2013 19:38:49 GMT, roughly 36 hours after the cache screen shot you've forwarded - again does show the term restricting play on Great Blue.

Given that I've taken a fairly exhaustive approach and I cannot replicate the results in your screen shot, for obvious reasons this calls into question the integrity of the screen shot you provided. Obviously I'm not saying that you have tampered with the screen shot, but to be able to rule out the most logical conclusion at this stage I will need you to provide further supporting evidence.

What I need you to do is go to camtasia.com and download their software. This package will allow you to record your screen and has a 30 day free trial meaning it won't cost you anything. Once you've done this I need you to make a video similar to the the first one in this post, showing you going to google, searching for the url hXXp://promo.galacasino.com/landing/affs/landingpages/index.php?offer=100to1000&bg=roulette&button=join (replace the 'XX' with 'tt'), calling up the cache page and showing the terms and conditions minus the game restriction.

Once I have that I'll go back and discuss further with Gala.

Thanks

ThePOGG

Hi CRPHILLIPPS,

I will be pursuing this issue again on the 6th of January - the first full week after New Year and will let you know as soon as I have any substantial information.

Hope you enjoyed the festive season.

ThePOGG

Hi CRPHILLIPPS,

To keep you updated - I am still pursuing this issue and there is an ongoing conversation with Gala casino. For the time being they are holding to their insistence that the slots games you played were restricted and I've provided a lengthy examination of why that's simply not the case which has now been forwarded up the management chain. I'm awaiting their response to that.

Further to this however, Gala have repeatedly asserted that there's substantial indicators that you are not who you claim to be. Once we've cleared the game issue - which I absolutely will not accept as justification for failure to pay - I will move on to examine their support evidence for this secondary claim.

Apologies for the delays and please bear with me.

ThePOGG

Hi CRPHILLIPPS,

For the time being I've been going round and round in circles with Gala regarding the game restrictions. They're still insistent that these games were restricted despite the fact that they've accepted the term wasn't present in the promotion terms at the time of play. So far they've asserted that the general terms and conditions cover this. I can say that neither their general casino nor their general promotional terms carry this restriction to this day and have explained this to them. I should be able to talk directly to someone in their casino team (rather than working through an intermediary) sometime later today when I'm going to look for them to explain their current stance.

ThePOGG

Hi CRPHILLIPPS,

I'm going to give a quick update for posterity's sake to fill in some details that I've already communicated to you via email.

Gala have demonstrated that there was an additional set of terms that appeared in a pop up where you specifically accept or decline the bonus. They've stated that these were different to those on the landing page and included the game restriction. The apparent reason for the difference was a server issue that was causing the landing page to repeatedly revert to an older version. I have had similar issues with ThePOGG and can attest to how frustrating they are to deal with. This is the reason that Gala have been asserting that the term was in place at the time of play. However - as I have pointed out to Gala - it's unreasonable to fault the player for a technical error on their side. It's completely understandable that a player may not click the terms and conditions link on the pop-up and simply click the 'Accept' button if they've already reviewed and agreed to the terms on the landing page.

As such I'm now - still - trying to review the security issues with your account that Gala have referenced. I have to confess this has been very slow going. This is the first instance where Gala have had to share evidence of this nature and as such it's having to go through the corporate hierarchy and while there is still a conversation that's worthy of my time ongoing - and I'll continue to pursue this as long as I feel there's still the potential for progress - I can understand how frustrating this process will be at your end. You've already indicated your intention to pursue this issue through other channels. Usually during the complaint process I would discourage the complainant for taking such action while I try to resolve the issue - it certainly doesn't make the conversations I have to engage in any easier - but given the extended length of time this is taking, I would be quite sympathetic if you felt you had to take such steps. If you do I would appreciate you keeping me informed. Otherwise I'll let you know as soon as I have more worthwhile news.

ThePOGG

Hi CRPHILLIPPS, Unfortunately the member of staff in the security team who I've been liaising with has handed in their notice. This has meant that their priviledges and access to the system has been curtailed for their notice period (to ensure data security). As such this case is going to be handed over to a new member of staff in the next week or so. This member of staff is already familiar with the issue and will receive a full briefing from the exiting manager, so this won't be a case of starting from the beginning. I have managed to have a more complete discussion regarding the security issues surrounding your account over the last few days. While I do think that there's evidence to support you having been involved in either running other people's accounts or that you're account is not being run by the individual who's named on the account, from what I've seen so far the evidence does not appear to be strong enough that I'd be comfortable supporting the fund confiscation. I believe Gala casino are also moving towards that conclusion. However this assessment presumes that I've already seen all their supporting evidence, which may not be the case, and I would stress that the final decision will be made by the incoming staff member who I have yet to speak to. ThePOGG

Hi CRPHILLIPPS,

Just to keep you in the loop - the new member of management has not yet started in their position and I'm awaiting that happening to move this issue forward.

ThePOGG

This has been a long running complaint and we've given Gala casino far more time than they really should have got to get everything together, primarily due to their good behaviour in the past. Unfortunately Gala are still insisting that the member of staff that would have to follow up on this has not started in their role. It's now been two months since the previous member of management left and longer since we made any progress with this discussion. To my mind if the filling of the appropriate role was going to take this long another team member should have been assigned to review this complaint and provided with the relevant authority to make the final decision before this point. We have already passed the point where credibility and reputation is being damaged by the extended delays and as such I'm closing this complaint as Found for the Player for the time being. With regard to the issue of the complaint itself; I have not at this stage actually been shown anything so can only comment on what I've been told, but if Gala have the data that we've discussed there does appear to be indicators that would suggest that this player may not be playing under their own name/may be running other accounts and as such I do feel that it's understandable that they took the actions they have so far. The problem resides in the fact that the evidence discussed does not appear to be conclusive enough to justify the confiscation of a large sum of money. I would stress again at this point that this is purely conjecture as I have not yet seen the supporting evidence and am drawing conclusions based on what I've been told about said evidence. Given the above and the fact that I've stressed to Gala that when their new manager starts that I'll be happy to reopen this complaint, I don't feel it's fair to criticise Gala too harshly for their current position with this specific issue. What I will criticise is the length of time that is has so far taken to address this issue. For a highly rated casino to have a complaint take over 4 months to resolve is very concerning. If there was an ongoing investigation into the player's account this may be understandable, but as far as I'm aware their is not. This leads to concerns about the sharing of information and speed with which complaints will be address that will have to be reflected in the Gala casino rating. To summarises; This complaint has been Found for the Player due to excessive delays at Gala casino. If the newly appointed relevant member of Gala's management team wishes to pick up this discussion when they commence their new role we will be happy to discuss this issue further. ThePOGG

Hi CRPHILLIPPS,

Just to keep you informed - the contact that I have at Gala casino is currently out of the office at the Amsterdam Affiliate Conference. That being the case it's unlikely that I'll manage to reach them before the middle to end of next week.

Thanks,

ThePOGG

Hi CRPHILLIPPS,

I've heard back from Gala and they're looking into the issue now. Will let you know as soon as I hear anything useful.

Thanks,

ThePOGG