Plaza Win - not paying my winnings

Hi casablanca12 - thanks for getting in touch.

I'll try to get in contact with Plaza Win as soon as possible and see what we can do to help resolve this issue.

ThePOGG

Hi casablanca12,

Just to keep you up-to-date, I have heard back from a Plaza Win representative and they're looking to put me in contact with the appropriate member of staff to deal with this issue.

Thanks for you patience.

ThePOGG

Hi casablanca12,

I've heard back from Plaza Win today and they've reasserted that this issue has already been escalated, but that it's going to take a few weeks to resolve.

To allow me to discuss the issue in greater details and find out what the hold up is, they require a letter from you giving your consent to discuss the details of your account with me. This is a fair standard requirement that's in place to ensure they don't give out your private information to a non-authorized individual (fraudster).

What I need you to do is write a letter giving Plaza Win consent to discuss your account with ThePOGG.com. The letter needs to include your name, surname, date of birth, residential address, username. It also needs to clearly show your signature so you will need to print it out, sign it and scan it back in.

The file needs to be in a .pdf format - I realise this is a non-standard format, so if you are struggling with this aspect of the process, write up the letter and scan it back in once you've signed it then forward it to me at [email protected] and I'll convert it for you.

Once we have the final .pdf file, you'll need to email it to Plaza Win support from the email address you used to sign up with them aand CC to my email address above.

I realise this is a bit of a pain, but as this will allow me to get answers as to the details of the issue and is a valid requirement to adhere to privacy laws I feel it's a worthwhile expenditure of time.

Let me know if there's any further way I can help with meeting this requirement.

ThePOGG

Hi casablanca12,

I've just heard from Plaza Win - while they haven't given me any details of what they've said as they don't currently have permission to discuss your account, they have informed me that they've communicated their decision to you. Is this issue resolved?

Thanks

ThePOGG

Hi casablanca12,

I think we've gone as far with this complaint as we can. You've informed me that Plaza Win have given your their final decision and that they will not pay your win. However, as you've not provide Plaza Win with the required permission to discuss your account, I can't confirm this. As such I'm going to mark this complaint as Unresolved.

If - as you've claimed - Plaza Win will not pay your win I do find this highly concerning. A previous self exclusion at another property in their group is good reason not to allow you to play at Plaza Win. This is a reasonable measure to take to protect their customers from damaging themselves. However, for the average customer, knowing all the properties in this extended group - iGlobal Media are party of the Bwin/Party group who also own the Cashcade group - is unlikely.

The scenario here - assuming your account is accurate - is one where due to your self exclusion you were placed you in a no win situation. Your play would likely never been identified by a security review if you'd been losing rather than winning. So you could do the one most damaging thing for someone with a gambling addiction - gamble more than you could afford and lose freely. However, this was actually worse than had you not self excluded as you had no possibility of winning. You could break even or lose for as long as you like, but the moment you had a win and tried to withdraw, the win was voided.

If Plaza Win are genuinely interested in protecting problem gamblers from their issues, self-excluded accounts at any of their venues should be automatically identified at the point of registration at other properties using the identifier information provided by the customer (name, address, email, phone number etc) and restricted from real play. That way the player is never at risk. In the instance where a player slips through unidentified, the win should be paid simply to ensure the player was never put in a no win situation.

All of the above is complete conjecture however when considered beside the fact that Plaza Win were willing to discuss this issue yet never received the permission they required to ensure that they were not breaking any privacy laws. Without that, I can't confirm any of the information you've provided and the assistance I can provide is non-existent. I certainly cannot fault Plaza Win for asking for written permission to ensure their own safety.

ThePOGG