Hi Guy's I made a withdrawal on 26/4/2020 from Dream Vegas online casino, however I foolishly went back within 2 hours and reversed the withdrawal as this option was available, and lost the lot!!! However it was only a week or 2 later that they removed the option of reversing any withdrawal stating 'Due to government legislation once made a withdrawal cannot be reversed' I was wondering if they should have implemented this law earlier on their site, and if so could I potentially claim my money back?? Any Advice would be greatly welcomed. Kind Regards James

Dear bernie71111,

Thank you for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your problem. Unfortunately, I don’t think this is something we could help you with, because you lost all your winnings. I understand that this situation would never happen if there wasn’t an option to cancell your withdrawal, but many casinos operate like this and I am affraid we could help you only if you had some balance left.

Could you please specify which government legislation is the casino referring to? Where do you see this message?

Thank you in advance for your reply.

Best regards,

Kristina

Hi Kristina

When I went to make a withdrawal a few days later on the same site as mentioned, the message on the screen when doing so said 'due to UK government legislation once a withdrawal is made it cannot be reversed'

I have since found the below information from the UK gambling commission, and as you will see it is CLEARLY dated JULY 2019, and I obviously come under paragraph F)................ The withdrawal was made and reversed in April 2020, however the legislation is issued in july 2019.

I include the direct link to the site below, along with the information copied and pasted underneath.

https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news-action-and-statistics/Statistics-and-research/Covid-19-research/Customer-interaction-%E2%80%93-Additional-formal-guidance-for-remote-operators-during-COVID-19-outbreak.aspx

Customer interaction – Additional formal guidance for remote operators during COVID-19 outbreak

Social responsibility code provision 3.4.1 (From 31 October 2019) Customer interaction

All licences, except non-remote lottery, gaming machine technical, gambling software and host licences.

1. Licensees must interact with customers in a way which minimises the risk of customers experiencing harms associated with gambling. This must include:

identifying customers who may be at risk of or experiencing harms associated with gambling.

interacting with customers who may be at risk of or experiencing harms associated with gambling.

understanding the impact of the interaction on the customer, and the effectiveness of the Licensee’s actions and approach.

2. Licensees must take into account the Commission’s guidance on customer interaction. This guidance is issued further to the formal customer interaction guidance for remote operators of July 2019.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown, licensees should ensure they have the following measures implemented into their customer interaction framework for the purposes of preventing gambling related harm:

a)      Reviews of all thresholds and triggers used to track vulnerability to ensure that they reflect changed financial circumstances that many consumers will be experiencing. An emphasis should be placed on those thresholds and triggers being proactively reset on a precautionary basis to ensure customers with emerging vulnerability, such as increased time spent at play or increased spend can be identified

b)     Specifically, review your time indicators to capture play in excess of 1 hour as this is a proxy for potential harm.

c)      Set additional or modify existing thresholds and triggers which are specific to new customers reflecting an operator’s lack of knowledge of that individual’s play and spend patterns.

d)     Implement processes that ensure the continual monitoring of your customer base, identifying customers whose patterns of play, spend or behaviours have changed in the last few weeks.

e)     Conduct affordability assessments for individuals picked up by existing or new thresholds and triggers which indicate consumers experiencing harm. Consider limiting or blocking further play until the checks have been concluded and supporting evidence obtained.

f)       Prevent reverse withdrawal options for customers until further notice.

g)      Stop bonus offers or promotions to customers displaying indicators of harm[1]

Knowing and identifying your customers at risk of or experiencing harm and acting early and quickly could help stop or prevent the harm worsening.

These measures will be kept under periodic review by the Commission and may be revised in response to changes in circumstance. 

bernie71111, unfortunately, after gathering all the necessary information we are rejecting this complaint as unjustified. I believe Matej explained the situation nicely in your forum post:

http://www.kpvfaw.com/forum/complaints-discussion/uk-online-withdrawal-reversal-rules#post-1679

"As I wrote before, you can't blame the casino in this case. They wanted to be responsible, so they removed reverse withdrawals as was recommended. You reversed your withdrawal before they remove this option so you can't blame them or ask the refund.

It's the same situation as if you buy a product in the store and the next day you see that the product is now in discount. And now you want the store to pay you the price difference. (they won't do that, simply because when you bought the product you agreed with the price)"

Sorry we were not able to help you with this one, but please, do not hesitate to contact us in the future, if you run into any issues with this or any other casino and we will try our best to help.