A casino is refusing to pay, now what?

If you’ve ended up in the unfortunate situation where a casino is denying your withdrawal request there might be a couple of solutions you can try to get you your money. It all depends on the reason why the casino has denied it in the first place, so finding this out is always the first step. If that doesn’t work, you can try this:

Contact their customer support

When a casino denies a withdrawal they will usually inform you by email, and there should also be a reason stated there. However, these emails are usually just a template, and can therefore be a bit lacking in information. It usually just says that you breached one rule or another, either in their bonus terms or general terms and conditions. So if it’s not clear what they think you did wrong, or if you don’t agree, you should contact their support.

When you get in touch either by phone, live chat or email, remember to stay calm, as that always increases the chances of you getting anywhere. Just be prepared that the support agent might not be able to help you much. In some cases you might need to contact the risk and fraud team, or the payments team that processed your withdrawal requests, rather than the support. That means that the support agent probably can’t resolve your problem straight away, but they might be able to give you some more information, or they will escalate your ticket to the relevant department, and then get back to you.

Send a complaint to the casino

Support should be able to tell you what the issue is, even if they can’t fix it for you. But at least you’ll get more information, and the next step will now be to send a formal complaint to the casino, if that is warranted in your situation. Higher management will then have a look at your case, and they will make a final decision on the casinos part.

Here it’s important to note that bigger casinos might just give you your money to avoid the whole thing ending up in the media or public forums, so you might just get lucky if they care more about their reputation than about the money. However, if it’s a serious breach of the terms and conditions, you probably won’t have much luck. Small or new casinos tend to be a lot stricter as they don’t have as much money to throw to keep their reputation.

Going into arbitration

If you’re not happy with the decision the casino comes up with after a complaint has been sent you have yet another option for escalating the issue. A rule several gambling licences have implemented in recent years is that a casino has to have an arbitrator they use. This is not like taking it to court, but as close to it as you’ll get. An objective third party will then look over all the documentation in your case, and will make a ruling that is final.

Contacting the licence authority

If all else fails, your last option to get your money is to contact the gambling authority that has licenced the casino. They will take a look at your case, and if you’re not in luck here then there is unfortunately nothing else you can do. The licence the casino operates under can always be seen in the footer of their website, and most often there is also a link to the licence website.

Cases where you might get your money

If any of these cases apply to the reason why your withdrawal was denied, you might get your money:

• Multiple accounts: If you have another account at the casino that is very old without any fraudulent activity or blocking for gambling addiction, you might be able to get your withdrawal processed.
• Bonus abuse: If it’s a very mild form of bonus abuse where you just bet a bit too much on a bet or two, the casino might let you off the hook, or at least pay out what you have in real money in your account. If you can prove that these bets are within what you also usually bet with real money you might get the full amount.
• Mistaken identity: If another player has the same name and date of birth as you, it might just be a case of mistaken identity, and as long as you can verify your account you should get your money.
• Arbitrage playing: If you engage in arbitrage playing where you use odds at one casino against the other you might get a warning, but will get your money back, as this is actually legal. However, the casino might choose not to keep you as a player, and might close your account.

Cases where you most likely will not get your money

If your withdrawal is denied for any of these reasons you probably won’t get your money paid out:

• Multiple accounts: If you have a bunch of other accounts at the casino and have been abusing bonuses you won’t get a withdrawal approved, and most likely all of your accounts will be closed. You’ll also get banned from the casino.
• Bonus abuse: In cases of serious bonus abuse, where it’s obvious that you’ve been violating their bonus terms on purpose, you will not get your winnings. This includes safe bets, delaying game rounds (such as free spins or bonus rounds) and patterns of “special” bets when you’re using a bonus.
• Chargeback: If a casino has received a chargeback for any of your deposits you’ll not get any withdrawals approved, and your account will most likely be blocked forever.