Gambling Grumbles

African Palace Casino
Pays, at last.
by Steve Russo
May 2010

It sounds like a lot of money: 100,000 South African Rand, but it translates to US $13,370 -- a substantial sum to a player but not one large enough to cause a casino to have problems paying it.

That's why George H of Pretoria couldn't understand the delays he was experiencing in getting paid by the African Palace Casino.

He wrote to us on 4 May, saying "I won R100,000 on the 9th of April 2010 at African Palace Casino. I have had to contact them several times and struggled to get any joy from them. Finally on the 20th of April, they paid me R50,000. I have several e-mails from them promising the second payment but no luck. Can you please assist?"

Even that first payment, he said, only came about when he complained about the casino on a local consumer website, HelloPeter.com.

Gambling Grumbles contacted the African Palace Casino and we would like to tell you that they gave us a perfectly logical explanation for the delay as well as a precise date on when George would be paid.

That's what we would like to do...but we can't.

"Thank you for contacting African Palace Casino," they wrote.

"Steve, unfortunately due to security reasons we cannot disclose any information pertaining to our player George Hansen. I however will advise that George Hansen’s query is being dealt with and we will be in contact with him regarding his query as soon as we receive feedback from our Head Office.

"Thank you for taking the time Steve in contacting us in order to assist your client. I can assure you that George’s query is not going by unnoticed and that we are aware and are in the process of resolving his query".

Gambling Grumbles could, at that point, have written a very negative report about the casino with a large "Crying Face" symbol on top. Fortunately for the African Palace, however, we are more concerned about the facts being presented than it is.

We waited another week, then contacted George to see if he had, indeed, been paid.

"Thankfully, I was paid this past Saturday," he told us. "They are now requesting me to change the rating on HelloPeter.com. I will refer future problems to you (also on the HelloPeter site).

"I maintain that it is terrible to wait 1 month to get paid. The entire experience was ruined as I had to nag and complain all the time.

"I believe that your involvement added pressure that led to my payment – thank you".