Gambling Grumbles

Casino Splendido
A splendid ripoff
by Steve Russo
June 2010

Forget about any other ripoff you may have heard about. Casino Splendido has them all beat!

If the experience that Jeremy R of Southport, Australia, is any guide, the casino works like this: You make your deposit, you are told you can not play until you are investigated, and you don't hear from them again.

Of course, e-mails from you (and from Gambling Grumbles) are either rejected or completely ignored.

"I deposited the €120 for the bonus and then tried to log into my account. It was already locked," Jeremy told us. "Note, this is immediately after I deposited. I wait to see if I get an e-mail but nothing. I get more and more frustrated and still cannot log in so I e-mail them asking why I am locked with my money in the casino. I receive an email back from Zain saying 'As a standard precautionary measure, our risk department has locked the account as it is being reviewed. Your funds are still available in the account.'

"Well it doesn't help if my funds are in the account when I can't log into the account! I e-mailed them and said this and that I found it very suspicious that they didn't lock me until they had my money. Why didn't they do the review before the money was deposited? I said I would report them to their regulatory body Ecogra and they replied 'While we do understand your concern, the account will remain locked until the conclusion of the review of the account. The balance will remain in the account until such time that the review is completed. You can report this matter to Ecogra should you wish to do so, as we are following procedure.'"

That was over a week ago and Jeremy's money is still in the casino's splendid pockets, while he, presumably, is being "investigated".

This is truly the ideal business model. The casino not only does not risk losing any money, but it doesn't have to fork out for such inconsequential items as games, customer relations, or payments.

It is also very helpful to a customer who wants to lose his money but doesn't have the time to play. As I said, it is a splendid ripoff -- or should that be a "Splendido Ripoffo"?