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To be fair, I should start this by saying that the One Club Casino may have dealt with Charles M of Ottawa, Canada very fairly. Then again, it may not have. It did give us the reason why it is returning his deposit but not paying his winnings -- but that reason was not very clear.
Charles originally wrote to us saying that between his winnings, his bonus, and his deposit he has roughly $1200 in his One Club Casino account but they have locked him out, saying that he is a "bonus abuser" and that they refuse to pay him anything, including returning his deposit.
He forwarded to us an e-mail from the casino confirming that he had bet the required amount and then, a later e-mail saying, "Having looked at your account I see you have only been playing Texas Holdum Bonus Poker, are you aware that play on this game does not count toward your bonus qualification?
"We have also been investigating bonus abuse issues from players who have identical deposit and playing characters as I'm seeing on your account, as such your account will be disabled pending our investigation results."
Since then, he said, he has not only not been told the results of the investigation but has even been unable to get his deposit returned -- and e-mails to One Club Casino have gone unanswered.
He denies having violated their rules but pointed out that even if he had the casino's website says that his winnings would not be paid but he would get his deposit back.
When we contacted One Club Casino, we were told by James, its representative, that it has told its processing company to refund Charles' deposit. James also gave a somewhat unclear explanation of why it is refusing to pay the winnings.
"It is not our policy to get into a back and forth with a 3rd party over player disputes, however I will advise you of the following details," James said.
"This particular player is a member of a bonus abusing team who all subscribe and post to a website called Beating Bonus's. As a part of our rules, players who we believe are abusing our bonus offers will have their deposits returned and their winnings will be forfeit and their account deactivated.
"The processing company have been advised to return the $311 in deposits back to the players credit card, and the appropiate actions, which I might say are clearly posted in our terms and conditions have been applied.
"We are not in this business to scam players, we will however take the appropriate action, which we are quite within our rights to do,if we believe our posted rules have been broken, in this case we had no doubt that this had been the case".
The problem is that even after reading what James wrote, I had no idea of how Charles violated the casino's rules. Certainly it is not against its Terms and Conditions to post on an internet bulletin board. Indeed, when a question was asked about Gambling Grumbles on Beating Bonuses, I posted there to answer it -- but that does not mean that the next time I play at an online casino I will be abusing a bonus.
Beating Bonuses, like most similar forums, is a place where players can share information about their experiences with various casinos and what new bonuses they have discovered. Most casinos are happy to get the publicity about their bonuses and some actively participate in the discussions.
In fact, the very words "bonus abuse" mean very different things to various casinos. Some consider players to be bonus abusers if they only play when bonuses are being offered (a definition which Gambling Grumbles has never accepted). Others restrict it to those players who open multiple accounts to collect bonuses (a definition with which we completely agree).
As far as being "a member of a bonus abusing team" is concerned, that, too, says nothing. If a group merely shares information about bonuses and discusses (legal) betting strategies, there should be no problem -- even if each member uses the exact same strategy.
On the other hand, there have been groups which work in illegal concert. Basically, this consists of the group signing up at the same casino at the same time, those who lose then charge back their deposits while those who win collect their money. Obviously, no casino can allow this and remain in business.
So what was the case here? We asked James that exact question and his reply was, "As I said previously we do not enter in a back and forth dialogue with 3rd parties in connection with player disputes. I have advised you of our reasons concerning this player, and that's where we must leave it.
"If you are a responsible site you will understand completely our reasons and rationale behind our decision and subsequent actions in this regard."
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