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For the past 18 months, Balazs M of Gyor, Hungary, has been trying to collect the $7444 he won playing at the Rushmore Casino. During that period, Balazs was accused of fraud by Rushmore and, as such, was banned from a major internet bulletin board for gamblers.
Today, however, he has both his reputation and his money restored -- and the casino has admitted that it was their mistake.
As much as Gambling Grumbles would like to take sole credit for this change in Balazs' fortunes, we can't. That must be shared with several bulletin boards, including GPWA.Com (run by the Gambling Portals Webmasters Association), GamblingIndustryAssociation.com, askgamblers.com, The Gambling Portals Group (which owns Gambling Grumbles), and a number of posters on these forums, especially "Mojo" and "Caruso", who never gave up faith in Balazs.
Moreover, we would like to give a "thumbs up" to the Rushmore Casino for being big enough to admit publicly that they were wrong.
The largest kudos, however, belong to Balazs himself -- who never gave up fighting, even when the odds against him looked hopeless, and always did so without bitterness or wild-eyed accusations. He handled himself as a gentleman during the entire time and earned the respect of Gambling Grumbles and all others who worked with him.
Balazs' problems began in December 2008, when Rushmore refused to pay out saying that he gave it false information by providing his mother's address, not his own. Balazs' deposit of $2072 was refunded but the casino consistently refused to pay his winnings -- totaling $7444.20.
According to Balazs, the root of the problem is that some passports copies were stolen from a hotel safe and that a number of fake accounts were opened with Rushmore Casino using these passports. To solve the problem, the casino hired a British investigator to determine which were valid accounts and, as Balazs lives in Hungary, that investigator in turn hired an Hungarian one.
Balazs says "in March 2009, the Hungarian investigator phoned me and verified my data and address".
He added that "In spite of this, the casino refused to pay me, they claimed that the address is my mother's address and not mine. This was obviously not true because the address is not just my mother's address but also my permanent, official address since 1992 and it is registered at every official place and written in my government ID."
He said that "in addition to my permanent address I'm also renting an apartment, so I also have a temporary address, and in the phone book they could find my mother's name because the land-based phone at my permanent address is on her name. Of course I registered to the casino with my permanent address, because all mails, utility bills, bank statements and everything go to my permanent address and as I mentioned, it is registered at every official place so it is verifiable at all times, while the other address is just temporary".
Moreover, "I contacted the Hungarian investigator who was surprised that the casino had not accepted my verification. I sent him documents that prove that the address is mine and not just my mother's. I also contacted the phone company and asked them to show my phone number and address at the On-line Directory Assistance in order to make the verification easier. The investigator forwarded the documents to his (British) partner and his partner forwarded them to the casino and he told me that he thinks that the issue will be solved and that I will get paid soon".
For all of that, he said, he did not receive his winnings, "So I contacted the investigator again, and he contacted his partner again. They both were surprised that the evidences were still not enough to the casino and as a solution, they proposed a full, face-to-face identification.
"So, in October 2009, I met with the investigator in person. He made some photos as I hold my passport, government ID, tax card and social insurance card in my hand and I also gave signature sample. Then they forwarded the photos and the signature sample to the casino".
The last that he heard back from the investigator, he said, was that Rushmore refuses to pay saying that the address was not his, but rather his mother's, and "We can not verify this player and refuse the right to pay the player. False information was provided, and this is not his residence".
Balazs took his case to another site, which -- like Gambling Grumbles -- mediates disputes between casinos and players. that site reported back that Balazs, and two other players, "have given false and misleading information to open their casino accounts. Thus, they have been banned from the forum...forever."
It was at that point, two months ago, that "Caruso" suggested that Balazs ask Gambling Grumbles for help. Balazs did, we contacted Rushmore, and were told by its representative, Louise, "I'm afraid nothing further can be done for this player. His first withdrawal was sent to him which covered his deposit amount and winnings have been voided and account closed."
We wrote back, asking the casino the following question:
"For a moment, let me go on the assumption that he is telling the truth: That his legal residence is at his mother's house, that he proved his identity to a Hungarian investigator who works for a British investigator that you hired, and that he has a second, temporary, residence. If you were satisfied with all that, would you have paid him?
"If not, why not? Would having the second residence automatically disqualify him? (I am thinking of my own children, both of whom are in entry-level jobs in other cities, and have rented apartments -- but keep my home as their legal residence for their bank accounts, voting, driving licenses, etc.) Would they be disqualified from collecting their winnings if they gave you my address when registering?"
As it turns out, even then the casino would not have paid:
"We would have not paid him even if the residential address issue would have been cleared," Louise answered. "This is due to other investigations which were carried out which show connections between several players which in most cases were connected by e-wallet account, played the same games, redeemed the same bonuses, won the same amounts, had the same game play which was thoroughly investigated, connections with IP addresses etc etc."
In the 16 months that Balazs had been fighting his case, this was the first time that Rushmore had given any reason other than him using his mother's address to register, for refusing to pay him. There had been no prior allegation that he had been part of a fraud group. The Gambling Grumbles report touched off a new fury among his supporters on the bulletin boards.
Then, in late May, there was a convention for the online gambling industry in Prague. I knew that Graeme Levin, owner of The Gambling Portals Group, was going to attend and asked him to speak to Rushmore about Balazs case in person. He promised to do so and while the convention was still in progress I received this e-mail from him:
"I spoke briefly with the Marketing Director of C-Planet, who own Rushmore.
"He said they have written to the player requesting proof of how the Moneybookers account was funded. This will indicate whether he was part of a fraudulent ring of players.
"If the response is satisfactory, he will get paid immediately".
Balazs provided all the information that Rushmore asked for, including copies of his Moneybookers account and his bank statements, and finally Louise announced that "The player had been paid the remainder of his balance to his Moneybookers account. This was sent 15 minutes ago to him and he has been emailed to notify him of this and explain the amount he received.
"We were extremely certain that his case was fraud but after further extensive investigation, he has cleared himself of this. He was very co-operative with us and showed us a lot of his information such as bank statements and Moneybookers screen shots, so we feel pretty good to have cleared him of what was suspected of him".
With his money in his bank account, the only left for Balazs to reclaim was his good name. A supporter who goes by the user name of "MrRaceTrack" took care of that for him by posting the results on the site which had banned him. Shortly afterwards it announced that he was reinstated.
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