Afternoon,
Hope all is well with anyone who reads considering the current climate!
First things first, I have faced the main issue of being a problem gambler... I was a problem gambler until later last year when I decided to take steps & stop... signing up for Gamstop and having not gambled for almost a year now.
I'm after some advise if someone could possibly help, as the only advice I have received was by the license customer service & a third party dispute service (also being told they should have never got involved due to the type of complaint).
In a nutshell... I had created an account with an online casino site, spent around £13k (£4-5k of this was money input by myself, the rest was withdrawals that may have been re input back onto the site).
Overall, I had several deposits, withdrawals & reversed withdrawals on the site over the course of 2 days totalling the above figure of £13k (this is not including any winnings received that had been played & not withdrew). Within these 2 days, I had completed the basics... sign up, email confirmation.
Following the above, no further identification/problem gambling signs/checks were completed.. I was left to gamble such a obscene amount over such a short period of time with no correspondence to confirm my identity/fraud checks.
I had queried this but was not receiving a response from the licensee so I had queried with a third party dispute resolution (Who I was then later told should not have been involved due to the type of case). To which then the licensee refused to speak to me at all as they were corresponding with the third party... which is understandable.
The third party dispute resolution however... did not look into all my queries & gave very basic answers with no evidence to the queries they did respond to... When further queried they advised that 'We are awaiting a response from the operator'. Upon reaching 90 days & not receiving a response from the third party dispute resolution.. I had threatened to take this to the gambling commission.. to which the third party re forwarded the short answers previously given and closed the case.
Following this... neither the licensee or the third party will communicate with me, they refer to contact one another but refuse to give any further answers/information which is frustrating. I've requested time lines in which the third party had contacted the licensee to prove they had not been responding.. the third party just choose to ignore this & not reply... any information I have requested (for public information) they choose to ignore/not provide.
I've faced several big losses over the years to gambling... however this one stands out as on previous sites... all sorts of checks had been carried out before I could even deposit, then additional checks to withdraw funds... further checks when hitting deposit caps (most around the £3k) to check I did not have a problem and cover there a** basically.
I appreciate this is ultimately just another loss. I am however hopeful someone could possibly advise to whether i'm overthinking this, or they agree that this is all slightly dodgy..
Thank you for reading,
Callum.