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I have been betting on horse racing for a few years and have mostly lost money which makes this infuriating!

I opened a unibet account about two or three months ago and placed a few bets on the Goodwood festival. I had a big winner of about 3000 pounds. I withdrew and everything seemed great. So I started to bet again during the racing at the York in the end of August. Again I had a nice winner this time about 2500 pounds. This time when I went to withdraw I was asked for a picture of my ID bank card and proof of address. Except the proof of address had to be one received in the post, a little difficult since I don't get anything in the post these days! All my bank statements and bills are online

 So I uploaded the ID+bank card and live chatted explaining I need to update my address because I just moved down south to Cornwall and I don't have any post to the old address. They said they would email me with a response about that. I didn't get any response so a few days later I tried to log in and the account wouldn't work. Again went on live chat. There they told me that my account had been banned, and my winnings of 2000 (withdrawal) and about 650 in the balance were confiscated. I honestly could not beleive what I was seeing! I did not even know a betting website could confiscate winnings like that.

I am so livid and I have no idea what to do about this. I have never had or even heard of a problem like this with a horse racing bet. It seems cut and dry you win you get your winnings you lose and you lose your stake. I cannot see what the issue is, I never had a bonus or anything like that just normal bets on horses, sometimes on short odds sometimes long. They stated these terms were broken:

"Dear Harry,

Your complaint has been reviewed in full, in accordance with Unibet complaints procedure as outlined in section 30 of the terms and conditions.

The account has been closed and the balance treated in accordance with clause 16.1 and 16.5, 19.2 and 19.2.2 of the Unibet terms and conditions.

We understand that the reason for the account closure has been outlined to you in the terms, while the internal business processes, systems, and methods utilised by the company, including those related to linking accounts will not be disclosed.

Should you feel this needs further consideration, you will be fully entitled to escalate this externally for an independent third-party review.

We use eCOGRA as an alternative dispute resolution. Disputes may be filed under https://ecogra.org/alternative-dispute-resolution/

Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any further assistance."

The thing that is really upsetting me is over the years I have lost tons of money betting on horse racing, especially this year, definitley more than I have won lol. Now I finally get two good winners in a row and the money is confiscated. Just cannot beleive it makes me want to quit for good.

Does anyone think there is a chance I can get my winnings? I am thinking about small claims court?

They told me to do an internal complaint which came back with the same thing. And now they say to use eCOGRA? What should I do :(

Hello, I have read your whole situation and I will start by saying that I am sorry that you are in it and that unfortunately we do not deal with sports betting as we do not have any experts in it. 

When I read the reason given by the casino for the void wins, it makes me think that they may suspect a multiple accounts problem. But let me ask you, what exactly is mentioned in the points mentioned by the casino? 

Anyway, I would definitely try eCOGRA if you think you haven't broken anything because it might have some impact. If you feel like going down the lawyer route, I wouldn't be surprised if you're convinced that you've done nothing wrong, but then again, that's probably going to cost you something. 

So that's what I would do to start with and see what happens. 

Hi sorry for the slow reply! Lost faith with this to be honest but going to try again now I have some free time to fight it.

Thank you for the help!

Just realized you asked what they said was broken.

here are the terms they said were the issue:

16.1 We will not tolerate any fraudulent activity or cheating. If we consider in our reasonable discretion that You have: (1) dishonestly manipulated the Services or taken an unfair advantage of us or the Services; or (2) attempted to defraud us or any other customer or legal entity, we reserve the right to suspend and/ or close Your account withholding any or all winnings and share information (together with Your identity) with the police and other appropriate authorities. A non-exhaustive list of what we consider to be fraudulent activity or cheating is set out below:

identity fraud;

payment fraud;

money laundering;

third party funding;

forgery;

using stolen or fraudulent payment details;

collusion with other individuals;

utilisation of software to gain an advantage;

chip dumping;

exploitation of loopholes within our software & functionality;

betting on fixed sporting events; or

insider information.

16.5 If we reasonably consider that any of the events referred to in Sections 16.1 to 16.4 above may have occurred or are likely to occur we reserve the right to:

close or suspend Your Account; and/ or

withhold and/ or retain any and all amounts which would otherwise have been paid or payable to You (including without limitation any winnings or bonus amounts).

19.2 We reserve the right, at our reasonable discretion, to close Your Account and/ or void any bets or stakes and/ or withhold Your Account balance and/ or recover from Your Account the amount of any affected pay-outs, bonuses and winnings and/ or implement a permanent ban from the Services for the following reasons:

19.2.1 we, acting in good faith, have reason to believe that You are in breach of a material provision of these Terms and Conditions including but not limited to Section 7 (Eligibility) in respect of underage gambling and the use of the Services in contravention of the laws of the country in which You are located and Section 16 (Fraud and Cheating);

19.2.2 we become aware that You have used or attempted to use the Services for the purposes of fraud, collusion or unlawful or improper activity;

The only thing I can think is because I said I need to change the address they think I am somehow acting frauduently lol

Hmm, it's been a while since we talked about this. So you haven't been on eCOGRA with your case yet, have you? 

If you decide to go either way, be sure to let me know how your situation progresses. 

I see you've shared some things with me but as it is most of the time, it's pretty generic. So I don't know what the casino thinks the problem might be.

When you talk about the change of address, did you manage to do that or not? I don't think that should be a problem for them to take your money.

I'll wait for further developments.