Housebets Casino - Рахунок гравця закрито, а кошти конфісковані.

Dear ghostingura,

Thank you very much for submitting your complaint. I’m sorry to hear about your negative experience. We accept the situation when the casino allows players from restricted countries to open an account as long as they don’t use this as an opportunity to later cancel the player’s legitimate winnings. Simply said – if the casino allows players from restricted countries to deposit and play, they should pay out their winnings as well. However, if the player personally chose to make deposits and lost, we believe they are not eligible for any refunds because they could lose their deposits in the same manner at any other casino.

Therefore, I would like to emphasize, that we investigate further and help only those players, whose funds or winnings have been confiscated due to being from a restricted country. Nevertheless, it doesn’t seem that this is the case here, but please correct me if I am wrong.

Please, if there is anything else, we could help you with, do not hesitate to contact us, otherwise, we will reject this complaint. Thank you for understanding.

Best regards,

Kristina

Dear Kristina,

Thank you for your prompt response. I understand your position regarding restricted countries and refunds. However, I believe my case warrants further investigation due to the following points:

Negligent Misinformation: While I acknowledge that players should verify jurisdictional compliance, Housebets support explicitly confirmed on February 28th that I was allowed to play from Portugal. This constitutes negligent misinformation on their part, directly influencing my decision to deposit and play.

Illegal Operation: My complaint is not solely based on being from a restricted country. Upon contacting SRIJ in Portugal, I was informed that Housebets is operating illegally within the country. This makes all transactions and gameplay void and illegal. This is not simply a matter of a restricted country, but of an illegal operation.

No Legitimate Winnings: My funds were not confiscated after winning. They were kept after my account was banned following a request for a withdrawal, directly after I asked again about the legality of the platform. The platform allowed me to deposit and play for over a week, until I questioned the legality, and then banned my account, keeping my deposits.

The housebets response is false: Housebets claims that there was a zero balance at the time of the ban. This is false, I have provided evidence of deposits, and the ban took place directly after I asked about the legality of the platform, and requested a withdrawal.

Therefore, this is not a typical case of a player from a restricted country losing deposits. This involves:

Explicit misinformation from Housebets support.

Housebets operating illegally in Portugal.

The ban happening directly after a withdrawal request.

Housebets providing false information in their response.

I urge you to reconsider your initial assessment and investigate this matter further. I have provided clear evidence of Housebets' negligence and illegal activities.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.

Thank you for your reply, ghostingura. Could you please clarify how much unspent money you had in your casino account before it was closed?

My casino account contained approximately €90 in available balance, along with two open house bets: one winning bet with an estimated payout of €1800, and another single multi-leg bet that I believe resulted in a loss.

The casino has stated, 'The account was restricted once the user disclosed their location, as per our compliance obligations.' However, I possess evidence demonstrating the casino's awareness of my location as of February 28th.

Therefore, based on their stated 'compliance obligations', which they claim necessitated the account restriction, the casino's continued acceptance of house bets after February 28th is a clear contradiction.

If their compliance obligations mandated immediate account restriction upon knowledge of my location, as they claim, they should not have accepted any further house bets after February 28th. The fact that they did so indicates either a failure to adhere to their own stated compliance procedures or a misrepresentation of the reasons for the account closure.

I request the resolution service to consider this discrepancy when evaluating my demand for a full refund of my deposit sum.

First, I would like to emphasize that you should never share your user or log in details with anyone. You are the only person who should know them and who can have access to your casino account.

Now, regarding your refund request. Regrettably, at Casino.Guru, we do not handle complaints related to licensing regulations and policies. While I understand your perspective, unfortunately, we are not in a position to provide assistance in this matter. Our role is that of an independent online casino database that acts as a mediator in resolving players' disputes. However, we lack the authority to enforce the legality of rules. 

If your aim is to seek a refund of lost deposits solely on the grounds that the casino lacks a valid license, we are unable to assist you. In each review, we provide users with license information, and it ultimately falls on each player to make an informed decision regarding their choice of casino. If your preference is to play in licensed casinos exclusively, I strongly recommend checking our list of recommended casinos at https://casino.guru/top-online-casinos#tab=RECOMMENDED and utilizing available filters to find the most suitable casino for your needs. 

I can only recommend you withdraw your remaining balance and look for another (licensed) casino to register in if that is what you prefer.

Hi Kristina, it seems there might have been a misunderstanding regarding the details of my situation. However, that's alright. To move forward, I'd like to request a complete list of my transaction history, specifically all bets placed, and to initiate the withdrawal of my remaining balance. Please begin processing these requests.

"Housebets: 'We restricted your account due to compliance obligations.'

Also Housebets, one week earlier: 'Location? Never heard of it. Just deposit more.'"

So, Kristina, the casino says 'yes, you can play!' and then 'no, you can't, give us your money!'? What a brilliant way to run a business. I'm sure they'll have absolutely no problems with player trust.

ghostingura, we can assist you with withdrawing the remaining balance in your account; however, as previously explained, we are unable to request a refund due to the absence of the required license. Our assistance is limited to cases where a casino has confiscated winnings due to registration from a restricted country, as outlined in my initial message.

Additionally, we are not in a position to request a transaction history from the casino. Casinos are generally not obligated to store or disclose this data, and we do not have the legal authority to request a change in their policy.

Please confirm if you would like to proceed with the withdrawal of your remaining balance.

Thank you for your response.

Building upon my previous message, I want to reiterate the urgency of this matter and the importance of your assistance.

As previously stated, my investigation indicates Housebets refers to a license from GCB.cw and is operated by Bridge Technologies B.V., with Richard Hogg as CEO. Therefore, I require confirmation on the following:

• Is a GCB.cw license considered a valid and recognized operating license for online casinos within the jurisdictions where your services operate?
• Can you confirm that Bridge Technologies B.V., with Richard Hogg as CEO, is the entity legally responsible for the operation of Housebets?

Crucially, I want to re-emphasize that I am also seeking any and all possible assistance in recovering my funds from Housebets. While I understand your limitations, I believe that given the potential illegality of this casino's operations, exploring all avenues for fund recovery is essential.

To be clear, I am not asking you to directly retrieve my funds. However, I request:

• Any information or guidance you can provide on reporting this situation to relevant regulatory bodies, consumer protection agencies, or legal resources.
• Any insights you may have on pursuing claims against potentially unlicensed operators.

I am relying on your expertise to navigate this complex situation and recover my lost funds. Please provide the requested confirmations and any relevant information on fund recovery.

I apologize, but as I mentioned earlier, our company policy prohibits us from addressing complaints related to licensing regulations and policies, as we do not have the authority to enforce the legality of rules of specific jurisdictions. We genuinely want to assist you, but we are simply not in a position to offer further help. All the information we have about this casino is publicly available in our review, and we do not have any additional company details.

It’s possible that SRIJ could assist you with the refund, as they have more resources and options to support players from your jurisdiction; however, unfortunately, we are unable to help in this matter.

Due to the aforementioned reasons, this complaint will now be closed. Thank you for your understanding, I am sorry we could not be of more help on this occasion. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you run into any issues with this or any other casino in the future.