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How to take legal action against a bookmaker

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arbusers
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How to take legal action against a bookmaker

Wed Apr 15, 2020 11:51 am

There is a worrying phenomenon we noticed these last years and it spreads like a virus. Bookmakers tend to confiscate well-deserved balances more often than before. In many cases, their decision is based purely on management decisions, not backed by solid evidence and data.
So what are the steps a legitimate player could take against a bad will bookmaker?
Don't get us wrong. This is an article against low business ethics. We fully support any action against money laundering and corrupted action.
Read the complete article here: portal/how-to-take-legal-action-against-a-bookmaker/
Feel free to comment.
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Re: How to take legal action against a bookmaker

Wed Apr 15, 2020 2:36 pm

So, from what you say some people are more equal than others.
For example, a UK citizen has more safety nets than an EU citizen and an EU citizen has more safety nets than others. I m wondering where Swiss nationals stand.
I understand and completely agree with the last paragraphs but some times it worths taking some extra risk as the returns might be bigger than potential costs.
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Re: How to take legal action against a bookmaker

Wed Apr 15, 2020 2:58 pm

There is more and more corrupted and money laundering action than ever
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Re: How to take legal action against a bookmaker

Thu Apr 16, 2020 7:56 am

Interesting article arbusers.
What actions does one need to take when the account is held at an uk bookmaker regulated in malta , and the account holder is from a non eu country? Besides contacting Ibas and MGA?what about ombudsman in this case? And the lawyer in this case should be a malta based lawyer?
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Re: How to take legal action against a bookmaker

Thu Apr 16, 2020 9:06 am

@Niklaus,

If you follow the steps according to the article you have to:

1. Argue-argue-argue.
2. Contact MGA, UKGC and any other ADR. Most probably the UKGC will turn you down, but if the bookmaker is offering services to UK audience as well, the UKGC will take your complaint into account, and might take action according to their criteria.
3. Contact the Maltese and the UK Ombudsman.
4. No step #4 for you as you are not an EU citizen as you say.
5. Hire a UK lawyer. If by any chance the UK law is not applicable, he will immediately tell you to hire a Maltese lawyer.
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Re: How to take legal action against a bookmaker

Thu Apr 16, 2020 3:03 pm

Ok thanks for the details arbusers
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Re: How to take legal action against a bookmaker

Sun Apr 19, 2020 9:01 am

Here is a case reported by a member of the forum. The member requested not to reveal his identity or the name of the involved bookmaker. The case proves how effective the UKGC is.

The client requested a payment from a very well known UK bookmaker. The bookmaker adopted delaying tactics and tried to discourage the client. Initially, the client was requested to provide a utility bill as proof of address. The client provided a bank statement instead and explained politely that no utility bill could be supplied, because his address was at parents, and gas, electric, etc - were all in the parent's name. All documents provided by the client were legit.
Then, the bookmaker requested the customer to visit a lawyer, with his ID, along with his parents, with their ID. And that the lawyer should then provide an "affidavit" which is a written statement confirmed by oath or affirmation, for use as evidence in court. Basically that would be a statement that the customer is resident with his parents.

At this point, the UK bookmaker started to act like the well known Russian bookmaker 1XBet, that asks for any possible document or a photo you could imagine. IMO that was a discouraging and delay tactic as it went far beyond normal KYC procedures. Any visit to a lawyer's office comes with significant costs, and these costs are not to be paid by any bookmaker.

The client contacted the UKGC and asked what the guidelines were for this. He then raised an internal complaint with the bookmaker and informed them about the opinion of the UKGC. Also, he informed the bookmaker he would inform the commission either way.

Well, you got it right, the client received his well-deserved funds in less than 24 hours.

In a sense, the client was lucky because the bookmaker was a UK one. I can easily imagine bookmakers from Russia, the x-Yugoslav states, the illegally occupied Northern Cyprus, Aruba, and Curacao, disregarding all action from the client. The boss would happily confiscate funds in his rush for a weekend with call girls somewhere in the Caribean.

It is evident that in order to achieve the maximum capital safety you should always conduct proper due diligence before depositing your hard-earned capital with any bookmaker.
Last edited by arbusers on Sun Apr 19, 2020 9:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How to take legal action against a bookmaker

Tue Apr 21, 2020 2:36 pm

I am a long-time visitor, but this is my first message, as this thread could be very useful in my case.

I read very carefully this article 'How to take legal action against a bookmaker', but I didn't find an help with my case. Actually, I am a victim of an unlicensed bookmaker.

They claim on their website that they are licensed from the Central Government of Curacao, but when they confiscated my money (more than 1000 EUR) and I filed a complaint to the Curacao eGaming authorities, they replied me that Curacao eGaming has no connection with this site and therefore any references made by them to their authorities are false and misleading!

Searcing more carefully on the internet, I found out that they are a white label front end of 1xbet with no license, except for a couple of countries in Africa, actually, I doubt even for this.

So, is there an official way to claim my winnings, or I should accept that my money is permanently stolen?
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Re: How to take legal action against a bookmaker

Tue Apr 21, 2020 5:21 pm

Your case is described in the last paragraph of the article:

''It is evident that in order to achieve the maximum capital safety you should use bookmakers regulated by strong institutions. You should always conduct due diligence before depositing your hard-earned capital with any bookmaker. It is also evident, one should always think and act rationally and calculate all possible risks, as windfalls and shortfalls could always occur''.

In your shoes, you could search some more and find the people behind the company, the ownership, and the managers and then go after them in the courts of their country. However, a scheme like the one you described, might be finishing in a country where the justice system is only symbolic.
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Re: How to take legal action against a bookmaker

Mon Apr 27, 2020 7:38 am

My friend you can forget for money on 1xbet, this site has no gambling license. I know a lot of people who lost there money on that site and not just locking the money, I know cases where they themselves change the betslip or if there were just singles, they change the bet. If you have under and won, they change to over and settle as a lost. And you can’t do anything to them.
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Re: How to take legal action against a bookmaker

Wed May 13, 2020 5:16 pm

Hi guys,

I would like to ask, do any of you have experience with Maltese ombudsman or money claim letter in Malta. Especially in regards with bet-at-home.

Thank you for your messages

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