Can Casinos Refuse to Pay Out
Gambling gives you vivid emotions and a chance to win. However, don’t rush to create an account at the first available online casino and make a deposit. Let’s first deal with the question: can a casino refuse to cash you out in the USA? After all, the funds won won’t be considered yours until you receive them to your credit card or bank account.
Can a Casino Refuse to Cash You Out
Casino owners are required to conduct their business with integrity. In case of violation of the laws, the website loses its license and is not allowed to conduct gambling. Therefore, users receive their winnings in full in most cases.
However, sometimes situations arise when the casino doesn’t pay money to its customers. The reasons for refusal can be different, ranging from technical failures to violations of the casino rules. In this article, we will try to cover all the circumstances in which an online service can freeze your winnings.
Reasons Why Online Casinos Don’t Pay Out Money
There are several completely legal reasons for the casino to refuse cashout. Therefore, before you start playing, it is recommended that you read the user agreement of the gambling website and find out the casino requirements.
Terms Violation
All gambling sites have rules and regulations. When creating an account, many customers accept the casino terms without reading them. This behavior can cause many problems in the future. Violation of the gambling website rules entails permanent or temporary blocking of the account and non-payment of winnings.
Ignorance is not an excuse for vioalting the online casino rules.
Multiple Accounts
All online casinos prohibit creating multiple accounts, even if the re-registration happened by accident. There are situations when a player has forgotten the authorization data and starts a new profile in order not to restore access to the account. Other customers specifically create multiple accounts to receive bonuses.
Can a casino refuse to pay out and deactivate your account? Yes, If the security service detects you have multiple accounts. Therefore, we recommend you to contact technical support of the online casino before re-creating a Personal account.
Submitting Invalid Documents for KYC
Account verification is a mandatory procedure on licensed gambling websites. The KYC policy was introduced by gambling commissions and stands for Know Your Customer. When registering an account or before withdrawing winnings, the casino requires you to provide documents confirming your identity.
The following documents are required to pass KYC:
- A government-issued identification document. This can be a passport, driver’s license, etc. ID should have a photo and be valid.
- Utility bills, bank statements. This has to be an official document with the same name and address that you provided when creating a Personal account.
- Photo of a credit or debit card. Sometimes the casino may request 2 or 3 bank statements.
These documents will help make sure that you are really who you claimed to be when you signed up at the casino. They also allow online casinos to track underage players on the online service.
If the casinos accept cryptocurrency, you will be able to complete the “Proof of Funds” KYC by showing the data of your Bitcoin wallet.
Providing Incorrect Payment Information
When making an application for withdrawal, you are solely responsible for the correctness of the information provided. Therefore, check the specified details several times before sending a request for payment.
VPN Usage
Some casino customers like to use software that hides their internet activity and allows them to connect to services that are not available in their country. However, many online casinos prohibit the use of VPNs, as it violates gambling laws in that jurisdiction. Therefore, if the customer is caught using these programs, the online casino refuses to pay out in the USA and their account is suspended.
Glitchy Games
There are sometimes technical failures on casino sites and the slot machine may report that you have received a large amount, although in fact the size of your win was small. The rules of the slot contain a warning that the casino is not obliged to pay out the winnings in case of a malfunction.
Unfulfilled Wagering Requirements
One of the most common reasons for refusal to pay out is not fulfilling the wagering requirements. All casino bonuses have their own activation conditions and wagering rules. They are available in the description of the promotional offer. If you have participated in the promotion, please make sure that you have met all the requirements before submitting a withdrawal request.
Other People’s Credit Cards Usage
Online casinos do not accept deposits and don’t withdraw winnings to wallets or payment services of third parties, even if the bank account belongs to your relative or close friend.
By using someone else’s credit card to make deposits or withdraw winnings, you risk having your account suspended and your funds seized.
Fraudulent Casinos
Another reason why you may not receive your winnings is registration on a dubious site. The activities of official online casinos are carefully analyzed and controlled by gambling commissions. Therefore, when answering a question “Can a casino refuse to cash out chips and pay out?”, we can say that legal online casinos never do this without a good reason.
The situation is quite different on unlicensed gambling sites. No one regulates the work of these casinos; they can violate the law and withhold payments under a far-fetched pretext. Therefore, you should only play on proven and reliable gambling sites in order to protect yourself.
How to Get a Win if the Casino Refuses to Pay
In general, there can be many reasons for a casino to refuse, block or restrict withdrawals. You can fix some situations yourself by contacting technical support managers. In other cases, you can require help from a gambling commission or a third party.
Contact Support
All payout requests are processed on a first-come, first-served basis. The review may take up to 24 hours. You should also consider the time that will be spent on the transaction by the financial service when waiting for money.
If you haven’t received your money after the expiration of the term, the first thing you need to do is to contact the technical support managers. Support staff will analyze the situation and help resolve the issue.
| Channel | Response Time |
|---|---|
| 1-2 days | |
| Online Chat | Within 5-10 minutes |
| Phone Number | Depends on the workload of operators and the line |
| Social Networks and Messengers | Not regulated |
Gambling websites offer several ways to contact casino managers. However, the fastest and best option is to apply through the online form, which you can find on almost all pages of the online casino. As a rule, technical support staff respond quickly and explain the reason why casinos are not paying out.
We do not recommend using social networks and instant messengers to communicate with online casino support: these channels are more intended for the announcement of promotions.
Take Screenshots
Before contacting support managers, prepare an evidence base. Take screenshots of the error notification or payment refusal message. Photos quality should be high and without blurring with clearly visible information. They also need to include the time and date.
Contact the Regulatory Body
If contacting customer support managers didn’t work, you can contact the regulator that issued the license to the online casino. Find out which organization controls the gambling website and send a complaint to their office.
All officially working web resources are under the jurisdiction of gambling commissions. In most cases, casinos display the regulator’s logo at the bottom of the home page. If there is no corresponding icon there, visit the About Us section.
Get Help from Third Parties
If all the previous steps haven’t brought results, seek help from third-party gambling websites. There are many sites on the Internet that offer detailed guidance on different complaints and provide a form to fill out.
You can also open a public dispute. Visit forums that help in resolving conflict situations, give advice and recommendations. You can also go to the official pages or channels of the online casino and describe your situation there.
Public disputes harm the image of any casino. Therefore, if the gambling site values its reputation, it will try to resolve the conflict as soon as possible.
Can a Licensed Casino Refuse to Pay Out
Before starting its activity, the online casino has to receive an official work permit. To obtain a license, the gambling website has to comply with the requirements of the controlling organization. One of the main conditions for obtaining a permit is honest and transparent payments. Therefore, the casino should have a good reason for denying you a cashout. Otherwise, the regulator has the right to revoke the license.
Large Winnings That a Casino Did Not Pay Out
There were several cases in the gambling world when a casino refused to pay out jackpots. The most high-profile story happened with Katrin Boukman and her winnings of almost $42 million.
According to CNN, the girl was having fun at the Resorts World Casino when the jackpot bell rang. Katrin took a selfie next to the slot that was printing her winnings. However, when she tried to cash out the jackpot, she was offered a free steak dinner and $2.25.
A similar story happened with Veronica Castillo at the Lucky Eagle Casino. The woman was placing bets in the Jurassic Riches slot machine when bright lights flashed and a message appeared on the slot screen about winning $8.5 million. However, she was offered $80.35 instead of a huge jackpot. There is information that the casino promised to pay $30,000 to Veronica Castillo after long litigation.
In both cases, the casinos explained the refusal to pay winnings by technical failures in the slot machines. The malfunction of the slots was confirmed by independent commissions that were created during the proceedings.
The Impact of Software Bugs on Casinos
All modern slots, in essence, are computer games. Despite the fact that the software is regularly checked not only by providers, but also by gambling commissions, the software sometimes fails.
Regular technical problems have a negative impact on the reputation of the gambling websites. Software bugs can lead to winning a big prize that was not actually available. In this case, casino customers can start public litigation, which harms the image of the gambling website.
Other users, on the contrary, deliberately use technical failures to receive jackpots. And this can lead to large financial losses for casinos.
It’s no secret that building a reputation takes a lot of time and money, but it costs nothing to destroy it. To avoid problems and loss of customers, gambling websites create pages with answers to frequently asked questions and regularly carry out preventive work.
