Lucky Ace Casino: winnings stolen in direct contravention of terms and conditions
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Lucky Ace Casino: winnings stolen in direct contravention of terms and conditions
Lucky Ace Casino, a white label casino of the 888.com brand and regulated by the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority, has generated an avalanche of player complaints on the back of large scale confiscation of winnings.
Lucky Ace Casino was launched in January 2008 - see news items Another white label for 888.com and Kamay and 888 launch online poker and casino sites, from the Casinomeister news service, for some background information.
As early as the end of that same month, Lucky Ace started generating player complaints: players were depositing, receiving the $200 sign up bonus, playing and then cashing out after fulfilling the casino's terms as required.
At this point, the following form letter was received:
username XXXXXXX.
I am writing to you with regards to your recent email concerning your account and the documents supplied. Please note that we have further reviewed your account and believe that you have been abusing our bonus policy.
As stated in our Terms and Conditions, in the event of such abuse, we reserve the right to discontinue the member's account. As such your membership has been discontinued. Arrangements have been made to return your initial deposit.
Please refrain from opening further accounts with any site operated by us as these also will be blocked and any deposits liable to be forfeited.
Regards,
Gareth C
Operations Department
Cassava (Gibraltar) Ltd.
operations@cassava.net
Accordingly, all winnings were confiscated.
Unfortunately for Lucky Aces, there are several problems with the above actions:
1) The Lucky Aces legal warning does not actually state that winnings may be confiscated - they only mention "bonuses":
As such, by confiscating winnings, the casino is in contravention of its own stated terms.
2) Lucky Aces answers to the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority, a governmental body which is extremely accountable. The "confiscation clause"...
...is extremely vague and unfair. It talks about what the company "believes" and what may be "likely" to happen, and it also fails to define either "abuse" or "good faith". This is an extremely unsatisfactory clause, and is effectively a license to steal on the part of the casino.
According to the Gibraltar Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Act:
4. (1). In this Act, "unfair term" means any term which contrary to the requirement of good faith causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations under the contract to the detriment of the consumer.
Assessment of good faith
In making an assessment of good faith, regard shall be had in particular to -
d) the extent to which the seller or supplier has dealt fairly and equitably with the consumer.
In this instance, it would seem there has been an extreme unbalance to the detriment of the consumer, and no consumer has been dealt with fairly: the players broke no rules in their play and did everything that the casino required of them in order to be able to legitimately cash out their balances with bonuses intact. They wagered the required amount. They played no "excluded" games. They did nothing wrong. On the basis of a clause based on the casino's "belief" of what was "likely" to happen, the casino has confiscated legitimately won money.
These actions violate the casino's own stated terms, and they most certainly also violate the Gibraltar government's own rules on unfair practice - a government to which their regulator answers directly.
Players have been encouraged to file a GRA complaint, as well as complaints also with Casinomeister, whose complaints manager Max Drayman, after an extremely confused and anti-player start, has now agreed that the players have legitimate complaints and is looking into the matter.
For relevant forum discussion of this matter:
Casinomeister Lucky Ace Casino
Lucky Ace Casino has not reconsidered the matter, and all winnings remian confiscated.
Update: Towards the end of February it emerged that most players who had registered complaints had been paid. Lucky Aces, in fine online casino tradition, appears to have opened with a generous sign up bonus, been descended on from all angles by advantage players and panicked after racking up heavy losses. It's unclear whether or not all players who had their winnings confiscated had them returned, but on the face of it Lucky Aces seems to have taken steps to resolve the matter satisfactorily.
4 Previous Comments
That pretty much covers it yes.
While funding Ecogra (the play it safe seal - allegedly) to help clean up the industry, the 888 backend are confiscating winnings from punters.
By 
, at
2:36 pm
Lucky Aces Casino now carrying the eCOGRA seal.
eCOGRA has now granted a seal to Lucky Aces, the casino which started out life denying cashouts to a substantial number of players. They subsequently paid their debts, having previously stated that the negative publicity was "all lies".
Since Lucky Aces is a white label site of 888.com, and since 888.com funds eCOGRA, eCOGRA granting a seal to Lucky Aces is effectively eCOGRA granting a seal to itself, or Lucky Aces granting a seal to itself - both of which scenarios are rather ridiculous.
This is what we are led to believe represents "online gambling regulation".
By 
100% Gambler, at
4:03 pm
I to have had my winnings of £1000 taken by cassava enterprises,I had ask a sister company to end my account, a few months early, i opened an acoount with bingo lottery they let me play for two days in that time my account balance reached £1250 i had only deposited £150, they stopped my account saying i had requested this in june,( i opened the account in august) they said the were doing me a favour by giving me back £200
but i could not have the rest, If i had lost £1250 i bet they would still be letting me play
By , at
2:57 am
Please post about your problem at these forums:
Casinomeister
Winneronline
By 100% Gambler, at
2:39 pm