Cassava / 888.com: funds stolen after player receives personalised invitation to play
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Cassava / 888.com: funds stolen after player receives personalised invitation to play
Cassava / 888.com has a chequered history of player problems and outrageous marketing techniques. It has recently, and not a little bemusingly, been accepted into the Casinomeister pre-accredition list, and one might expect to see an improvement in their modus operandi as a result.
Sadly, not to be.
As reported in the Cassava stole my £2,000 winnings discussion at Casinomeister, 888.com is indulging in shabby behaviour on the back of dirty marketing practices:
The first one was SpinWin, I played the games I was allowed to play, finished their rollover and I won about £1000 I think, so I thought that was great obviously, just before xmas too!
Whilst waiting for my winnings to be paid to me, another offer came up for Eurocity, after being massively up I got brave and started to bet big, and managed to get my balance up to around just under €2k!! I had to finish their 'rollover' thing again, but when I went to sign in the next day my account was blocked!
After loads of emails/calls and advice from my friend who works for a lawyers, (who said they have no right to take my winnings if I followed their rules) I was told that as I have signed up to casinos in the same group, they will not be paying me any of my winnings! Even though they bombarded me with emails/popups telling me to sign up!
Surely this is bordering on criminal? They quoted me this term;
In the event that the Company believes a user of the Service is abusing or attempting to abuse a bonus or other promotion, or is likely to benefit through abuse or lack of good faith from a gambling policy adopted by the Company, then the Company may, at its sole discretion, deny, withhold or withdraw from any user any bonus or promotion, or rescind any policy with respect to that user, either temporarily or permanently, or terminate that user's access to the Services and/or block that user's account.
Although Spin Win quoted the above clause, the closest rule I can find relating to this incident is the one sitting directly below it in the terms page:
The opening of multiple accounts on the Website or on any other sites owned and/or operated by the Company in bad faith and for the purpose of taking unfair advantage of the Company's welcome bonuses shall be considered an abusive behavior.
So in a nutshell: after playing at 888.com, the player was invited to play at some of the 888 sister sites. However, the invitations were essentially fraudulent, as the above term makes it basically against the rules to open accounts at more than one of these skins - the caveat of exactly what represents "bad faith" and "taking unfair advanatage" is defined nowhere, and one assumes that they simply mean "winning with a bonus". It was equally essentially fraudulent on the part of 888.com to pass the player's details over to the sister sites in the first place (as they evidently did), as this was a direct invitation to break the rules.
However, neither 888's responsibility in forwarding the player's details to these white label skins, nor the invitation to break the rules it represented, was acknowledged by the casino rep; she had this to say:
The issue here does not stem from 888casino, it is from one of the Cassava white labels. Anything outside of 888casino and Reef Club Casino is out of my jurisdiction.
Nice.
So, 888.com sends its customers' details to its sister sites in order that they can then invite the players to open accounts which contravene the terms and conditions, and from which winnings can therefore never be cashed out.
But 888.com has no responsibility in this.
It also bears considering that although the term about "The opening of multiple accounts...at any other sites owned and/or operated by the Company" is listed in the terms, what is not listed is the actual sites themselves. The closest indication is a graphic at the bottom of the page of some, but not all, of the clones, which says "powered by 888 Holdings".
However, in order to remove any ambiguity about which sites may not be patronised the casinos should list them all. Yet they do not.
Why not?
It's extremely reasonable to speculate that 888.com and its white label clone sites are happy for customers to open accounts at as many of them as possible...as long as they lose. As soon as they go to cash out - assuming they've accepted a sign up bonus, which is invariably the case - they'll be told they broke the rules, those same rules that 888.com encouraged them to break in the first place.
What a dreadful group this is. Stay away from 888.com.
8 Previous Comments
Re: 888 poker have stolen my money!
Can anyone help me.
I have no account with 888 but nearly £200,000.00 has been taken from my bank account by cassava over a 5 month period. There are about 100 transactions for amounts between £200 and £5000 per transaction.
I don't gamble and don't even have an account with any online gaming site.
I was out if the uk during this time so did not understand what was happening till I retuned home to find my cards did not work. I checked with my bank and they said cassava Gibraltar had took the payments. I tried to find contact details for cassava online but had no success but found out they are part of 888 holdings. So I contacted them and they said they would look into the matter as they take this matter very seriously. 2 weeks have passed and I've sent many emails but they just ignor me.
I can see from online complaints that this sort of thing is very common for 888. Seems they are just a bunch if thieves. I feel like tracking down the owners and confronting them but I'm not sure I could control myself.
Also, this was a business account that they took the money from so even if someone used my identity to create the accounts 888 should not accept debits from a business account.
I'm going to take legal action against them but as they are not within the uk I think it may be difficult to take action against them
Is there any governing body who can force them to take action and investigate.
Any help would be appreciated and I offer a very generous reward should I be successful in getting my money back
Re: 888 poker have stolen my money!
Can anyone help me.
I have no account with 888 but nearly £200,000.00 has been taken from my bank account by cassava over a 5 month period. There are about 100 transactions for amounts between £200 and £5000 per transaction.
I don't gamble and don't even have an account with any online gaming site.
I was out if the uk during this time so did not understand what was happening till I retuned home to find my cards did not work. I checked with my bank and they said cassava Gibraltar had took the payments. I tried to find contact details for cassava online but had no success but found out they are part of 888 holdings. So I contacted them and they said they would look into the matter as they take this matter very seriously. 2 weeks have passed and I've sent many emails but they just ignor me.
I can see from online complaints that this sort of thing is very common for 888. Seems they are just a bunch if thieves. I feel like tracking down the owners and confronting them but I'm not sure I could control myself.
Also, this was a business account that they took the money from so even if someone used my identity to create the accounts 888 should not accept debits from a business account.
I'm going to take legal action against them but as they are not within the uk I think it may be difficult to take action against them
Is there any governing body who can force them to take action and investigate.
Any help would be appreciated and I offer a very generous reward should I be successful in getting my money back
Sepideh,
Send an email to me at admin@hundredpercentgambling.com with as much detail as you can, and I'll see what I can suggest.
By 
100% Gambler, at
1:34 pm
This law is just asking for an inevitable solution, whether it be the eventual legalization of online gambling due to the goverment's inability to implement, or whether it be pushed underground, forcing the normal law abiding Kuala Lumpur, Malysia citizen to become a "criminal", while in pursuit of a favorite game, hobby or recreational activity which they love, and which has been accepted by millions as a part of normal life and freedom of choice.12win casino malaysia