usEponine6
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3 September 2017 - 8:27am

Miami Club Casino

3 replies • Last post

Hello! It's been a long time since I've been here (or even gambling online, but I recently started up again).

I'm pretty disturbed about what I just experienced on Miami Club Casino, although when I came to the forum, I see others have experienced this with some other casinos as well. The other day, I deposited $500 and received a $200 bonus (from the welcome bonus on this site, in fact). As I said, I haven't been to any of these sites in years, but when I do gamble, I'm somewhat of a high roller - so my funds usually dwindle pretty quickly! In this case, I started doing $12.25 bets on Funky Chicken slots - seemingly my weakness. I received virtually nothing from the bonus funds, and it was only when I dug into my own cash that I had some wins.

Slowly but surely, my balance started going up rather than down, with a few sizable wins. I kept playing over the next couple days on the same money, going up and down and back up again. Finally, when I had a few thousand, I made my first cash-out request ($2500 - the max per week), and I decided to allocate a portion of what remained to some higher bets - which (for once) came through. It wasn't all in a single win, but I got a couple of really good hits....and when I stopped I was all the way up to $18,000!! (This is not including the $2500 cash-out request.) Needless to say, I was very excited and while I probably still would have lost some of it, it would have been incredible to receive anything close to that.

A couple days later, I received an email that my cash-out request was declined, because I had "breached their terms of service" with my betting amounts on the bonus. Frankly, I hadn't seen that provision, nor have I ever heard of being penalized for betting TOO much, but why would they even allow the system to accept the bets above $10 on a bonus if it breaches their terms?! It would be easy to prohibit! Regardless, the use of the bonus had been several days before, and had I lost the funds, I highly doubt they would have returned them to me. As I won, they took all the winnings out of my account and started me back at my original $500 with the $200 bonus.

I've written back - apparently without making much headway - because it seems ridiculously unfair to me. If they want to deduct my full bonus (or even more), that's fine. But my bonus was gone within minutes or less and I won nothing with it. I can't help but think it's awfully convenient that when I happen to be up so much, they'll decline my cash-out and remove the winnings, but they'll also allow anyone to place bets above $10 and lose the money to the casino without calling it out. It is true that I did not read through the terms with a fine-toothed comb, but I actually doubt most people do, so it seems again like a very convenient clause. Plus, I was playing for several days on this money (and this alleged violation would have happened within the first few minutes of the first day). The fact that they waited to tell me this until I had won $20,000+? It just doesn't seem right. And it's a huge disappointment, of course.

I don't know if I have any recourse on this, but at a minimum, I thought I'd raise the warning bell. But if you've had any luck negotiating with this casino or on this type of issue, I'd also be grateful for any help or guidance. Thank you!

auCL-Ed
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4 September 2017 - 1:47am
#1

Welcome back Eponine6, long time no see. Sorry it is under these circumstances.

I just dealt with another case with these guys a few weeks ago where they invoked the same rule. It was one of their other casinos, Uptown Aces. In that case the player only made the big bets after a massive win, and lost more money doing so than he would have if he had stuck to smaller bets. They still enforced the rule, though after much pestering they agreed to pay out a small amount to him in compensation. You can read about it here:
Uptown Aces declined payout due to bet size

What I found out in the process was that they blame their software suppliers for not allowing them to set limits in the software so you can't break this rule accidentally. As they can't do that they only review your play after you submit a withdrawal which I guess is somehow understandable as it would be waste of time otherwise.

Ok, they haven't done anything illegal or cheated anyone as it is all in their T&Cs plain as day if you bother to read them ($10 max bet on bonuses). But frankly I am sick of hearing about people losing money due to these rules because they could so easily be avoided by a simple bit of programming. Saying that it is all the supplier's fault is not good enough for me. If enough casino operators demanded that they do something about it they would. Seeing as they don't we can conclude that they aren't pushing for this simple change.

In your case, I will pass on this thread to the people I spoke to previously and point out yet again that their inadequate systems are causing more bad publicity for them and likely the loss of another customer. However seeing as your big win came as a result of placing big bets that were over the limit (as opposed to the other way round in the previous case I mentioned) I really doubt that they will do anything for you.

Until such time as the casinos do implement these limitations in their software I can only suggest a couple of things:
1. Read the T&Cs of every bonus you claim and make sure you understand their limitations, or
2. Don't claim bonuses and avoid all these potential pitfalls.

Always play it safe! Consult our list of rogue casinos and warnings before depositing at a new casino.
Post in our forums to earn CLchips which can be used to buy real prizes in our CLchips shop.

usEponine6
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6 September 2017 - 2:27am
#2

Thank you, Ed! Yes, while I'm still holding out the tiniest bit of hope, I'm pretty doubtful they will do anything. I received yesterday the "congratulations" email basically acknowledging my "big win" (that I apparently don't get to keep), asking who the first person I told was, what I'll do with the money, etc. Needless to say, it was depressing. But I responded and asked if there is anything they can do. (No response or acknowledgment so far.)

If their goal is to stop people from making crazy bets on bonuses, such that the casino is not making any money if it's lost, but pays a lot on the off chance of a win, my hours of play shows pretty clearly that this was not my m.o. My bets were actually substantially larger when I was fully into my own funds. Nevertheless, I realize I don't have much recourse on this one. However, I would very much like to see a scenario where someone loses their money, and the casino reviews their play and puts it back in because their bets were too high! Just seems like this is one of those rules with selective enforcement that will always work to benefit the casino and penalize the player. But I'm a bit jaded.

At least it's not a fraudulent group - just wary regarding this type of system where even if I read every word of the rules today, they are within their rights to unilaterally change them with no notice tomorrow. I suppose that's technically the case with all casinos, though.

Anyway, thanks for letting me vent and for reaching out to them. Hard but worthwhile learning for me.

CL-Ed

krcoolsongss
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12 September 2017 - 1:06pm
#3

Oh, another max bet issue... I am sorry to hear about your trouble.

As you seem to separate your own fund and the bonus, you probably played a lot other than RTG and WGS software. These two casinos just put together the deposit and bonus and add wagering requirement like 30x(Deposit + Bonus). The balance is just the bonus until the wagering requirement is finished...

As CL-Ed mentions above, they should do more to prevent these kind of situations for their players.