I am beginning to get to the stage where I hope the bookmakers get the world of pain they deserve when the next review comes around. They continue to demonstrate the shittiest of behaviours on so many levels. Stuff we have talked about before. I honestly cant believe we are this far along with the tweets and not addressed some of this stuff in more detail. These are behaviours that they have exhibited for several years. Nothing new. Its just two recent examples that jogged my memory. I am rarely able to use bookie accounts so it doesn’t resonate as it once did. This is stuff that happens all the time by the way to people. The problem is that people like Matt Chapman say they will talk about it on TV but never do. If anything its getting worse.
Firstly, Unibet. I had an account with them which was several years old. I hadn’t used it as it was heavily restricted. I was able to place a few small bets and actually ran it up into a decent balance. The account was then completely restricted so I went to withdraw the money. Upon trying to withdraw the money I am then asked to verify the account. This seems to ‘still’ be standard fair for bookmakers despite the Gambling Commission saying that this sort of behaviour is no longer allowed. All verification should be done when an account is opened. They have had years to ask me to verify the account but decided the moment when it was required was when I went to make a withdrawal after the account had been rendered effectively closed. Anyway knowing that they would be complete clowns about it I made sure that the documents they requested were as perfect as they could be. Right format. Right size. Perfect quality. No corners covered. Everything as clear as can be, etc. 3 days later I get a response saying that there were issues with the verification. I resent and then had to wait several days for a response. This happened four or five times and ended up taking 3/4 weeks, a lot of emails and frustrations.
Then to someone else I know they were contacted out of the blue saying an account (not Unibet) they hadn’t used in many years because it had been closed, actually had a four figure balance in it. Why they decided to contact them now and not in the preceding years remains a mystery. Anyway they are having similar issues in terms of fulfilling the verification criteria. They have all the paperwork but the bookmaker is literally playing silly buggers to delay the whole process. Wrong formats, not clear enough. You name it. It’s standard practice. I honestly thought this sort of stuff had improved in the last 18 months or so since the Gambling Commission had said that this sort of behaviour wasn’t acceptable.
Clearly not. Has there ever been a worse regulator? The GC time and time again sets out rules that license holders should be following. This is what they say; “Our rules say that a gambling business can’t ask you to prove your age and identity as a condition of withdrawing your money if they could have asked you at an earlier point. However, there may be occasions where a gambling business can only ask you for information at that time in order to fulfil legal obligations. If a gambling business needs more information before you can withdraw your funds, for example, for anti-money laundering checks, then they should ask promptly and not only when you want to withdraw your funds.” They don’t enforce these rules evidently. Nothing happens to them. To the bookmakers. Grow up. These sort of time wasting tactics belong in a bygone era.
Until the mainstream media actually call out these bookmakers it will keep happening. It doesn’t bother me (just the hassle) as I know my rights but I am sure plenty will just not want the hassle and let the bookie get away with it. Keep the money etc. It has to get much better.
ProPunting 