Bad experience on CasinoGuru

I am Sharing my honest experience. Unfortunately, it was far from good.

I tried to post a review, over 2 months went by and nothing was ever published. I was told, after my complaint, my review would be published. Funny enough, this was not the case, in fact, after my complaint, my review was also rejected.

My problem with the casino, were the many lies, false information, Tricks to steal money and overall dissatisfaction, when I reached out to casino guru for help, nothing changed and it was all the same.

I spent hours collecting evidence, just for the casino to lie and win.

I question the fairness and transparency againt some casinos.

To Add assault to injury and to question the fairness and transparency against some casinos, CasinoGuru increased the casino Safety index during my complaint, and 2-3 weeks later, it was deemed as unjustified after "Careful review"... Somehow, during my complaint, their safety index increased, and obviously they got what they wanted.

After this, not only did my complaint get rejected, but my review as well, even though I had been told it would be approved.

This is quite sad to see and defeats the purpose of claiming "creating a more transparent online gaming environment".

Kindly note, I was always respectful, maintained my composure throughout, transparent in everything and provided everything requested, and it was all in vain.

The only good thing I have to say, is that the whole staff looks professional and kind, but that means nothing, considering my overall experience.

I had high hopes, i thought i found an actual trustworthy and unbiased place to help deal with casinos and complaints, but i was left extremely frustrated and dissapointed with pretty much everything.

Best regards to everyone

Dear player,

I'm sorry to see you feel like this.

Allow me to explain the matter regarding your rejected user reviews, please. As you probably know, we take each user review very seriously, unlike other similar websites, we deem it fair to only publish those that meet our guidelines and follow fair principles,we are responsible to provide truthful information to our community.

I'd like to remind here that you were not told your user review will be published once the complaint is settled. We inform players we will consider publishing their review once the associated complaint is settled. Focus on the difference please.

Additionaly,

Many of your user reviews could not be published only because you did not provide information about your experiences. Saying, "The worst experience with a casino ever. I can't put into words the awful experience I had. If you value your time and money, stay away." says literally nothing about the casino's qualities; it just reflects you were not satisfied, which is not a review at all.

Since your aforementioned complaint was sadly closed as unjustified, according to our findings, there is not something concreet we could use to punish the casino by lowering its Safety Index. Additionaly, casinos will be punished for their unfair behaviour only. Bad user experience is not enough to say the casino made a mistake. In this particular case your efforts weere also consulted and I agree with what was stated in the complaint:

"Dear BETANDYOU Casino Team,

As I have mentioned above, I believe that the player was provided with the necessary ways to successfully self-exclude himself, and he did not manage to finish the process. However, I do not think the process of player identification was done 100% correctly on your side, either. Namely, I do not think it was necessary to ask the player to provide his documents in July of 2023, because he already provided those documents in January of 2023. Asking the player to provide the same documents again only prolonged the whole process."

https://casino.guru/betandyou-casino-player-s-responsible-gaming-requests

The situation would be different if you would complete the process, and as a result, the account remained open.

I hope you will do what is best for you, if you allow me a suggestion, I'd like to add the following:

As part of our Global Self-Exclusion Initiative, we've partnered with BetBlocker, a UK-registered charity providing a free service to support people worldwide. You can find more information about our initiative here (https://casino.guru/global-self-exclusion-initiative) and about BetBlocker here (https://betblocker.org/).

BetBlocker is quick and easy to install on multiple devices, taking just 2 minutes. Once installed, it blocks access to over 84,200 gambling websites and runs quietly in the background. The service can be used anonymously and helps individuals manage their access to gambling safely and appropriately, whether that means complete restriction or limiting access during vulnerable periods. 

Kind regards,

Radka

Dear Radka,

While i agree with your comment, regarding my review that i didnt provide any info, besides stating i had a bad experience, I have gone ahead and change it to provide all of the things that happened. Unfortunately, I don't agree with your follow up, in your previous comment. By your standards and way of approving reviews, if 10 players have the same bad experience about a casino, you will only publish 1 of the 10 player's review. Then, if 2 player's have 2 different but positive reviews, you will publish both. The person reading the reviews will think the experience in the casino is overall positive, because you published 2 positive reviews and 1 negative. What the person reading doesn't know, is that you rejected 9 negative reviews because 9 different player's had the same bad experience.

Regarding the complaint, If you take a look at the complaints section, you will find that 95% of the complaints have the following statement in common "The casinos have rules, which need to be followed". I 100% agree with this, and that's why I strictly followed the casinos Rules while entering self exclusion, but in my complaint, me having followed the casinos Rules, written and agreed at the time of the creation of the account, was irrelevant, because the final decision had already been made much earlier in my complaint, and I will tell you why.

What's most concerning to me, and takes away my credibility from CasinoGuru, and proves that some casinos receive a different treatment and a Not so transparent and Unbiased decision... While my complaint was unfolding, the focus was not on my complaint, but rather on increasing the Casino Safety Index from above average to High. While I was trying to collect and provide as much evidence, CasinoGuru was more worried in finding ways to increase the casino safety Index, this included approving Positive reviews and tampering with Old complaints and decreasing the amount of blackpoints given. This is extremely sad and concerning and just proves the biased and unfair behaviour on your end, because instead of providing an unbiased help/review to my problem, the focus was on making the casino look better than it actually is, by decreasing blackpoints from old Negative Complaints, from 5 to 3 blackpoints (Because the casino wrongly deducted 5% of funds from the player, therefore the 5 blackpoints awarded by CasinoGuru, which later was changed to 3), this reduction together with approved positive user reviews and who knows what more, increased the casino Index while my complaint was open... do you consider this Fair, transparent and Unbiased?

Not only is this extremely concerning, as it proves the special treatment some casinos receive, but its also frustrating and disappointing to me, because i only wanted an honest and unbiased help to my complaint, I was 100% transparent, did all the research, sent the proof and casino Terms to justify my actions and why I was in the right, but CasinoGuru focused on increasing the Casino Safety Index, tampering with Old complaints, instead of actually helping me with my complaint, and seeing that I only followed what the casino told me to do, but following what the casino told me to do was wrong according to you guys "The main issue here is that most of the communication you initiated was unnecessary, and only prolonged the whole process." I guess me following the casino process, and what they told me to do was unnecessary...

Imagine how I feel, if someone is claiming to be helping me, but i perfectly see that they are favoring the other party? How can I believe you to be transparent and Unbiased, and to be working on creating a safer and more transparent online gaming environment, when I clearly saw the opposite?

To comment on your affirmation:

casinos will be punished for their unfair behaviour only.

Lying, hindering and delaying is not unfair enough? I guess not. I proved that they lied 3 times, but unfortunately you don't see this as Unfair. Quite on the contrary, by your comment, you believe this is a fair behaviour and worthy of increasing their Safety index, because you increased their Index instead of lowering.

Imagine my frustration, and utter disappointment, when I come here asking for help, and all I get is a Bucket of cold water, because CasinoGuru rewards some Casinos Bad behaviour even while claiming otherwise.

Dear palyer.

I would definitely want to know how you manage to assume this without having access to our internal system.

"By your standards and way of approving reviews, if 10 players have the same bad experience about a casino, you will only publish 1 of the 10 player's review. Then, if 2 player's have 2 different but positive reviews, you will publish both. The person reading the reviews will think the experience in the casino is overall positive, because you published 2 positive reviews and 1 negative. What the person reading doesn't know, is that you rejected 9 negative reviews because 9 different player's had the same bad experience."

I respect that as your opinion, because I understand you want to believe that. Even though this opinion is quite far from the everyday practice. We reject many reviews just because the information included does not review the casino's properties or is associated with unjustified complaints - as being already explained.

"While my complaint was unfolding, the focus was not on my complaint, but rather on increasing the Casino Safety Index from above average to High."

Simply put, the casino has changed its properties, resolved old cases, or altered the rules to be more user friendly. These are the most common reasons for recalculating the Safety index. I imagine the timing feels strange, yet it is done a few days a week and such coincidence has nothing to do with your unjustified complacency. Despite empathizing with your feelings, do not put that in a direct relation. The Safety Index is a subject of change; an increase is as common as a decrease based on the casino's actions and approach.

It remains to be said that I respect your objections. Fairness, in my opinion, does not imply that the player is always right on point, however.

We had no power to force the casino to settle anything because your complaint was unjustified. I recognize that, from your perspective, the user experience was clearly negative.

To alter Safety Indexes, for example, out of shared sentiments or unfounded complaints, would, in my opinion, be a betrayal of our principles.

I'm sorry we can't find shared views, but I feel it's natural under such circumstances.

Take care, please.

Dear Radka,

This will be my last comment on this, because it's just pointless to keep this going as it will lead nowhere, and i know that you wont change my opinion and i wont change yours. I appreciate your answers, even though to me, it's all hearsay, because I know what I have seen and keep seeing regarding complaint and user reviews.

It's close to impossible to give a negative review about a casino.

I tested the user reviews, and It took me 1 attempt to write a positive review and get it approved, and even after 4 or 5 attempts, my negative review keeps getting rejected. To me, this just proves a Bias regarding the casino I am trying to write a negative review. Put it together with the fact that my complaint was classified as "Unjustified", The casino Index increased during my complaint, removing blackpoints from Old complaints closed as Justified from the player, and me not being allowed to post a negative review, even though you acknowledged my Negative experience, this just screams Biased and unfair to me. Call it a coincidence, bad timing or whatever suits you better, but to me, it's clear what I saw and the special treatment I see.

The casino Terms clearly say, to get self-excluded the player just needs to send a message to the support asking for self-exclusion, which I did, but casinoguru prefers to claim, I didnt do it, and I didn't follow the rules. I guess some casinos can force players to follow their rules, but they can bend them for their own advatange. Not to mention, the Void bets without refund, that suddenly no one cared anymore, and it was just ignored.

It's just a disappointing situation, as all I see is a bias, unfair and special treatment.

I hope you can evaluate your practices and prioritize transparency, so no one else encounters all these coincidences and bad timing like I did.

Stay well.

Thank you for your response.

Since I still respect your opinions, I will gladly repeat what I believe has already been discussed in this conversation.

Your positive review was indeed a review; it consists of describing your experiences with the casino. We have no problem believing you because no one files complaints against a casino they had fun playing at.

Thus, as explained, it was quite the opposite with your negative review. The complaint was submitted and proven the casino did not act completely incorectly as stated in your review.

I want to emphasize how important it is to take into account the way you structure your reviews.

It would not be fair to approve your review, which was primarily focused on things that the complaint refuted, given the aforementioned circumstances, which are fully explained in the complaint:

"The main issue here is that most of the communication you initiated was unnecessary, and only prolonged the whole process. Usually, one email sent to the correct email address, clearly stating the problem, is better than sending multiple emails to incorrect email addresses for such issues, and without clearly mentioning the problem, in this case - gambling addiction. From the multiple pieces of evidence you have sent, there was not a single instance of you clearly mentioning that you suffer from gambling addiction. All the casino got from you was that you had problems with the game, which could be taken as having technical difficulties. The only instance where you have clearly mentioned this was from the conversation with live chat, which you shared with us in your reply in this thread on the 20th of August, and in this conversation, you had written the message before an actual live operator had joined the session. Various live chats work differently, and it is possible that the operator can not see what is written in the chat window before he joins a session, which I suspect was the case here.

Nevertheless, the casino came forward and asked you to complete the self-exclusion process, on more occasions, but you did not finish it. The casinos have rules for self-exclusion processes, which need to be followed. In January of 2023, after you sent your documents, you were asked to confirm the duration of the self-exclusion, to which you did not respond. And again, in July of 2023, the process was stopped because you did not proceed with the requests from the casino. If you successfully completed the process, and then the account was reopened, you would be absolutely entitled to a refund, but only after you successfully finished the self-exclusion process."

Thus, it was rejected.

However, we would be happy to approve your review even though the complaint was closed as unjustified if you avoided repeating the unsubstantiated points from your rejected complaint and instead gave a verifiable account of a specific negative user experience.

I'm really trying to explain your thoughts are not based on our intentions, that's all.

I'm sorry to see you go. Stay well, please.

I said I wouldn't comment anything else regarding this subject, but I need to comment this affirmation, which is 100% Untruthful .

Nevertheless, the casino came forward and asked you to complete the self-exclusion process, on more occasions, but you did not finish it.

The casino never came forward regarding this. When I asked for confirmation, of when this happen i was never provided. This is why I say, and keep saying there is a lack of transparency and a clear bias with the casino. Claiming the casino came forward and asked me to complete the verification is entirely misleading to anyone reading because it didn't happen. Never once did the casino initiate any conversation with me regarding my self-exclusion or even asking me to follow up or even complete it. Also, if you take a look at the complaint, you will see I refuted every statement the casino provided, especially when they claimed I never sent them an email, or that i could have self-excluded myself, which was just absurd as I had already shared proof I sent several Requests and no one can self-exclude through the app. It's also funny that the casino never posted or shared any evidence, it was entirely unfounded claims, which were promptly refuted by me with supporting evidence. Again, you saw this as fair behaviour and worthy of increasing the safety index.

However, we would be happy to approve your review even though the complaint was closed as unjustified if you avoided repeating the unsubstantiated points from your rejected complaint and instead gave a verifiable account of a specific negative user experience.

I clearly expressed everything that happen to me, and just because you don't agree with 1 thing, and claiming the complaint refuted such thing, is not fair. You are entitled to not agree with me, but rejecting my review because you don't agree with 1 point, is not fair.The Customer support lies and provides false information and there are close to none Responsible gaming measures, CasinoGuru rejects the review claiming my complaint was unjustified therefore i can't say some things.

You can check in my complaint several times the casino Lied and you can check on your own page, that the casino has a Warning about having limited Responsible gaming tools, so, where is my review not accurate? I am not allowed to say the casino doesn't have Responsible gaming tools, when CasinoGuru itself has published information regarding the same thing? You don't publish my review claiming it's not accurate, when some of the things I say are support and verified by CasinoGuru. This just shows a bias to the casino, not only did you reject my complaint but you don't allow me to publish a bad review with proven facts about the casino.

If I am deceived and exploited by a casino, which I was, and i have clear evidence, the least I would expect, is to be allowed to post a negative review about the casino, but I am not even allowed to do that, which obviously is just frustrating and unfair. All other platforms, I was allowed to post a bad review, but here even after 4 or 5 attempts, they are all rejected, even though I have changed the review to suit your guidelines.

At the beggining I only wanted to receive a fair and Unbiased help. Now, I only want to publish a bad review, but I am not even allowed to do that.

I hope you understand that I am not supporting myself on thoughts or emotions, I am literally seeing all of this happen, I can't just pretend this is all fair and Unbiased when I am seeing otherwise.

Best regards

I have no doubts about the sincerity of your feelings, and I wish I could help you.

Frankly, I'm not part of our dedicated Complaint Team, which sadly means I have not seen all the relevant conversations between you, us, and the casino. But as of right now, it appears that is pretty limited because I am unable to give these points the thoughtful responses they merit.

In such a situation, all I can suggest is that you ask for your complaint to be reopened and these points clarified if you believe something was not understood correctly.

From my perspective, this whole conversation was a good call and may help others to think more about problem gambling.

Kind Regards