Question about Gambling websites with Curaçao license using incorrect Merchant Category code (strana 470)

We do appreciate you guys for not deleting this thread.

Also bear in mind that even if someone wins from one of these casinos and they pay out, The player can still chargeback the deposits. Legally the casino cant do absolutely anything as they are not licensed in certain countries. You can basically beat them at their own game. Morally it is not right, however legally they cant do anything.

They are the ones who started the shady practices, lets not forget that.

Go to smpay.net and go to live chat they will search the transactions for you i have just done it

May have given wrong info go to smpay.net go to live chat and speak with them give them details and info about transactions they will ask for last 4 digits on card and email and name and they will search for transactions if they have them if skinsonly come up tell them or also take screenshot from company house that the company is dissolved so should not be operating either and miscoding Mcc codes for illegal unlicensed offshore gambiling operators

If the casinos don't want chargebacks against them then they should have LEGAL means for players to be able to play there, it really is that simple. Surely you understand the point - if a casino is using illegal methods to obtain funds from a player then what is wrong with the player - addicted, gambling blocks, normal player or otherwise - from turning the tables on this illegality? If it is a licenced casino who correctly apply gambling MCC to transactions then its a completely different story. Do two wrongs make a right? No - we want a situation where chargebacks don't have to be considered and the ONLY way to do that is ensure that these casinos - who are engaging in what amounts to money laundering - stop accepting payments through fake merchants with wrong MCC's. This practice is far reaching - it enables the casino to avoid gambling taxes as well in their jurisdictions. My point again is that by promoting these casinos engaging in these practices you are enabling them to continue their fraud and also enabling this thread to continue, chargebacks to continue etc - it is a cycle that can only end one way!

Its quite simple - play by the rules and there is no recourse for players to chargeback at all. You don't have to be a lawyer to read and understand this to be quite honest - I'll happily quote you points from Mastercard and Visa TOS if it helps? Or maybe from Federal Governments, Tax Authorities and lawmakers in Financial Crime throughout the globe?

No Total denial of transactions

I don't agree with people who use this thread to essentially free roll, in my opinion that's just as bad as what these offshore casinos do, but the casinos who use illegal practices and target problem gamblers also deserve whatever comes there way in my opinion too, if they're going to engage in underhanded tactics to target problem gamblers then they can't really complain to have this thread shut down or complain at all really when something doesn't go their way. Solution to all of this would be the regulatory bodies operating as they should be (i'm looking at you Curacao), and the casinos operating within their jurisdictions only, and processing payments in a legitimate manner, abiding by proper gambling regulations etc.

This is very true and it is definitely important for everyone to remember that the legality side of what is happening is not up to a site moderator, OR anyone in this discussion for that matter. Unless you are a lawyer, or willing to pay for a lawyer then you should just contact your bank, be honest, and leave it up to them to decide whether they help or not. That is what I have done and it seems to have worked. If you do not mention gambling to them, then technically you too are lying. Two wrongs don't make a right. I suspect that most people here would not have even bothered to come to this discussion if they had made profit on their deposits, or paid out any sum when attempting to withdraw.

If people were honest with themselves here, I would say most of you here know what you are doing, and know that you lost the money on your own terms and now want an easy copout. For me, yes I gambled, yes I gave them my personal information. I am purely disputing based off the websites Terms & Conditions which they failed to adhere to. My bank have actually told me specifically that whilst they cannot dispute gambling transactions, they appreciated my honesty and said they would explore other chargeback avenues because I had proof of deposits matching up to the timestamps that show money going to random merchants (and failed withdrawals that never reached my bank). A genuine case, I don't think a lot of you can say the same.

Getting your money back for risk free gambling isn't going to solve the real issue here which is problem gambling/ addiction struggles. If people actually helped themselves and forgot about the money lost, then no one would even use this dodgy websites in the first place and they wouldn't make any money?

I'm inclined to agree for the most part here, i do think there are people who have lost and do want to freeroll and use this thread to do so, we have to accept some responsibility for being in the situation we're in, that being said, the casinos and regulatory bodies should also be held accountable for enabling and engaging in the sketchy practices they're in (using third party merchants and wrong MCCs to bypass gambling blocks, operating to customers out of their jurisdictions etc, and on the regulatory bodies side they should be enforcing stricter practices and handing out harsh punishments instead of taking backhand payments from these sketchy casinos). While the landscape in terms of offshore casinos is in the state it's in, nobody really can complain about fairness, the customer nor the casinos. Something needs to change, and fast as this seems to have been an ongoing issue for a while, as far as the BBC making a documentary specifically about Curacao casinos, harsh punishments should become the regular and external policing of foreign regulatory bodies who have enabled these practices to go on should be the step forward.

That's the point; I'm talking about the fair nature of the gambling in online casino. You keep pushing legality and statements that have nothing to do with the Fair Gambling Codex I asked you to read many times before.

As I said, it is pointless. Explain this to casinos, not to me. I sympathize with vulnerable players on this, not with you trying to drag me inside the problem of the international finance law, operators, and licensing authorities.

Read this thread; read the Fair Gambling Codex at least once - focus on the restricted countries part.

That's a clear boundary for Casino Guru.

Now think about why we instruct players to investigate casino licenses, because if players keep preferring Curacao over the locally licensed sites, this problem will still be worth the trouble for operators.

Point one "Guru's Ultimate Guide: How to Choose an Online Casino":

"1. The casino fully accepts players from your country

Always make sure that the casino fully accepts players from a country where you have a place of residence. Many countries formally ban online casinos from operating in their territory. In practise, not all countries apply this prohibition to every casino. Also, not all countries have influence on casinos based in gambling legislative havens. But many casinos prefer retreating and not accepting players from such countries.

If you are from such a country, you may find that a casino will allow you to register and play, but in case of winning, it will require a proof of residence from another country. They will invoke this on their terms & conditions."

Here comes the fairness for us:

"It is not acceptable to let players gamble if a casino knows that they are from a restricted country and if the casino plans to refer to the rule about restricted countries whenever a player requests their first withdrawal. This is completely against the rules of fair play, as the casino is knowingly letting a player wager money without a chance to actually win something in return."

Seeking a refund or chargeback just because the casino is not licensed in your country can be avoided easily—just check out the license and never play in an offshore casino. This is our approach.

Sadly , it is the nature of the addiction to seek a way to play in casinos, allowing you to play. If you self-exclude on a national level, I perfectly understand if the urge strikes; such players will immediately seek the first available casino, despite the safety or even completely missing license. In such cases, incorrect merchant codes ruin a very good prevention.

In other situations, however, it is just a tool to accept deposits from regulated markets - from players who willingly want to deposit. The legality at this point has nothing to do with the free will to play. We all make our choices.

Please understand I won't agree on any legal basis here because Casino Guru is somewhere else. We use common sense and sense for fairness. So once more—present your thoughts to casinos; we are not the enemy here; you don't have to push me; get it to the court if you are so persistent with legality.

I must admit I have not seen any evidence of free rollers on here just gambling addicts trying to free them selves of the pain with blocks being targeted by rogue dodgy casino sites ! I cannot recall anyone saying im playing regular and charging it back if I lose !

The bottom line is they are performing illegal practices with consent or license that is why the bank supports you with chargebacks and why they hide during the process or use idle threats etc.

I take your point about the site - please know I am coming from a point of boiling down exactly what they are doing on these sites with funds and matching them to rules and regulations, such as the Proceeds of Crime Act(UK) and equivalent in every other country, which confirms that what they are doing is no better than gun runners or others who are involved with different types of fraud.

I understand you can't define this on here, but I am making people aware that this is what is happening and it only stops with the casinos being shutdown or practices being prohibited on the cowboy licences of Anjouan, Costa Rica, Aruba and most of the Curacao ones. Sadly there are even sites out there with absolutely no licence.

Game providers must accept some responsibility here as well - they are happy to provide their gaming platforms to these sites as it makes them money, no matter if it is illegal or not. They are getting off pretty lightly in all this.

On the point on freerolling - I have defined this many times in this thread in weeks and months going past - I personally feel that players who are freerolling are as big a problem as the casinos themselves. The answer to stopping both things is still very clear - the casinos need to stop accepting payments in this way and overnight there are no more chargebacks, no more freerolling, no more advertising to gambling addicts, no more getting past bank blocks. Until they do this I have absolutely no sympathy if a freeroller charges them back for using dodgy merchants - ball is in their court.

Well, even here I noticed a few. Additionally, a lot of players file complaints to receive refunds due to the off-shore license, and they are unhappy when their complaints are denied. 🙁

So I think it is fair to make our points clear, because when it comes to claiming legality, we send players to lawyers or attroneys. I can also confirm that some players get refunded thanks to attrneys. So, even if we do not consider such complaints to be acceptable, in the end the player may have what he seeks. Just not here.

In any case, this is a complex matter and I would like to repeat that there is a huge difference between claiming refunds due to for example, missing licenses or restricted countries and between addicted players with an active responsible block, which fails due to using incorrect merchant codes.

I appreciate you figuring out some sort of common ground. I can agree on that completely, I'd say.

Not sure if this is obvious but personally I just can't stand when operators approach vulnerable players the same way as casual players with the argument that every player possesses free will. Sometimes I truly wish we could use legal arguments instead of fairness.

I noticed on the Casino listings page here that most Curacao-based/licensed casinos do not accept UK players, the only ones that do without using a VPN are the Santeda group casinos and these are the ones I have lost tens of thousands to. This makes me curious why the other unscrupulous Curacao casinos won’t advertise to UK players but the Santeda ones will, it just reveals to me they are even more unscrupulous and do not have a modicum of respect for any regulation or legalities.

Santeda, Instantcasino, Instaspins, Kinghills and a handful of others are all over the UK "Non Gamstop casinos" pages - they all could just accept crypto only but don't because its easier to exploit people with credit/debit cards. If people are on Gamstop its for one reason - they are addicted to gambling or have problems with gambling spend - these sites know exactly what they are doing.

Its dodgy sites at the end of the day breaking laws no justifying it they can easily not accept UK players as is meant to be its illegal bottom line they should be getting refunded bud

This boils down to the licencing though doesn't it. That is why Santeda and the likes moved away from CEG - because it is too restrictive for them. If a casino in Curacao is not CEG or not a top Crypto Only site then a level of unfairness in some form is to be expected imo.

Perhaps the logic goes that the casino itself should adhere to its actual license, so unless someone reports the casino to the UKGC, it is not that big a deal for the company. However, the UK has become so regulated that, to me, it makes sense that offshore casinos changed course and consider UK players not to be worth the effort. Speaking about players from the UK playing in offshore casinos, I noticed they very often pick the most dangerous unlicensed sites. In my opinion, this is because of the UKGC gambling block. Terrible side effect of the national scale self-exclusion.

This thread is about giving each other information about merchants not arguing with Casino Guru staff who have kept this post up for months. If you don’t want to help people just stop commenting nonsense.

The Uk is their cash cow that is why they do it ! they have loads of advertising etc online to lure them in plus once they get your details you will not get rid of them I used one site in 8 months and they took £15000 free rolling to me is losing then going back to do it again over and over this is not possible !