Hi all, I have been playing professionally for a wee while now and I keep a rail thread on pocketfives, which I have been updating daily for two months + now. I also Twitch stream and have been an active member of the online poker community for some time.
I am posting a copy & paste of my post from my pocketfives community rail thread concerning BetVictor, and I want to warn you all to stay right away from this dodgy company or risk having your funds stolen:
Thanks guys. Wouldn't have been able to stay dedicated without all of your support.
Unfortunately today I come with some very bad and shocking news. As you guys know from my previous posts, I have around $25 on BetVictor where they had restricted my account pending verification of address and identification.
I have woken this morning to check my emails to find something insane from BetVictor. After sending them countless pieces of identification, proof of address, and yesterday travelling to my bank to get proof of address from my bank, BetVictor sent me the following response:
"Dear Mr Walker,
Thank you for your recent contact.
We are contacting you with regards to the information received on one of your attachments added to a recently received Email.
Due to the nature of these comments, the decision has been taken to close your account under a proactive exclusion on a permanent basis.
I can confirm that account number 6181768 has now been closed and no further business may be executed on your behalf.
We will take all reasonable steps to prevent the opening and use of new accounts. However, during the period of your exclusion, you have a parallel commitment not to attempt to re-open your accounts or try to open new accounts.
In accordance with the Gaming Act and the Responsible Gaming provisions, we have notified our Security Department of your account closure and they will endeavour to monitor our systems on a permanent basis to ensure that no further accounts can be opened on your behalf. During this period, any other account that is deemed related to the above account will also be subject to immediate closure.
In an effort to assist you further with this I have taken the liberty of adding two self-help links as well as the appropriate free phone numbers.
Gamcare:
www.gamcare.org.uk 0808 8020 133
Gamblers Anonymous:
www.gamblersanonymous.org.uk 08700 50 88 80"
I am in shock, needless to say, and have responded with the following email:
"What on Earth are you talking about? I sent you a bank statement...The details on that bank statement are my name, address, bank account number, date, and a dated official bank stamp along with the bank officials signature.
How on Earth can you ban my account from me sending you a bank statement? Are you trying to steal the money in my account? I went through pointless effort to travel to my bank in order to provide you with this information despite having already provided you with three proofs of address, official photo ID (full drivers license) and everything you have asked. Not one single piece of information that I sent you was negative in any way shape or form.
I will be posting your emails onto my blog where I keep a daily update of my poker progress, I have a lot of followers, and I will be contacting my attorney as well as law enforcement with regards to your attempt to steal my funds.
This is obviously unacceptable and I will be taking all steps available to me to ensure that you do not get away with stealing my money.
This is insane.
Sincerely,
Matt Walker"
My advice to all other players, avoid this site at all costs. They are trying to steal from me without any good reason whatsoever after putting me through a great deal of run around. I had told BetVictor that I was unhappy with their service and that I would be considering closing my account following the verification process when they first locked my funds. I made this clear and did so politely and professionally (happy to provide copies of all of the emails as well as all of the verification docs with my private details e.g. address, bank numbers etc. blanked out).
This is insanely shocking to me and I can't stress enough to avoid this very dodgy company. Thank God I only had $25 USD on there and not anything more substantial!!!
This means, until further notice, I must remove $25 from my total bankroll challenge."