888poker username Machidon7 , country Romania

For anybody currently playing on 888poker or considering playing on it I would suggest reading this post , especially if they offer to give you redeemable bonus money and you want to claim it.

Timeline:

On 11.05.2023 I received an email from their poker operations team telling me that I am under suspicion of trying to abuse their bonus system and I cannot access my account (the accusations in this email displeased me - because in my opinion I didn't do anything wrong, and because of this and because when I replied I had just woke up my first email reply to them it was maybe a little icy).
This email was a surprise to me, because I have received bonus multiple times before(if I remember correctly 3 or 4 times I got between approximative 200 to 600 USD and a few other small ones - like 2 to 20 USD ) and there was no problem .
I don't know if and what I have done wrong this time with the 230 USD bonus money.
In one of the emails I was told that "In the event that the Company has reasonable suspicion that a user of the Service is abusing or attempting to abuse a bonus, offer or other promotion, or is likely to benefit through abuse or lack of good faith from a gambling policy adopted by the Company, then the Company may, at its sole discretion, deny, withhold or withdraw from any user any bonus, offer or promotion, or rescind any policy with respect to that user, either temporarily or permanently, or terminate that user's access to the Services and/or block that user's account."
After I tried to explain to them that I am not that kind of player ( I have played on their site since 2018 - I paid in rake 42843 USD, I am a regular MTTs player and I have played on their site mainly because of their tournaments and not because of their bonus offers) , I last heard from them on 18.05.2023.
I tried to get an update on the investigation on 16.06.2023 and I was told by their support that they didn't receive yet a resolution from the poker operations team .
On 01.07.2023(Saturday) I contacted their representant on this forum in the official 888poker players thread and he sent my request to be checked by them.
On 03.07.2023 I received an generic email from them telling me that after my account was carefully investigated they took the decision to keep the account blocked ,to remove my membership and seize my approximative 2000 USD bankroll(about 2200 with the bonus money),without giving any proof whatsoever .

Other relevant information :

My 888poker stats :



I was an VIP ELITE since 16.03.2023 on the site.



The redeem rakeback (1058 ron equals to about 230 USD) bonus mail :



I haven't found any relevant information about what one can do/play (stakes ,type of games ,etcetera) with the bonus money on their TOS, it only states that for bonus clearance one should use the restricted funds - aka bonus money , but when you register for a game they use first your available funds - aka your money/bankroll) .
Please let me know if you think there is a problem with how I used the bonus money or if you have used it in another way :
-First I registered with my bankroll 2000 USD to tournaments that were starting in the following days (the majority of them which I was gonna play)
-Then I registered with the bonus money and played some blast spingos(buy-in 1 to 10 USD) ,satellites(buy-in less than 5 USD), and cash games(buy-in less than 25 USD) .Sometimes I also played some tournaments.
Also ,I didn't wager all the bonus money in one session.
When they blocked my account I had left about 65% of the initial bonus sum.
In one of the mails they mentioned that for receiving rake bonus money one should have to play 3 or more games with the buy in of minimum 100 USD and I have played from 01.05.2023 till 11.05.2023 3 games over 100 USD - one 109 Sunday mystery bounty tournament game with my bankroll money and 2 blast spingos games of 100 USD each - in different days when I made profit playing 5 or 10 USD blast spingos ,and maybe they thought that I was doing it for getting more bonus money next month , but I usually play in every week the 109 Sunday mystery bounty tournament game with my bankroll money (and not with the bonus money) and the month wasn't over.

Final thoughts :

I have been playing poker for many years (on PokerStars ,888poker and GG) - and never encountered something similar .
The result of their investigation seems odd to me , almost shady- they didn't offer any proof.
I also don't know why they stalled for time .
If it was about the bonus money I offered to give it back to them.
They seized approximative 2000 USD(I don't know if its legal what they have done) ,but I was lucky that I didn't kept a bigger bankroll on the site .
It is unfortunate that this happened , I liked playing on their site

Please advise what can I do .
All help is highly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

All communication with 888poker during this time period (emails):

there really needs to be some sort of independent third party arbitrative body that gets involved in these sorts of situations instead of leaving everything at the discretion of the online casino.

They think u were abusing their bonuses by registering tournaments first that u did not intend to play.

They changed the bonus rule years ago and made it almost impossible to redeem bonuses without touching real money first. Since then i dont use any bonuses anymore on 888. Looks like u found a way around which they dont like and now u have to face the consequences

There is nothing u can do imo. Money is lost and account gone.

Im only telling u what i know by reading forums. In no way this is my opinion. U can try contact regulators but i doubt they will be a help in this case because 888 will silmply argue that u brole their TOS.

How did u get these bonuses? By deposits?

I didn't even knew that this is a thing - abuse a bonus by registering tournaments and then unregistering(I didn't even found it on the internet) .
Also, the majority of the tournaments I had registered I was going to play them anyways (and I did played them in previous sessions).
It's not about registering tournaments.
I could have just as easy withdrew my entire bankroll , and then play the bonus and deposit again - the bonus will not have expired and this (withdraw and then deposit) is not forbidden in the TOS for what I know.
I guess the real problem was about what I played with the bonus money - two 100 USD blast spingos.
I played tournaments of about 200 - 500 USD daily(somedays more than that) so I touched real money every day ,it's just that I didn't use all of my bankroll in a single day.
For the clearance of/redeem of the bonus real money doesn't count , only bonus money - I am not sure they know this.
I didn't knew that I couldn't do it that way , I thought since they offer the bonus money it can be used.
They should have just told me what they didn't like , how am I supposed to know that since it isn't written anywhere .
Actually I got today an email from them saying that they will return my account to me , but they will remove any bonuses(I guess this includes also promotions) on my account for the foreseeable future.
This means I will still play tournaments on their site , but less then before.



The information is much appreciated.
I don't have to do it anymore since they returned my account.
In my opinion the TOS regarding this are vague and left for interpretation.
It needs to be more explicit(for example in my mind bonus abuse relates to something like making multiple accounts, not just playing with the bonus money).
I will not have done something that I knew is not allowed .
The small ones(2-20) I got them by deposits , the bigger ones(200-600) I got them from a promotion for playing high buy-ins tournaments on their site - so it wasn't for free (I got 20% rakeback from what I played in the previous month and I guess you have to be VIP ELITE to get this promotion) .

I totally agree .

Very nice u got ur account back! Weird actions from them tbh. I thought they dont take these decisions lightly.

I am hoping to hear from some 888poker players regarding the site's bonus money - if they received it, if they tried to clear it and how .
Also , I tried to get back my 888poker club status and perks (I'm almost level 290 and I worked hard to get there) and I asked to be allowed to take part in their promotions (except the redeemable clearance bonus ones - where one has to play the bonus to be cleared) since I returned the bonus money and I play and pay rake like everybody else.
In hindsight I regret that when I received the first clearance bonus money I didn't sent them an email an asked for exact instructions how to clear it(since the TOS doesn't specify this).

It seems that I failed to get back my rewards for being a loyal and patron member of 888poker club.
But, I finally did what I should have done much earlier ,I apologized for how I replied in my first email and I gave credit where credit is due.
I guess this will be the end of it.
Thank You for your replies and your help regarding this incident.