Just would like to share my 888poker horror story, and the shady and deceptive business practices are part of 888poker.

I had contacted support saying i'd like for them to turn off the shady withdrawal reversal feature.. which constantly nags you with a popup to reversal a pending withdrawal anytime you visit the deposit screen.

I mentioned how this is taking advantage of people who may be intoxicated or in a compromised state due to mental health conditions.
I take a psychiatric med, and if I do not have access to it, I can became confused, disoriented, impulsive and make decisions that are akin to being intoxicated.
The only time i've had issues in the past 12 years, were around xmas time, when I ran out of my meds and couldnt see a doctor, thats happened all of 4 times in the last 12-14 years.
Well this year the manufacturer is actually short on produce the medication.
Needless to say I made a complaint, and by simply bringing up my condition, the instabanned me and forwarded me to the responsible gaming team.

Even after explaining that my condition is well under control and that it was only 1 day that I had been affected they informed me my account was perma banned and would not be reopened under any circumstance. They refuse to refund any balance, and would not pay me back for the 2 tournaments that I was already registered in that I had paid for, nor would they allow me to compete in them.

425$ withdrawal they didn't honor.
109$ tournament entry fee they did not refund or let me participate in.



Furthermore just a list of other shady practices they have going on at 888.

1. The fold checkbox (act before it's your turn) is overlayed above the call checkbox. So if you try to prefold while waiting on others to act, and then it becomes your turn as you click the button, you are actually clicking call.
   
2. The timeouts are way too fast, and on more occasions than I can remember they would fold my winning hand.. one time even while i was typing out the bet amount... There is also no rhyme or reason to the differences between how long of a time bank you get. For example, IMO, on a final table of a tournament with 3 players remaining... you should get more than 8 seconds to act, for an ALL-IN call of 200,000+ chips.
   
3. The withdrawal reversal "feature" is completely unethical and is designed to take advantage and prey on impulsive people because it is circumventing deposit limits. (This can be disabled by contacting support, but is on by default and popups and asks you 2-3 times during a deposit, so if you don't read the popup and habitually just hit ok (to confirm your deposit) you will restart your 4 day deposit wait)

Since then I have found that GGpoker is far better and all 3 issues do not exist. the prefold button is overtop of the fold button. Withdrawal reversals are not ever allowed, and the timebank feature is very clear and has configurable options.

@888Rep I expect a response, this will be the first of many such posts on various forums that I will continue to bring awareness to your company's unethical practices if I do receive the compensation I am entitled to. Ban me, sure, I will never use your services again even if unbanned. But not letting me participate (or refunding me) in/for the 2 tournaments I was already paid and registered for prior to being ban is unacceptable.

Just look at the two conflicting messages I quoted.
Let me get this straight..

On one hand, you tell me that simply having the condition prohibits me from having an account.

On the other hand you tell me that I fairly spent the money on your site.

If simply having a mental health condition bars me from being on the site, is that not also clearly alluding the fact that it could not have been fairly spent?

What a joke.
I highly recommend to all that you do not use 888poker, as they absolutely do not care about their customers.

I really don't think they should be confiscating your funds in a situation like this ... but as for the ban ... what were you expecting?

Essentially you admitted there is a chance you could make be making decisions you're not in full control of. To a regulator / the govt, an operator would look really irresponsible not to ban you. Operators are trying to stay in the good graces of regulators and legislators as much as possible. The operator has no way to tell if your condition is "under control" or not other than your word ... which obviously can't be trusted since you could easily lie about whether it's under control or not.

Sounds like an open and shut case to me as far as the ban.

Sure. ban me. (I don't want to play there anymore)
But give me back my balance and refund me for the tournaments that I was not allowed to participate in.

To clarify, you had funds in your account and had registered tournaments that had NOT yet started? Their wording here is odd if they are confiscating your balance: "we cannot refund monies which were fairly spent at our site".

I don't really understands the grounds they are confiscating your funds on. The ban is beyond obvious.

I mentioned if they were banning me for that reason and it didnt matter that I had it under control, and that I was just explaining why it could be an issue for some.
That I deserved a refund for all money spent there. Thats where the first message comes in.

The part that is unacceptable to me, is YES for tournaments that were paid for and had not yet started. They were set to start 1 hour after and 4 days from after the time of the ban.

i dont see any issues here

It's an issue if funds were confiscated but it's not totally clear that is what happened. If op has pre-registered tournaments that have not begun then of course he should receive those funds back.

Why do posters like op think anyone cares about this? I mean yeah waste your time and keep ranting about that but no one will ever stop playing 888 because of this. I mean there are probably hundreds of threads like this where something happened to op that can't won't happen to anyone with half of a brain. And it seems you have already punted away those mtts.

funny how you are on all those threads of people having money stolen, trolling about how much you hate you life and how big of a loser you are. good game bud.

Hopefully if the thieves are exposed they will get fewer suckers. Stealing your money is wrong. The fact you don't like their layout or interface just means don't use them not that they did any wrong

OP, it would be helpful if you replied to the more important posts, like this one:

I'm still not clear on whether you're being denied the ability to withdraw funds, or if it's simply a refund of past losses that they won't give you. Can you explain the status of your account when they closed it? Was there any money in it, and when you mentioned the "425$ withdrawal they didn't honor.", does that mean you had withdrawn $425 before your account was closed, you haven't received it, and they've said you never will?

Play stupid games win stupid prices. Never mention something like this to support of any gambling site.

But they should refund his balance/get him access to his money which is totally his imo. Also if he was registered for a tournament before the ban the should have manually unregistered him or refund.

Can you please supply me with your poker user name and I will ask for this case to be reviewed for you.

Thanks

Correct, I had a withdrawal for $425, that was not processed.
I cannot confirm the current account balance as I cannot log in at all.
I also had preregistered in a some tournaments ($109 ID 225730003, $2.20 ID 224999742)

So from the contact I received it would seem that they have decided that my ability to use their services is over, and that any funds remaining/prepaid tournaments I had on their site before they decided to close it, arbitrarily, are theirs. Yes. arbitrarily.

All I said was this thing shouldn't be here, it is predatory and aggravating to those that have a problem. Please disable it for my account.
Initially the chat support just said they would disable it, and then oh actually your account is being closed and boom, no more chance to talk.. just you'll be contacted by responsible gaming department.

So by having to ask them to disable it as their TOS says, "contact support to have this disabled" and by being annoyed that it's out there prodding at people that may have a problem, is reason enough to close my account and take my money and ban me for life... then no contact/response till after the tournaments occurred, for which I gave them notice including tournament ids of which were not yet started so they could unregister me and refund me.

lol F that noise. I will stick strictly to casinos in person, where there is 0 chance I ever can't leave with the money/chips I have at the tables, without a 3 day delay. Like wtf, why is anyone ok with that.. deposit instantly but withdraw 3 days later? and then for the next 3 days constantly try to get you to reverse the withdrawal..

Yea. I learned my lesson. Don't try to help, don't try to suggest ways to make the site better. Just simply don't use it.
I will no longer play online.
I have found similar stories for gg, which is where I moved, ill instead stick to in person casino where they will always pay you out.

Thanks, that would be appreciated.

username was the same as it is here..

I believe you should already have my etransfer email address on file, in my withdrawal settings.
I know for certain the following tournaments were prepaid for and not started before my ban occurred.
Tournament ID 225730003. Entry fee: $109
Tournament ID 224999742. Entry fee: $2.20

I cannot recall my exact balance before I was banned and blocked from logging in, or if there was any other tournaments I was registered in.
I did not make a habit of taking screenshots and am only lucky to have taken those 2.

GuNDaL

Sent this over to management for you.

Regards

If everything OP says checks out the solution is simple. Ban stands, money from tournies and balance should be refunded and 888 should install a setting for withdrawal reversals with its default position off.

Why should i not use those sites? Because of ur story? I almost never had problems anywhere and on the bigger sites actually never. Got paid everywhere.

Wish u all the best and good luck in those amazing live casinos.

Thank you, I appreciate your rationality and logic in the matter.

That is all i'm asking for.

You shouldn't need to talk to support to turn that off, nor should you need to explain why it's aggravating which they will then use as an excuse to claim you're addicted and ban/bar you from withdrawing your money.

You should do whatever you want to do, it's your life and your choice.

I am just pointing out scummy behaviour and shitty ux design that is intended to take advantage of people.

Putting the (pre)fold checkbox, in the call button location is just the most ridiculous UX blunder ever..
As a software developer/tester for the past 20+ years I can tell you for a fact, that I would have reported this as a bug on the very first day of testing.
In fact I did. Numerous times to them, and my suggestions/feedback went unanswered.
I was already ready to quit 888.
But it was profitable and I had a high success rate in tournies, so I gave them time to fix their bugs.. despite on several occasions calling a hand I never had any intention of calling, instead, I stopped using prefold and waited for my turn, which is the reason the short timers became an issue.

I have seen many other players complain about accidentally calling too, live on tables, when they call with crap and then spam emojis indicating they didnt mean to.

It's simply asinine to put the prefold button anywhere but overtop of the fold button.

Perhaps some screenshots will better help describe the issue.


right here, in this second screenshot, if I were to attempt to push this fold checkbox half a second later, or the player with action already hit his checkbox, it would become my turn as im clicking it, and thus I would be calling. This happens quite a bit, and is just gross.

Compare real life to online.
You will never ACCIDENTALLY call, you will NEVER time out and be mucked... you will easily be given 5+ minutes to decide an all in call and noone will get mad at you, especially if its a big pot.
People can wait more than 3 seconds to act, if they can't thats their problem. but no of course 888 wants to maximize their hands per hour and rake fees. thats all they care about.

You do you, if you don't see this as shady behaviour by a company, that's fine, im just doing what I believe is right to expose predatory behaviour and let whoever sees it decide what they will.

FYI: the first time i asked support, why the fold button was overtop of the call button, the agent legit said "It was intentionally designed that way"... my response was you must not be understanding what i'm saying.. either that or they full on admit they want people to call hands they have no intention of calling.. which is beyond disturbing.

Agreed. Of course, that's a big "if", as we've seen in past threads.

OP, I hope you get that resolution if all is as you say.

Thank you for the quick turn around 888Rep. After your forwarding of the necessary information I received a quick reply and they have initiated a withdrawal for me for the full amount owing.

Thank you.


I do still find it ridiculous that the responsible gaming team, nor customer support was going to refund me, without the assistance from 888Rep, but in the end, i'm happy that they agreed to do the right thing here.

Appreciate those that offered their support.

OP, happy to hear that u got your money in the end.

Let´s not forget that if it wasn´t for this forum, 888 would´ve gotten away with theft.