I also posted this in poker as i want to let as many people know about the business practices of Partypoker / GVC:

I want to warn other gamblers about partypoker. They basically stole more than 100k of my money, 50k of which were deposits. They can do this really easily, especially in Germany (as I will explain later).

This warning is not just about Partypoker as the parent company (GVC) holds more big brands. For example:

Bwin

Ladbrokes

Coral

.....

I played there for 2 or 3 years. I was also constantly increasing my wager over time.

At the end of october 2019, they locked my account and put it under security review. They also ask for documents which I already had sent in before. Nevertheless I sent them again.

After some emails back and forth they gave me my christmas gift. This is the original Email:

"Dear XXX,

We are contacting you regarding your partypoker account "XXX".

An investigation into your account has highlighted suspicious activity related to your account.

This activity is in breach of points 4, 6, 13 and 16 of the terms and conditions of partypoker.

The full terms and conditions are available at:

https://help.partypoker.com/en/gener...and-conditions

As a result, your partypoker account has been closed and the funds remaining in your account will be confiscated.

Please be aware that you are no longer permitted to create or use any account on the partypoker network.

Kind Regards,

Poker Operations Team"

They quoted half of their terms and stole my money. I ask for a reason and for proof, which was not given at any point.

By the way I was not playing poker but casino games, most of the time Black Jack, not even card counting, which they might deem as illegal (which it clearly isn't).

I also messaged the regulators in Gibraltar, they took a few month and also basically said they are fine with the way party handled the situation, at least they said what they are accusing me of:

This also is the original email:

"Good morning XXX,

I write with regards to your complaint against Party Poker.

Please be advised that I have been in dialogue with Party Poker on the matter, who have provided me with a detailed and technical report with regards to your account. I have also made my own enquiries. The substantial and technical material that I have seen indicates that your account is being operated by a third party who is the controller of a series of accounts for the purpose of systematically abusing promotional bonuses. Your account is de facto a proxy account.

There is strong and clear evidence that the identity used on your account and the identities used on the other accounts are all associated. The controller of all accounts knows that they are prohibited from operating any account either directly or indirectly. I will not disclose how all of the accounts have been detected as to do so would be to the detriment of Party Poker and to the advantage of those that seek to circumvent its security protocols. Nevertheless, further information on the Gambling Commissioner’s views on ‘bonus abuse’ can be found here: https://www.gibraltar.gov.gi/finance...ainants#ancla8.

I am satisfied that Party Poker is acting appropriately and in accordance with its terms and conditions and I am unable to recommend that it pays you any monies.This is my Proposed Determination to your complaint. I am also forwarding Party Poker a copy.

I am now inviting you and Party Poker to comment on this Proposed Determination. It is also the opportunity for both parties to bring to my attention any facts or issues either party believes I have omitted or misunderstood in my assessment.

Regards,

John"

Again no evidence was given. It's also hard to defend myself without getting presented with the evidence.

This by the way is complete bullshit, I always have used my account myself and nobody other than me was using it.

I think they used fabricated evidence to not pay big players.

It was even worse than that:

They baited me to play there with a 10% cashback offer on my losses. Before End of November I lost many weeks in a row. Most of the time 50k €. They had a ponzi scheme like promo going. Letting me play until I finally win and when don't pay me anyways. No risk for the house at all, they keep the money no matter the outcome (deposits included).

The Gibraltar Gambling commission is also highly corrupt. They basically don't even want any complaint to get in at all. You can't submit a complaint online. You have to print several pages and fill out everything by hand. They will also ignore your claims until you get really annoying with all your reminders and messages you sent to them, then they will decide in favor of the casino.

I can't even sue the casino, because the legal situation in Germany regarding Online gambling and Online casinos without a licence is ****ed up.

I consulted many different lawyers all telling me not to sue them, because my chances of winning are slim, not because partypoker is right, but because this is deemed illegal gambling and I basically can't get any money back. Even in case of winning it would not be clear if i can get any money back, because Gibraltar is not in the EU where i could enforce GVC to pay what they owe me.

A judge friend of mine even advised me not to sue, because Gibraltar is too corrupt and the legal fees are astronomical.

So neither in Germany I can get what's mine nor in Gibraltar (most probably).

Basically Party knew about the loophole in German law and exploited it. I think especially German Players are in danger, no way they could get away with this in Great britain for example.

CLIFFS:

-Partypoker stole almost 105k of my money (half winnings, half deposits) with a far fetched explanation, which I only got from the regulators after filling a complaint. At no point any evidence was shown.

-The regulators also decided not to hold partypoker accountable.

-Partypoker also used a ponzi like scheme to bait me in and take my money as long as i kept losing, once i had a big upswing, they kept my winnings and deposits anyways.

- Partypoker also knew about a loophole in German law about illegal Gambling and exploited it, in order to get away with "confiscating" (stealing is a better word) my entire balance.

Cliffs : Op played slots, broke tos and is angry. Nothing to see here.

You are clearly out of your mind:Nevertheless I will comment on this bullshi*:
1. I didn't broke any tos
2. Let's assume I broke tos(which I did not). Do you think it's fair that they can take all my money, deposits and winnings without presenting any evidence? Just imagine the justice system would work this way. If you are in a developed country I suggest you move to north korea, russia or turkey, if you like unfair systems like that.
3. I assume you never read the terms of any casino:the terms and conditions are so general and broad that they can steal your money for every little thing. For example most sites have in there that you are only allowed to play if you are a recreational player. What happens if you are a pro and how do they define a Pro Player?I guess it's just based on the players' winnings. If someone wins they can take your money because of those rubber paragraphs.
4. You can also see that Party had no plan first how to best steal my funds at first, that's why in their first email they quote any part of the terms that could work. Later the Regulators might have asked to at least come up with something more detailed in order to let this seem legit. So they came up with something.
5. What's my advantage if i give my account to someone else? I never played poker, there this definitely is an advantage, but where is my advantage in casino games doing this? Again I didn't gave my account to someone else, but even if I did i don't see any justification to confiscate my money because of this. The house edge still is the same if person A or person B is playing makes no difference.

Why does everybody jump to the defense of online poker sites on a post like this? Do you really trust them? Most TOS are designed to be interpreted broadly to favor the site and take advantage of the player with little to no protections for the player.

On the other side of the coin, we have no reason to trust you either. There's no way for us to know whether you're innocent or guilty, lying or truthful.

Playing under another name is fraudulent. As for how an edge can be obtained doing what they've accused you of, many promotions offer the player an edge and are often offered only once and/or cut off from "smart" players who know how to beat them. One player controlling many accounts can win a lot of money from online casinos. He can take advantage of one-time promos as many times as he can open an account under another name.

The 10% cashback promo you were offered is +EV so they should have a clause to limit how much it can be taken advantage of. I think that's usually done by offering it only to net losing players (this is a slight oversimplification) Multi-accounters can get a large edge from it so they need to disincentives the practice by seizing balances of those caught doing it. If they just let these people go on their merry way they get freerolled.

fair point you dont have any reason to trust any party.

Still at least some evidence should be shown: This process is completely unfair as it happens.

And as I said I am not multiaccounting, but there is no way to you to verify...

in my experience casinos are really shady and i give people the benefit of a doubt.

How did you deposit into the site? If by credit card just call your credit card company and dispute the charges. Atleast you get half of your money back.

Deposit was made using skrill. They just told me to **** of as i tried to charge back. In addition to that they contacted partypoker although i explicitly ask them to not to. It became even better party was lying and told them the investigation is still running for example. I sent them the original emails trying to show them that party is clearly lying. They didn't gave a ****.

I guess they can't as their business model is to send money to gambling sites and if people can charge back this model is highly endangered. I also think they don't want to get into trouble with one of their biggest customers (GVC).

Did you deposit into skrill via a cc? If so just chargeback on skrill.