You can see the hand that was dealt to RealPlayer in the screenshot below, as well as how his balance spiked up to the tune of around €198,756 once RealPlayer hit the progressive jackpot of €167,500.
At first, everything was hunky dory, and Casino Club even mentioned this awesome win in their newsletter on August 7, 2008. But then, two weeks later, Casino Club decided to lock 'RealPlayer' out of his casino account. When RealPlayer first contacted the fine people that staffed Casino Club's support desk, he was told that his account was basically suspended for a "Safety Check", and that it would remain closed for quite some time. Ultimately, his account was closed permanently, and still is, to this day. Read on, the story is just getting started....
RealPlayer started to put the word out to the rest of the world via a German Gambling Forum on December 7th, 2008. As we all know, news travels very fast on the Internet, and this was no exception. Someone in the land of CasinoMeister posted a link to the German forum from where the news originated just 2 days after news of RealPlayers' delima came to light.
RealPlayer utilized the PAB (Pitch-A-Bitch) service that CasinoMeister offers which basically brings them into the loop to act as an intermediary in the situation. In the end, the case at CasinoMeister was closed, due to the fact that Casino Club said they were pursuing legal action against RealPlayer due to "fraud". To this day, those claims are still unsubstantiated. One major problem lies in the fact that Casino Club claimed that RealPlayer had a long history of abuse with Casino Club Casino, but yet they continued to let him deposit and gamble at their casino from way back in 2003 until 2008? Try to figure that one out.. I can't!
Come to find out, the reason Casino Club was so hostile in regards to not paying RealPlayer is because they were "convinced" that he was using some sort of bot (automated program) to play the casino games instead of playing them like any normal person would. On August 21st, legal counsel for the parent company of Casino Club – Gaming VC Corporation, Limited – sent a Letter to RealPlayer(German Version) (English Version) outlining the reasons for not paying him what was owed. However, RealPlayer posted a message on the CasinoMeister forum stating that he never received such a letter (which resulted in his original PAB being discarded) until it was sent to him via email as a PDF attachment.
During the time all of this was going on, and even before this event came to be, Casino Club was on board at CasinoMeister as an "Accredited Casino". But, when they started dragging their heels in regards to addressing this major issue, Bryan Bailey, (Casinomeister) pulled their accreditation status "until these questions and this issue is resolved 100% one way or the other".
In March of 2009, the licensing body that holds Casino Club's operating license, the (LGA – Lotteries and Gaming Authority, Malta) started their investigation into this matter.
About this time, the CasinoMeister forum representative for Casino Club finally decided to post again and posted a message in regards to RealPlayer. To make a long story short in regards to their post, they claimed:
1) They were accusing RealPlayer of using a "bot", (amongst other accusations.)
2) They were accusing RealPlayer of fraud. Namely "collusion with other players/Multiple accounts and breach of T's and C's relating to the use of bots".
The last accusation is the most appalling of all. Not only were they withholding a 6 figure sum of money from RealPlayer, but they were also confiscating his deposits, as well! Casino Club claimed that they were holding the money until such a time that the LGA concluded their investigation and made a ruling, one way or the other. Casino Club also claimed that they knew that RealPlayer was involved with a "fraud ring", and allowed him to continue playing. They claim that they knew of this since 2007. Their reasoning? "Once detected, we followed him and his fellow players for quite a while in order to understand fully what they were up to".
Are you as confounded as I, and everyone else on the CasinoMeister Forum, was at the time? Why in the world would you let someone continue to play, knowing full well that they were involved in a ring of fraudsters? And then drop the bomb only once they won a sizable sum of money? What happened to the deposits where RealPlayer lost every penny?
...of course that money landed in the pockets of the folks at Casino Club. Keep in mind, that during all of this, RealPlayer never got to even try to initiate a withdrawal. Casino Club preemptively locked his account. In my opinion, if they really believed that RealPlayer was committing fraud and wanted to continue "monitoring" his actions and play, then they would have simply kept his account open and hope that he played most, if not all, of the jackpot in addition to the €31,000+ that was in his account at the time he hit the jackpot.
Another 19 page thread on Q and A for Casino Club (At the time we went to press here) over at CasinoMeister (187 posts!) trickled down and pretty much died off towards the end of April/beginning of May of 2009. A user bumped it up again in January 2010. So, let's jump in our time machine and fast forward....
Pretty much nothing has transpired during the past 9 months, and apparently the LGA has been "hard at work"...(laughing our azz's off)... in regards to their investigation. Then another 8 months go by and RealPlayer pops in to give an update in regards to what the LGA had decided.
In his "brief summary", RealPlayer states that although there has been no official judgment handed down by the LGA, the verbal statement given to RealPlayer from the legal counsel representing Gaming VC was...you might want to put on your knee deep waders before you read this line of BS..."Due to a legal loophole they are not obliged to pay out winnings, the matter is resolved, therefore"
In that same post, RealPlayer goes on to mention the fact that the lawyers for Gaming VC made no further mention of the alleged fraud, nor any other information "..against his person. Instead, there was only the reference to the legal loophole".
This "loophole" is part of Malta's Civil Law, which states:
1) The law grants no action for a gaming debt, or for the payment of a bet.
2) Nor does it grant any action -
a) for the recovery of any sum lent by any person who
knew that such sum was intended for gaming
b) for the recovery of any sum lent by any person
interested in the game, for the payment of money lost
at such game.
RealPlayer's last statement is the most accurate one in that entire thread. RealPlayer stated that "There is no doubt the money is in the pockets of Casino Club". I agree whole heartedly.
If RealPlayer was indeed committing fraud against Casino Club, wouldn't they continue to fight RealPlayer in order to be compensated for all the money they were out, for that whole year they let him continue his "activities" at their casino and cash out without any problems at all? This whole story stinks to high heaven, and Casino Club should be hung out to dry. The total amount that Casino Club pocketed is a whopping €198,756.94 – and that's only the amount that was in RealPlayer's account at the time it was closed. I'm sure you can tack on several thousand more Euros to that sum for almost 2 years of interest.
So, needless to say: Run, don't walk, away from Casino Club and every other casino and poker room carried by the Gaming VC Corporation. As you can see, they don't mind stealing money from their players, so why anyone would continue to play there is beyond me.
Contributing Article Writer: Brian Easton
TheGamblingGurus award Casino Club with the coveted;
"Rogue Status - Union Of Thieves" T-Shirt!
We just need to know what size you guys wear...
The Gambling Guru
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