Can a casino refuse to pay out?

Can An Irish Casino Refuse To Pay Out?

10 min

Did you ever find yourself in a position where a casino refuses to pay out? In this article, our experts will present to you how and why this occurs, how to avoid such problems, and what to do if it occurs to you! Continue reading to understand the most common withdrawal issues, how to protect yourself when gambling online, and ensuring you get your earned winnings.

Can a Casino Legally Refuse to Pay You? Expert Answer

An online IE casino may refuse to pay you if it has a solid basis to do so.

Before becoming a client, you must be aware of and agree to the regulations of both online and physical casinos.

If you violate any of their regulations, your payments may be banned or limited.

Online casinos in Ireland come in 3 categories:

Type of Casino Rules How risky it is to join
Platforms fully licensed and regulated by the GRAI Those that fall into the first category have the strictest rules imposed by the Commission that they must follow.

This trustworthy authority closely analyzes and oversees their activity, so they cannot afford to not pay their customers without a valid reason and incontestable proof.

Low
Websites licensed by other authorities such as Malta Gaming Authority, Gibraltar, Kahnawake or Swedish Gambling Authority Sites in the second category are also safe, but not all authorities are as strict and trustworthy as the GRAI.

This means some platforms may be less fair than others, depending on the licensing authority. So, always pay attention to the license of any casino you wish to join.

Medium
Unlicensed gambling sites These are the most dangerous. No authority regulates these, so they can easily get away with not paying their customers. High (we do not recommend joining them)

Important

Our experts advise you never to play at an unlicensed casino because your personal information and money may not be safe, and the platform may block your withdrawals without providing a valid reason.

Why You Cannot Withdraw Money From the Casino

Online casinos may refuse, reject, or restrict withdrawals for many reasons.

Some may be fixed with the help of the platform’s customer service, while others are permanent safeguards implemented by the casino to deter scams or fraud.

Some of the reasons why you cannot withdraw money from the gaming site are as follows:

  • False or incorrect information

False or incorrect information

You must provide accurate and up-to-date information to the casino when you sign up.

If any of the details you typed in the sign-up form are incorrect, you might not be able to open an account and play.

What happens if you complete the sign-up with the incorrect information

If you proceed like this and you get to play, it is a matter of time until the casino’s staff notices. You may even claim an IE no-deposit bonus and start playing, but any cashout you request will be denied.

Someone from the support staff may contact you to fix the issue, or they may consider you were trying to cheat, and they will also restrict your access to your account;

  • The payment method is not yours

It is essential to use your payment method at every online gaming site. Whether you use a credit or debit card or an e-wallet, the method must be registered under your name.

This applies to the deposit and withdrawal methods if you do not want to use the same one for both transactions.

Important

If you manage to link a payment method that does not belong to you, your payments from the casino will not go through.

  • The payment method is not available

The payment method is not available

To ensure the maximum level of safety for your funds, gaming platforms often only allow you to cash out using the method you have chosen for your deposits.

However, some are not available for withdrawals, so your cash-out request will not be approved.

The solution to this problem is to check the list of available withdrawal options and choose one from there.

  • Bonus requirements are not met

One of the many perks of online gambling is the variety of bonuses.

If you created an account with a reliable platform, claimed a casino offer and used it, make sure you meet all the bonus requirements before requesting a cashout from it.

Check the wagering requirement

This is the most important one to check, as you cannot withdraw any funds obtained with the bonus before meeting the wagering conditions.

If you have completed this but your cashout is still not allowed, read the Bonus Terms and see if any other conditions are imposed.

Tip

Some free spins no deposit offers will not allow you to withdraw funds unless you make a deposit first.

  • Irregular play

Showing signs of irregular play can lead to your cashouts being restricted.

Every casino must define in its Terms and Conditions what it considers irregular play. This may include placing specific bets at certain times, increasing or decreasing your wager in a pattern, or switching games too often.

In some cases, casinos can ban you if they have proof of irregular play.

  • Suspicious transactions

The casino’s staff constantly analyzes your playing patterns and transactions.

These are not to violate your privacy but to ensure the safety of all customers and the casino.

Therefore, suspicious transactions such as making huge deposits without playing a single pound and then requesting to cash them out might look like money laundering.

The staff is looking for this type of situation, and as soon as they spot it, the casino can cancel your bonuses, deny all cashout requests, and even permanently block you.

  • Suspicious account activity

Casinos allow you to play using your desktop computer or your mobile devices, and it is no problem if you prefer to use both.

However, if they see you logging in on many different devices and from different places, they may cancel your withdrawals. This measure is meant to protect you and your funds if your account is hacked.

  • Duplicate accounts

You might want to receive bonuses more than once at new IE online casinos. Since they are usually available to be claimed once per account, some players decide to open multiple accounts with the same casino, thus making a bonus abuse.

This is not allowed, and if you have done this, regardless of your intention, the staff will sooner or later find out.

This leads to transactions being restricted on all accounts, and while some platforms will close the duplicates, most of them will close all your accounts and not allow you to register a new one.

  • KYC is not complete

KYC is not complete

You must go through the KYC process before you can cash out funds from an online casino.

The customer service will ask for photos and/or copies of documents such as:

  1. ID
  2. Utility bill
  3. Bank statement
  4. Others

You must provide these within the timeframe they give you, and all the copies and photos must be clear. If you do not follow the directions to complete this process, the casino will not be able to pay you.

  • VPN use

Using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) software to access an online casino is not accepted.

Important

Platforms have intelligent systems in place to detect the use of VPN software, and they take standard measures in these situations.

The repercussions may range from canceling withdrawal requests to blocking your account;

  • Underage gambling

Underage gambling

Many teenagers in Ireland attempt to gamble online, and some manage to do so by creating an account with fake information.

Important

Online casinos are very invested in ensuring every customer is 18 and older, performing many checks on each account.

However, sometimes, teenagers manage to sign up, claim offers, and play before the gaming platform discovers they have provided false information.

In this case, all active bonuses on the account are canceled, all funds are void, and all cashout requests are blocked. Therefore, online casinos apply a strict underage gambling policy to prevent minors from involving in these activities.

  • Site errors and game malfunctions

Regardless of the time and resources casino operators invest in a website and game maintenance, site and game errors might still occur.

Did you stumble upon such a situation, and you use the error to your advantage?

The casino operators will take any funds obtained by exploiting the error away from you.

Some are human errors, such as when a website presents a promotion that no longer exists. If you claim and use it, the staff will eventually cancel it, and they will block your withdrawal from it.

  • Consistent winning

As unfair as it may be, casinos do not like players who win too much. This, of course, does not apply to winners of progressive jackpots.

Who does consistent winning apply to?

It applies to players who are consistently winning huge amounts of money.

This is not only bad for the casino, as its purpose is to make a profit, but it also gives the impression that you may be using strategies or software to help you gain an advantage over the casino.

Based on this, a platform can decide not to pay you if they have the suspicion that you are cheating/

  • Payout limits

An often overlooked condition of almost every bonus is the payout limit.

If you use a first deposit bonus and you wish to cash out your funds, you must first check how much from what you’ve made via the promotion you can cash out.

Be aware

Anything above the casino limit will be forfeited.

Bonuses are not the only ones with this limit. Casinos often have an overall maximum cashout, either per day, week, or month. If you’ve reached this limit, all other requests will be blocked until it resets.

  • Self-exclusion

If you have self-excluded from playing online casino games on a specific platform or all platforms using special software, your cashouts will be blocked.

Before taking this step, make sure you cash out all your remaining funds from all the platforms you have been using.

Once you self-exclude, this operation is no longer possible, and if you attempt to do it, the casino will not pay you.

Making Sure the Online Casino Pays You

How to make sure an online casino pays you

By following a few easy guidelines and paying attention to details, you may ensure that an online casino rewards you. Gambling properly and without attempting to cheat is an important aspect of this.

6 ways to make sure you have a good gambling session:

  1. Pick a licensed gambling website – We recommend you go for a GRAI-licensed website, as they are the most strictly regulated, and they offer a safe gaming environment. You can also pick sites licensed by other authorities, but stay away from unlicensed gambling platforms.
  2. Read the Terms and Conditions – The Terms and Conditions contain all the information you need to know about how to play on the website safely. By reading these, you find out what the casino deems unacceptable, and that may block your withdrawals.
  3. Use correct information – Pay attention when you fill out the sign-up form and make sure you provide accurate and up-to-date information. The slightest typo can affect your identity confirmation checks and have your withdrawals denied.
  4. Read the Bonus Terms – Keep the promotion rules in mind when you play and pay special attention to the maximum cashout allowed from it. Do this for every promotion you claim and intend to use. Even if you claim deals from the same platform you have been playing on for a while, remember that terms can differ from one offer to another.
  5. Choose your payment method wisely – Some online gaming sites allow you to deposit using specific methods, but some will not be available for withdrawal. To avoid any issues at the cashier when you want to cash out, check the options available even before making a deposit.
  6. Go through the KYC – While signing up takes a couple of minutes, the KYC process takes a little longer. This process is checked by the staff and, if necessary, they will ask for more information to confirm certain aspects. Going through this process before cashing out allows withdrawal requests to be approved faster, and you will have no issue getting paid.

What to Do if a Casino Refuses to Payout

You are not helpless if an online casino refuses to pay out.

Recommendation

Keep in mind that if you are playing at a licensed casino, if they decide your payment cannot be allowed, they will most likely have a valid reason to do so. This is because they cannot go against their licensing authority’s rules.

Here is what you can do in case you’ve wronged:

  1. Reach out to Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) – ASAI is the Ireland’s independent authority in charge of regulating advertising across all media. You can reach out to them in case you have claimed a promotion that did not exist or have been misled by an online casino via an ad;
  2. Open a public dispute – being called out in public is damaging for the image of any gaming platform, so there are forums on which they respond to disputes and try to solve them. Alternatively, you can go to their social media channels and write your story there. Make sure not to leave out any details and proof if you have any;
  3. Use a complaint tool – if you are thinking of a more formal complaint, Resolver is an IE complaint tool that can help you. It is entirely free to use and is also an independent service. It is not an intermediary between you and the casino, but it will help you make informed choices and write your complaint emails;
  4. Contact the GRAI – in case everything else fails, you can contact the Gambling Regulation Authority of Ireland. The Commission usually advises players to make their complaints via any of the options above, reaching out to them can show the casino that you are serious. Gambling platforms take this very seriously, as their license from the GRAI is very hard to earn, and they do not want it revoked.

Casino Alpha’s Final Take

As we presented in this guide, the best practices to avoid being in such a situation are joining legal casinos, thoroughly reading the bonus policy and general T&Cs, being careful about the banking options you can use, and adding the correct documents for the KYC verification. If there is a payout problem, the support team can escalate the issue and offer assistance. Of course, other support programs will help you with the request in case you do not find a solution.

Authors
Anca Iamandi
AuthorAnca IamandiSenior Author & Editor at Casino alpha

Anca's analytical capabilities developed in Generative Linguistics allow her to bring you straightforward gambling content. Her texts will help you understand casinos, bonuses, fees, and rules and forget about all the gambling myths that pull you down. She's a strong advocate of safe gambling.

Adina Minculescu
ReviewerAdina MinculescuSenior Author & Editor at Casino alpha

Adina’s methodical way of thinking is what gamblers need to understand the casino market. With her expertise in this niche combined with her studies in linguistic typology and hermeneutics, she will be able to help you make informed decisions. Let her be your trustworthy guide!