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Can an online casino refuse to pay out your withdrawal?

Online casinos provide the world’s gaming fans with a quick, easy way to play their favorite gambling amusements for real money, from home or anywhere else their travels may take them. It’s all so easy. Sign up an account, make an instant deposit, and start playing. Convenience, entertainment, the thrill of the risk – these are all things we can easily understand. What’s difficult to wrap our heads around is that sometimes, after winning a little money, the online casino may refuse to give it to us. What’s even harder to understand is that, 99 times out of 100, they’re correct in their refusal to pay up.

Can an Online Casino Refuse to Pay Out?

The simple answer is yes, they can, but not for the reasons you’re probably thinking. Rogue casinos are not nearly so common as they once were. Yes, they do exist, and if you didn’t bother checking on the legitimacy of your chosen online casino before signing up, well – you may be a victim of fraud. More likely, if your online casino is refusing to pay out, it was your own fault.

The following is a list of the top 10 reasons online casinos can deny a withdrawal, in order of most to least common. If your withdrawal got canceled, odds are the reason is on this list.

1. You violated the terms of a bonus.

The most common reason of all is that players have violated the conditions of a bonus. Far too many players don’t bother reading the fine print. There are game restrictions, bet size limits and wagering requirements to comply with. Read the terms. Know the rules. Follow them.

2. You haven’t finished bonus play through.

This is a direct follow-up to the last issue. Maybe you’re following all of the rules of the bonus, but you didn’t complete the wagering requirements yet.

Example: If you have to complete 40x WR on a $50 deposit, that’s $2,000 in wagers that must be placed before you can withdrawal any winnings. You have two options; finish WR, or run out of bonus money trying. Only then can you cash out anything you have left.

3. You haven’t verified your account.

Somewhere between the time you register your account, and the time you request your first withdrawal, you will need to verify your identity. This is true of all legitimate, reputable licensed online casinos. They’ll need you to upload a picture of your photo ID, a bank statement or utility bill, and, depending on your method of deposit, maybe proof of that as well. It’s all standard KYC practice. If you don’t do it, they can’t pay you.

4. You used someone else’s identity / payment info.

Identity theft is a big no-no! If you read #3 above, you know you’re going to have to verify your identity at some point. Fake IDs rarely work anymore. The person you stole the ID and/or banking info from will get their deposit refunded eventually, and you’ll get nothing (except maybe some jail time).

5. You typo-ed your own information during sign-up.

I’ve said this a thousand times. Double check your information when you sign up an online casino account. If you misspell any part of your name or address, you’re effectively signing up with a fake ID. You can’t sign up with false information, even if it was an innocent goof up on your part. If you’re lucky, your account will be closed with original deposits refunded.

6. You gambled as a minor.

Adjusting your date of birth to play as a minor won’t get you anywhere either. Casinos can get in severe trouble for allowing underage gambling. And, thanks to the ID verification rules, you’re going to get caught anyway. Once caught, you don’t get paid.

7. You have multiple accounts with the online casino.

This is incredibly common, but rarely done on purpose. If you read the terms of any online casino, they’ll tell you that multi-accounting is not allowed. That is, one person cannot have two accounts with the same casino. In fact, you can’t have two accounts from the same household or IP address, either.

Short version: “One account per casino, per household.”

8. You claimed multiple bonuses with the same operator.

This is similar to the above problem, but goes deeper, and only involves bonus collection. We’re not just talking about having two accounts with the same online casino, but the same operator. For example, DigiMedia operates Royal Vegas Casino, plus around a dozen other online casinos, like All Slots, Euro Palace, and Platinum Play. You are allowed to have one account with each, if you wish, but you can only claim the bonus from one.

Short version: “One bonus per operator, per household.”

9. You used a VPN to sign up and gamble.

Online casino gambling is illegal in some parts of the world. But where there is prohibition, there are always a determined few who think they should be able to do it anyway. Using a virtual private network (VPN) to mask your IP address / location, making it appear you’re in a country players are accepted from, is illegal. It rarely works these days, anyway. Geo-location systems are constantly getting smarter. If you get caught using a VPN, don’t be surprised when your online casino is refusing payout.

10. The casino is not reputably licensed and can’t be trusted.

In the least of cases, the online casino is to blame. Rogue operators do exist. They aren’t licensed by a strict regulator that demands compliance with player protection laws. Therefore, they can refuse to pay out a large amount of winnings simply because they don’t have to. They have no obligation to obey a higher authority.

Once this type of online casino refuses to pay out, there’s not much you can do. The only good news is that these situations are easily avoidable. All you have to do is take a moment to check up on a brand before signing up an account and making a deposit. To be honest, anyone who’s willing to give all of their sensitive information to some random website without verifying its reputation first is just as guilty as the website that’s ripping them off.