New withdrawal conditions for the UK players

Lately it is quite obvious that the online casino industry has made a significant step forward. Because of that a lot of researches have been done to identify the topics and areas that need to be even more developed.

Still, the most that have been improved are the areas concerning the players themselves. An example is the latest one, performed by UKGC. In touches the issue with the restrictions of withdrawals and the intense they to be removed.

UK’s CMA stands behind the belief that each and every player shall feel free to withdraw his/her money and to leave the online casino at any time.

Published at the end of the month of August, the statement is in fact a result of an investigation report among the online casino gambling players who have complained multiple times regarding the complex and often not favorable withdrawal rules followed by some operators.

As a result of this investigation, UKGC have sent a warning to most of the operators according to which actions will be properly taken if the unfair restrictions on withdrawals continue to be used against the players.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has spent almost two years to complete the research while investing in a deep and complete analysis on the online casino market. Some of the findings may be considered too unbelievable. An example is an operator who is willing to reduce a certain amount of the players’ balance if he/she has not visited the account for a certain period of time. Another, even more shocking case is where a player loses the balance if not able to timely provide ID proof as per the providers’ requirements.

Still one of the most widely spread restrictions to be used by the online casino operators is on the amount of money that each player can withdraw at once. According to the authority this is just a simple example of how the industry keeps the players from stepping out of the “game”. Some of them even use certain laundering controls very carefully in order to prevent or postpone to a later stage in time the withdrawal of money from the accounts with significant winnings.

Even though these “techniques” are described in the Terms and Conditions sections on most of the operators’ sides, UKGC together with CMA find them inconsistent and totally unfair towards the users.

As an action CMA announced its’ partnership with the Gambling Commission where they will together try to develop better conditions for the online casino gamblers. The scope of their project is not only to improve the players’ experience but also to prevent the operators from breaking the laws, dedicated to customer protection.

In one of his statements, Paul Hope, the UKGC Executive Director, clearly underlined the belief that the online casino operators do not have any legal reason to restrict the amount of money each player is willing to withdraw from his/her personal account. He also encouraged the firms to ensure that they have reviewed the CMA report and to update by themselves the terms and conditions related to money withdrawals.

Straight to the point

Just to be sure that their progress will be real, CMA’s approach went too far away by actually naming the biggest operators to restrict money withdrawals by the players.

Jumpman Gaming and Progress Play are placed on the top of the list to have unfair terms and conditions towards their members. Fortunately the warning have given quite a positive result as since the rank was published, both companies disconnected their current Terms & Conditions and started working with UKGC and CMA to ensure correctly written new standards.

More or less we may say that in the past few years UKGC has made quite a progress in the regulations in favor of the fair, open and invulnerable relations between players and online casino operators. An evidence are the multiple fines that have already taken place in 2017.

Lately UKGC have made an announcement that those fines will not be a one-time event and strict control will be exercised on the market for the future too.

All of the above said may be considered as a big step for the gambling community for which the withdrawals will depend only on the players’ will and not on unfavorable terms and conditions. This way the online casino lovers in the UK will be given more freedom to decide their future steps with no improper conditions.