To make a long story short. I took advantage of the free chip, played it out, was aggressively marketed by phone to take advantage of more bonuses and chips.
I took advantage of one, played that down, deposited my own money and withdrew a substantial amount. As we know with most, if not all online casinos, the playthrough amount is shown until your winnings are available in the withdrawable field.
I changed my mind after a couple of days and redeposited the amount, only to increase my winnings by %500. I chose two options for withdrawal as they seemed to be the most expeditious way of receiving my money, oddly enough one was called Overnight Express.
Just for the sake of experimentation, I chose Overnight for one amount and wire transfer for the smaller one, just to see how soon I would recieve my money. Lo and behold, I was told that the approval process alone would take 7 to 10 days (later I was quoted 10 -15 days, so much for consistancy)
Two weeks later,I'm becoming suspicious and take advantage of the chat feature to enquire why it continues to take so long for the approval process. I will not change my mind and put my money back into play. Imagine hearing that even if approved it could take another 10 days to receive my money.
I usually have my money after this period when I'm dealing wih other casinos and as the
Casinomeister points out, "there is no excuse for slow pays".
When I asked for management, I'm told that no matter how much I won, I'm only entitled to receiving 130 dollars maximum to cash out because of a free chip. This is what I'm told after I was able to withdraw money that I won fair and square? That did it.
No reputable establishment would operate in this fashion, treat their customers this way and still have a loyal following. I was born at night, but not last night.
I wonder if Leonardo DiCaprio will portray a character from this particular group of casinos in his upcoming movie about Costa Rican casinos. I bet one of the producers got burned as well and is itching for a cinematic expose.
So as much as I consider myself to be open-minded and I do understand that when gambling online, there are risks that you assume, financially and otherwise. But I know a shady business entity when I see one and nothing short of receiving the full amount of money owed to me will change my mind.
I do thank those who took the time to respond.
