Posted in Guides October 26, 2018
Why Can’t I Withdraw My Winnings? Most Common Explanations
The best way to end a gambling session is to request a payment. To be fair, the opportunity to withdraw a lot more money than you deposited is very rare, and you definitely don’t want to stumble upon any issues throughout the process. Unfortunately, sometimes problems occur when you’re expecting them the least. Even though you registered to the online casino properly, verified your email address and invested some money, you are not eligible to get the money back to your e-wallet, bank account or any other payment service.
We will talk about the most common problems that prevent players like you withdraw their prizes from online casinos. If you have never had any issues, make sure to keep reading as you’ll learn how to avoid falling into these traps in the future.
Wagering Requirements
Whenever you claim a casino bonus, you oblige yourself to meet the wagering requirements set by the same casino. They are usually presented as a number that gives the total required amount when multiplied by the amount of money transferred to your casino wallet the moment you claim the bonus.
Let’s say you deposit €100 and get a 100% boost that comes with the 30x wagering requirement. This means that you’ll be obliged to spend at least €3,000.00 (all bet placed combined, regardless of the outcome). If you get a €5,000.00 reward from the first spin, you’re guaranteed to meet the wagering goal, with a lot of money left on the side, which you can choose to withdraw.
It’s all good when you forget about the requirements after not playing for a while, but there are cases when gamblers don’t even know they triggered a bonus. This causes much more confusion and stress to the unaware player. Please go through all bonus offers and the policy regarding the bonuses and promotions before depositing money.
Learn more about wagering requirements by reading your complete guide to What are Wagering Requirements in Online Casino?.
Payment Methods
You’ve made your deposits using the most convenient payment method from the list of services that the casino of your choice supports, placed a few bets and decided to withdraw the money. For some reason, the same method you used for depositing does not appear on the list of available payment services.
This happened too many times, which is why all the information about both deposit and withdrawal methods is public and should be one of the first things to check if you are looking to play for real money.
Don’t fret yet though. It’s not the end of the world at this point, as you can easily make an account at any of the support payment methods. You might lose some money on fees because you’ll transfer money from the service you were forced to use to the one you used for depositing, but at least you’ll get your money back. If the support service is an automated bot, without providing any real human support, which is the case in some small and possibly unregulated casinos, your money might be lost forever if you can’t make any needed accounts.
Withdrawal Limits
Just like deposits have minimum and maximum acceptable amounts, withdrawals do as well. You most likely won’t be able to withdraw anything below €5 or in most cases €10. However, it is unlikely that you’ll go for such low amounts unless you’re playing with the no deposit bonus money. What causes more issues is the upper limit, which is, in some cases, pretty strict and not user-friendly.
Imagine winning a €100,000 jackpot just to find out that you’re allowed to withdraw up to €5,000 a month. It would take 20 months to get all that money out, possibly two taxation cycles. There is a reason why the UK Gambling Commission and the Competition and Markets Authority reacted and forced two companies to change their rules that were basically forcing their users to possibly keep gambling, preventing them from withdrawing their money at once.
Identity Verification
This part explains why providing honest and correct information when registering is extremely important. Just like you don’t want to be scammed when gambling online, casinos want to stay away from money laundering actions, which were common in the past. Gambling authorities and licensing agencies are the ones that prevent these crimes by forcing casinos to request identity verification from certain customers.
Sometimes you’re required to provide detailed information at the very beginning while signing up, but, in most cases, this step appears when you’re trying to withdraw the money. The two main requirements are called KYC (Know Your Customer) and proof of residency.
KYC implies sending pictures of your national ID, passport or driver’s licence, possibly along with a clear selfie. In order to prove your residency, you’ll have to provide a photo of a utility bill no older than three months with your name and street that match the document you uploaded previously.
Unless you’re involved in some criminal activity, there is nothing to be worried about as all the information you send to the casino is kept private and never shared with anyone else.
