Account closed and the balance gone after two years, over a vpn (ironic had about £3k)

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totalbet91

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Posting this because I've been reading here for about a year and this exact setup gets recommended in these threads constantly, and nobody ever posts the ending.

UK. I've had an account with one of the big crypto sportsbooks for just over two years. Signed up through a VPN because it's geoblocked here, kept the VPN on every single session, never had one problem. Deposits fine, withdrawals fine, I've taken money out of that account something like thirty times.
Had a good World Cup. Balance got to just under £3,100. Requested a withdrawal on Tuesday and instead of the usual it went to review, and for the first time in two years they asked for verification. Passport, proof of address, source of funds.
So I sent them a UK passport and a UK utility bill. Because those are the only documents I own.

Account closed Thursday morning. Breach of terms, restricted territory, balance forfeited. Not frozen, not held pending anything. Forfeited. Two years and thirty successful withdrawals, and then the documents told them in about nine seconds what the IP address never did.
 
and there it is. that's the ending everybody misses off. so sorry mate, genuinely, that's a horrible way to find out. but this exact workaround gets handed to new members in this place like its a friendly tip, every week, and it comes with a clause attached that eats you the first time you win enough to be looked at
 
sharkCDXX said:
first rule is you never send them anything. that's where you went wrong lol
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thats wrong and its worth being precise about why, because "never send docs" gets repeated constantly and it gets people hurt.
vpn was never the thing that got him. sites do detect vpns, shared ip ranges and dns leaks and so on, and they can flag it whenever they like, but plenty of them cant be bothered while you're depositing. the failure point is verification. the second a withdrawal goes to review your documents have to agree with the country you claimed at signup, and a uk passport and a uk utility bill cannot agree with anything except the uk. there's no version of that where he passes.
so "never send documents" isn't a strategy. its just deciding in advance never to withdraw an amount worth withdrawing. the trap isn't even hidden, its that people only ever find the wall while they're stood right at it with 3 grand behind them
 
So what exactly was I meant to do then? Play for two years and never take anything meaningful out?

That's the bit I can't get past. There was no version of this where I ever got that money. And nobody mentions that part when they're telling you to just use a VPN.
 
That is the correct conclusion and it deserves stating plainly, because you are right that people skip it.
If a site geoblocks your country then you do not have an account with a payout problem. You have an account that was always going to fail verification. Everything before that first review is simply the site not having looked yet.

On recourse, and I am sorry to be blunt about it. It is very thin. The terms at nearly every operator allow them to close an account and void a balance where a player has misrepresented their location, and the wording is almost always written at their sole discretion. The independent complaint and mediation services will take the case, but once VPN use is established they generally find for the operator, because a clearly stated term was breached. I would still file it,you lose nothing by doing so and you will have it documented. Just do not build your week around the answer.
 
honest summary of all this is that half of us have been recommending this for years and none of us have ever explained how it finishes. ofcourse includin myself
 
used mine 2 years no issues. its not the vpn its that he sent them uk documents. jeez pal don;t send uk docs to a site thats blocked in the uk
 
john said:
used mine 2 years no issues. its not the vpn its that he sent them uk documents. jeez pal don;t send uk docs to a site thats blocked in the uk
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thats you, few weeks ago, in richys thread. so what document was he supposed to send when the review came? you've never hit a review. thats the entire difference between you and him
 
Tracy said:
thats you, few weeks ago, in richys thread. so what document was he supposed to send when the review came? you've never hit a review. thats the entire difference between you and him
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oh stop that crap i said sign up clean and keep it small. he let 3k sit there. not the same thing dont ya think??!
 
before goodoldfiat gets his coat on, this isnt a crypto problem. its a country list problem and the identical thing happens on fiat books, ask anyone whos tried using a uk account while living in spain.
but yeah. if a sites blocked where you actually live then you're playing on borrowed time and thats just true, im not going to sit here and pretend its not 🤷
 
just tell them your on holiday and thats why the ip was different, alot of people work abroad now so its not even really a lie. they cant prove where you was sat
 
they don;t need to prove where you were sat. you handed them a uk proof of address, thats you telling them where you live, in writing, voluntarily.
and they have every login ip from the last two years sat in a log. a holiday explains one session. it doesnt explain seven hundred of them from the same city
 
hang on.
im in the uk. and ive got a stake account. how have i been doing that?? i never set up a vpn or anything, i just made an account about 6 weeks ago and it let me but theres a little nuancei just took £12 out still it turned up fine
am i in the same boat as this bloke or am i being thick :unsure:
 
bitvadol discovering he may have been an international criminal mastermind this entire time 😂
 
bitvadol said:
hang on.
im in the uk. and ive got a stake account. how have i been doing that?? i never set up a vpn or anything, i just made an account about 6 weeks ago and it let me but theres a little nuancei just took £12 out still it turned up fine
am i in the same boat as this bloke or am i being thick :unsure:
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Well cant say you're being thick, I think its a fair question, but you need to go and answer it rather than have a forum guess at it for you.

Stake.com is geoblocked in the UK. So if you registered from the UK with no VPN at all, then either you are on a different brand or a different company entity than you think you are, or something about your connection was not what you assumed. That distinction matters enormously and none of us can check it on your behalf.

Two things today. Open the site and read which company and which license is named in the footer, then open the terms and find the restricted territories list. Whatever the answer turns out to be, take the balance out now rather than later and do not let it build up. At twelve pounds this is a five minute admin job. At three thousand it is this thread.
 
hes fine. its 12 quid. nobody is reviewing such.. obviously they want his money so dont care but only untill hes low
 
hell yeah its 12 quid until its not. thats how every single one of these starts, including the one at the top of this page
 
fvpn isnt a workaround in such areas, its the only reason any of this exists at all. so we live with exactly the risk mate is describing, permanently, every account ever and evr
the way you survive it is you never let a balance become worth reviewing. withdraw small, withdraw often, treat every account as temporary and assume that one day one of them keeps whatever is sitting in it. that's not paranoia, thats just the price of the front door being shut to us
 
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