On November 4th 2004, Bryan Bailey of Casinomeister made the following statement in his African Palace / Indio Casino warning thread:
There is a 5 figure payment to a player that has been pending for six weeks. The casino has been unresponsive to player emails; they have a history of blowing me off as well.
Avoid these casinos at all costs.
This player, owed a "five-figure sum", has now felt obliged to go public with his case.
Here is what he has to say as of February 12th 2006:
In September of 2004 I took part in a weekend promotion running at African Palace Casino and its sister, Indio Casino. The promo was clearly intended to entice well bankrolled players. I received the promotional e-mails, and confirmed that I could participate. Between both accounts, I deposited $25,170 and finally withdrew $41,585, completing the wagering requirements playing mostly VP and some Blackjack.
Then my troubles began. The previously attentive casinos would not respond for weeks as to why I was not being paid, except to say that management was looking into unspecified ?irregularities with my accounts.? In November 2004, Neteller very creditably agreed to step in and started investigating this case. After several more months, the casino management finally proposed a settlement of $28,740 for the two accounts, which I agreed to in the interest of resolving this case.
Neteller was the third party in these negotiations and continued to monitor the casino?s compliance. While this was not clear at the time of the agreement, African Palace eventually stated that it was only going to pay the settlement in installments of $3000 per month. The monthly payments started in May of 2005 and then ended after only two months without explanation.
In October 2005, I filed a complaint concerning this case with Playtech?s dispute channel. I never even received a response. However, the next month I received an additional $3000 payment from the casino. Unfortunately, the payments did not continue the following month or thereafter.
To this date I have only received $12,000 of the promised amount and have no expectation I will receive any more.
Source: the "
African Palace stole my money" thread at Casinomeister.
In summary:
1) Player deposited a total of $25,170 at both African Palace and Indio Casino in September 2004.
2) He requested a total withdrawal of $41,585, representing a win of $16,415.
3) The casino did not process any of this withdrawal, so the player requested the intervention of
Neteller.
4) The casino proposed a settlement of $28,740 - fully $12,845 less than the total cashout.
5) The player accepted the proposal.
6) The casino paid a total of $12,000.
7) The player is still owed $29,585 of his original cashout.
The Playtech "dispute service", whose manager, Iris Toledano, I met at the London International Casino Exhibition in January - see my "
Meeting with the Playtech dispute service manager" article - has completely ignored all this player's communications. I forwarded the details of this case to her two weeks ago. She has not responded to me, either.
It should be borne in mind that in spite of winning over $16,000 at African Palace Casino and Indio Casino, the player accepted a settlement representing a win of only a little over $3000. In spite of this extraordinary compliance, he has still been paid less than half of his deposits - $12,000, out of a total of over $25,000.
It goes without saying that Mr. Bailey's advice should be heeded, and that African Palace Casino and Indio Casino should be avoided at all costs.
