William Hill PLC

Ask Gamblers Casino Complaints Service

If you are experiencing any issues with HippoZino regarding Payment, Bonuses, Software, Deposit, Accounts or other, you are welcome to file a complaint with the AskGamblers Casino Complaints Service.

As we need to be transparent, HippoZino does respond to these AskGamblers complaints. We do thought limit the amount of information stated as we are not allowed to provide personal and financial information on a public site. We urge players who have complaints to post them publicly via the unique AskGamblers Casino Complaint Service.

To encourage both our casino and the player to solve a potential issue as quickly as possible, there is a timer installed, so actually each party has 96h to respond. Failure of each party to do so within the given timeframe will result in the closure of the complaint. Hopefully, it won’t come to this, but if it by any means does, we are willing to do our best to resolve all issues in the best possible way.

25. No warranty

25.1     We will endeavour to provide the Website using our reasonable skill and care. We make no further warranty or representation, whether express or implied, in relation to the Website. All implied warranties or conditions of satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose, completeness or accuracy are hereby excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law. 25.2     We make no warranty that the Website will meet your requirements or will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that the Website or the server that makes it available are free of viruses or bugs or represents the full functionality, accuracy, reliability of the materials or as to results or the accuracy of any information obtained by you through the Website. 25.3     In the event of systems or communications errors relating to the generation of random numbers, bet settlement or other elements of the betting product, we will not be liable to you as a result of any such errors and we reserve the right to void all bets on the draws in question. In the event of a discrepancy between the result showing on Your software and our server software, the result showing on the Casino's server software shall be the official and governing result. 25.4     In rare circumstances the result displayed within a game may be incorrect. In the event of a dispute, the result recorded on the game server will stand as the correct outcome. Nothing in this clause shall affect our rights as set out in clause 27 (Right to Void).

My Account has been Closed/Disabled

Before you assume the worst check that you’ve completed the ID verification process. If you registered, forgot to complete the process and returned to the site weeks or months later, there’s a good chance that your account will have been frozen.

Keep in mind too that any licensed gambling site has the right to close or freeze your account provided it has reasonable grounds to do so. These grounds include a perceived risk of harm to the player, a breach of the T&Cs, a risk of detriment to the operator or a suspicion of money-laundering.

Therefore, failure to satisfy age requirements will most certainly get your account closed as will the opening of multiple accounts – a practice that’s fairly common with people looking to take advantage of bonuses. Naturally, every single operator will take a dim view of this behaviour and rightly so. It’s fraud!

A less-likely scenario is that your account gets banned because you win too regularly. Remember that a gambling operator’s entire modus operandi is about letting you win a bit here and a bit there. So those that win big on a regular basis (they do exist) could be considered a financial liability by the operator, thus posing a ‘risk of detriment’. In this context, your gambling site of choice is perfectly within its rights to close your account.

Another great way to get your account closed at any gambling site is to try and use a deposit charge-back to claw back your losses. Banks offer this service for customers who paid for but did not receive a service. This does not however apply to online gambling payments and will likely cause you to be banned.

Conclusion

As you can see, making a complaint against a bookmaker is not something to be frightened of. There are a number of bodies that can help you if you have a dispute. As long as you have your facts right, though, and approach them in a reasonable and thoughtful manner, UK bookmakers will respond positively to any issues you may raise with them. When it comes to bookmaker complaints UK punters are usually treated very fairly.

So if something does go wrong when you are betting, there is no need to despair. Keep a cool head, make accurate notes about what has happened, gather evidence and remember that there are professional bodies whose purpose is to keep companies like bookmakers honest.

When the time comes for you to find a new bookmaker, we would also recommend you check our list of blacklisted bookmakers so you know the operators to avoid, as well as our bookmaker reviews, so that you can find the very best bookmakers 2022 has to offer. We’d hope that this will help you find a suitable new provider, so your future should hopefully be free of having to make any further bookmaker complaints.

William Hill PLC

Related Links

https://www.casino.org

The UK Gambling Commission published Thursday a set of tips on how to handle complaints, with the intention to remind licensees of existing rules and guidance. The new advice follows a review of complaints policies that found a number of areas for improvement.

The Commission has now completed a review of 34 licensee complaints policies, from a range of sectors, and looked at how accessible and easy they were to use. This work was referenced in the UKGC’s 2021/22 business plan to “explore how to improve how licensees deal with consumers when things go wrong.”

Additionally, the work is also set to complement the Government’s review of the Gambling Act, which includes looking at how to improve consumer redress arrangements in the gambling industry, the UKGC said in a statement. The White Paper on gambling review has recently been pushed back for the fourth time after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resignation.

“Our data publication Understanding consumer complaints highlighted that 8% of gamblers had ever made a complaint,” the Commission said on Thursday. “A further 4% reported that they wanted to make a complaint but didn’t. Our qualitative research explored some possible reasons for this, one of which included the perception that it is a tedious process, and that the licensee may be purposefully difficult to reach.”

While most of the policies the UKGC reviewed met “the basic requirements imposed on gambling licenses,” the Commission found there were still areas where licensees could make improvements in their complaints handling. “This will help make the process easier and more accessible for consumers,” the regulator stated.

Ian Angus, Director of Policy at the Commission, said: “Good complaints handling is vital in the gambling industry. We want consumers to be able to easily find and understand policies and be able to raise their complaints without any barriers.”

“We know gambling businesses receive around 200,000 complaints every year, and while the Government’s review of the Gambling Act will consider where these can be escalated to, the majority will still need to go through the licensee’s complaints process first,” he added. “We want to help them handle these well, to improve outcomes for both them and consumers."

The Commission has written the following tips to help licensees improve their complaint handling:

• Include a link to your complaints procedure on your homepage
• Use plain English and avoid jargon or legalese
• Have a short and clear process for complaints
• Tell people what information you need to investigate their complaint
• Include details of the 8-week time limit for resolving complaints or issuing a final response
• Be clear when you have given a final decision or reached ‘deadlock’
• Include clickable links and check that they work
• Utilize technology, such as webforms and decision-trees, to help guide people through the complaints process but always have alternative methods of contact available
• Be accessible for all, including vulnerable people, and make adjustments where required
• Keep a virtual paper-trail
• Utilize Resolver and other consumer support tools
• Provide clear signposting to ADR providers

The UKGC says it has also reminded licensees of their requirements around complaints handling under social responsibility code 6 of the Commission’s License conditions and codes of practice, and signposted to the guidance on Complaints and disputes: procedural, information provision and reporting requirements.

For further details, the UKGC encourages licensees to view the full guide on Good practice complaints handling: tips for licensees.

What types of complaints are NOT covered under this policy?

Dissatisfaction with the outcome of a hearing is not a complaint which is covered under this policy. This complaint procedure is NOT another form of reconsideration, appeal or judicial review.

Betting Disputes

Specific legislative provisions apply to disputes in relation to the underpayment or non-payment of winnings for bets made with an ACT licensed Bookmaker.

The dispute is to be referred to the Commission within 28 days of the completion of the event on which the bet was made using the Betting Dispute form (PDF 57KB).

The Commission must give a written direction about the dispute as soon as practicable.

17. Downloads

For certain of our betting products and services offered through our Website you may need to download software in order to use them and we will licence the software to you (or sublicense to you, to the extent the software is owned by a third party). The terms upon which you may download and use any such software will be made available to you at the time of download and must be accepted by you prior to your use of that software.

What you should expect of gambling companies

• The terms and conditions of promotions should be clear and given to you in good time

• You should know what to expect and have the information you need to properly decide if a promotion is right for you

• You should be free to walk away from online play at any time, and keep what is left of your deposit and the winnings you’ve earned from play with your deposit

• Gambling sites must make it clear if you are playing with your own money, or with bonus funds that are subject to more restrictions

• Any restrictions on how you can play with bonus funds, for example, any restrictions on the size of bets, must be made clear to you

• You cannot be required to take part in publicity

• If the sites offer a free bet, they can’t change the deal once you have started playing

• Online gambling companies shouldn’t confiscate your money because you haven’t logged on or played on their site for a particular period of time, but they can charge cost reflective fees after 12 months of inactivity as long as these are clear and they attempt to return your money first. Online gambling companies are obliged to confirm your identity but they can’t confiscate your money where you have not provided ID documents within a particular period of time

Ask Gamblers Casino Complaints Service

If you are experiencing any issues with HippoZino regarding Payment, Bonuses, Software, Deposit, Accounts or other, you are welcome to file a complaint with the AskGamblers Casino Complaints Service.

As we need to be transparent, HippoZino does respond to these AskGamblers complaints. We do thought limit the amount of information stated as we are not allowed to provide personal and financial information on a public site. We urge players who have complaints to post them publicly via the unique AskGamblers Casino Complaint Service.

To encourage both our casino and the player to solve a potential issue as quickly as possible, there is a timer installed, so actually each party has 96h to respond. Failure of each party to do so within the given timeframe will result in the closure of the complaint. Hopefully, it won’t come to this, but if it by any means does, we are willing to do our best to resolve all issues in the best possible way.

Free support to help with resolution of…

Free support to help with resolution of issues with online casinos - without askgamblers.com, I feel we would not have a voice at all when we have disputes with casinos - if you complain to customercare with the casino, you're often left waiting weeks or months to a resolution, if you even get one at all... other times, they just point to something vague in their T&C's and try to use it to refuse payments and so on... however, post your complaint on askgamblers.com and the casinos are all over it to try to resolve it as soon as possible in order to protect their reputation. Further to this support, the site is an absolute treasure trove of information for punters with many game and casino reviews and the user forum.Thanks folks, keep up the great work!TheScientist

Date of experience: 30 July 2022

Unlike most success stories that started out of garages, this one started out of a casino bar. Go figure.

What to do if you think you’ve been treated unfairly

• Online gambling companies have a process for dealing with complaints, and you should contact them first if you don’t think you’ve been treated fairly

• If you still have a complaint about your experience when gambling with a firm, they must have an independent person to look at your problem and try and find a solution. This is known as Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

• Details of the company’s complaint process, ADR provider and how to contact them should be on their website

• You can also tell the Gambling Commission, contact Citizens Advice or seek independent legal advice

See the CMA’s latest work on online gambling

These materials do not constitute legal advice and should not be relied upon as such.