Catena Media-owned affiliate site AskGamblers has revealed that it was able to help players to recover a record $8.8m (£7.4m/€8.1m) in unpaid online casino winnings in 2019.AskGamblers was able to recover the funds through its casino complaint service, where users can log any issues they have experienced with operators not paying out winnings.
The amount recovered in the past year was 30% higher than in 2018, while the number of complaints filed through the service increased by 24% to 9,809, with some 6,804 players submitting claims against 725 online casino brands.
Of the 2,650 cases that were accepted by AskGamblers, 2,257 complaints were resolved, resulting in a resolution success rate of 84%, compared to 72% in the previous year.
The main reason for complaints was payment problems, with 2,195 of accepted cases related to such issues. Account handling issues followed in a distant second on a total of 195 cases, then deposit issues with 94 complaints, 81 bonus issues, 35 software issues and 50 miscellaneous problems.
In terms of the 7,160 cases rejected by AskGamblers, the primary reason for this was due to a lack of information provided by the player, with 2,638 complaints turned away because of this issue.
A total of 814 cases were turned down because of a lack of evidence, while 710 acknowledged rule violations, 628 complaints were submitted more than once and 319 were not related to online casinos.
Focusing on the casinos that paid out winnings as a result of resolved cases, the largest came from CloudBet Casino, which agreed to pay 330 Bitcoins to a player. Dafabet Casino ranked second paying out €122,030, followed by 1xBet Casino with €116,888.
Since the service launched, AskGamblers has recovered a total of $31.5m in winnings for players.
