I have been playing online (poker and casino) for well over a decade. I have had my ups and downs but always received what I thought I was paying for which was an opportunity to make money. In the days when pokerstars, full tilt, and back in the day party poker existed as USA options, I made many deposits and withdrawals without issue. I never feared my money was not "safe" and that I wouldn't be paid when I won. For the past 4 months or so I have played on Bovada. There have been many red flags that should have stopped me... only a few tables had "cash players" on them; players were identified by number and not name, etc. Also, the deposit "fees" are truly ridiculous (4.9% and then another separate conversion "fee"). I made a number of deposits over the past several months and then there are others were simply were not made by me. I noticed a pattern that whenever I increased my casino wager, I would win. Decrease the wager, then I would lose. Every session I would build up to $[protected]. I have played enough to recognize the pattern of reduce bet lose, increase bet win. This mind game continues until the winnings are blown. Well during all of this I'm waiting for a withdrawal (of less than $1000) for well over 1 month. Meanwhile I successfully make deposits with about a 10% surcharge that are approved instantaneously. What I have figured out after speaking with "customer service with Bovada" on a regular basis is that they are reading from a script, promising to call me back, promising to provide a tracking number for my check that was requested over 1 month ago (policy originally stated would take 15 days to receive payout). So now I believe that I have been a victim of fraud. Some deposits that I was charged for were in duplicate and then the others that I actually made with the belief that I would be able to cash out winnings are fraudulant as well as I have not seen my small cash out. I therefore am disputing all charges with my bank because of the above. The charges on my account say "spa services, camera purchase, retail clothing etc" none of which I ever received. The online gaming industry is a thing of the past. Do NOT play with your money unless you plan on losing. If you "win" you will never see your money. I would never dream of not paying a debt that was legitimate. However, I can't imagine that I could let over $10, 000 in my monies go to a "company" such as this that is obviously not legitimate, so readily collecting my money while failing to reimburse any "winnings". I feel totally taken and I hope Bovada joins the others being prosecuted by the USA. They are truly thieves!
Warning: Bovada is a FRAUD operation. I have an account with them for four years now and throughout this period I was able to accumulate winnings of slightly over $5000 through sport betting. However, recently when I tried to log into my account their website did not recognized my login and password so I called the customer support line to have them correct the issue. They said that my account was compromised so they have to look into this matter and will get back to me within 48 hrs. Guess what ... I did not received any return call and I have been calling them back daily for the last week and still getting the same run around. I guess they decided to shut my account down so they don't have to pay me. This is their scamming operation. They will gladly take your deposit but will not payout any winnings that you have gained. My advice is DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH BOVADA BECAUSE THEY ARE CROOKS.
Has anyone found a poker site that you can trust?
I recently opened a Bovada account to bet college football. I am quite good at it. As they noticed that, all kinds of buggy things started happening on the website. I make a bunch of bets (I think) and they all disappear from the Transaction cue for an hour or two during the Saturday. Then, I try to make a few bets and I get a "must login" message to complete bet (mind you, I am already logged in). I find out that bet went through later once the Transaction summary starts working. I also find out that bet, and another bet, went through twice. I did not want to bet two games twice and that only happened because my first click was given a message that I need to log in and it never went in the Transaction queue. Then magically, the whole site is not responding to me for 90 minutes. Then magically, I see a bunch of redundant bets go through that they will of course not cancel and of course not pick up the phone. After making them feel my fury, the filthy russian gangsters running the site in Latvia decided to hold my money hostage. The [censored] chat person starts to argue with me that they do not have a Mobile app (mind you, while I am in the Mobile app). Ironically, the Mobile app is also not working and I cannot see my transactions there either. Then the [censored] on chat tells starts to tell me they are not "affliated" with the Mobile app which is even more [censored]ic given it has all of my account history and data in it. I explain to the [censored] that sharing my online account data with whomever built the Mobile app for them is the exact definition of "affliation". That said, I doubt I will ever see my money from these people. Luckily, my family is Lithanian and our past time is murdering Russian gangsters. I will soon be in Latvia murdering more. (Just trying to catch up with Stalin. Murder is wrong except for when you murder Russian gangsters).
Long story short, these folks are clearly not ethical and will die soon.
Brother they don't have a mobile app. Apple App Store & Google Play Store ban out-of-country sportsbook apps. If you're using an "app" its just a homescreen shortcut to the mobile website. Maybe if you didn't treat the support people like an [censored] you would have been taken care of. Four years later and they're still kickin, bud, so your murderous threats are imbecilic
It's a good place to learn discipline. Because it sorta feels like they can jack with my luck. When I first deposited my $25 for penny tables my luck was excellent. I made it to about $60 and then my luck starts to end. No matter what I do or how long I play I constantly lose money. Luck streak lasted for maybe 10 hours and the bad luck is lasting for like 20 hours+.
The good luck streak I had was pure luck like I had little chance of losing money. I would get very rare
I have to agree with the negative statements made here almost 100%, although I primarily only played slots. I am a small player, I only deposit maybe 100 dollars or less at a time. most of the time to start I was breaking even. That would last perhaps a week, and then a very inexplicably bad streak where I would lose all my funds. At one point I actually was up over 800 dollars on some crazy bonus spins, but you got it...within 2 weeks it was gone I played basically the same core of slots and could not win a penny back. I sent them an email and all they can tell me is their games are fair and perhaps I should vary my strategies.
2 weeks later I decide to play again and deposit more funds. Never won anything meaningful again and even deposited more. After being out about 400 dollars straight with no wins, I got very upset and chatted with them online only to find out they are located in Antigua and not subject to USA laws. Needless to say, that little 4 month experiment is over. I will not be playing there again and will let all my friends know as well. Just go to a casino if you can until the US allows domestic companies to offer online gaming. It's not worth it.
100% agree. this happend over and over my 12 years as a VIP there. The "bad" streaks are because they watch you play all day very closely. A supervisor with a weird spelled name of jessikya called and disconitnued my account just for complaining because i indicated that I put my savngs into bovada. As of today my 14k has not been returned calling me suicidal. When you play computerized blackjack they bait you with wins everyday until they one day just boom change the RTG player level to expert. This is disguised fraud and they are getting more and more bold about it as draftkings takes all the players. I know the end goal will be to one day disappear from the internet with all players money be very carefull there!
Bovada is 100% a scam site. The day after I deposited money to them and won a big bet, I get an email from them saying my account is cancelled because they say they received a "charge back notice" from my credit card company which was total BS. So not only did they not honor my bet and the winnings they owed me, they claimed I owed THEM money. I asked for documentation and they said they didn't have to show me any but that it was up to ME to prove my innocence lol. They wanted me to send them credit card statements for the next two months to prove I didn't get a refund from the "charge back". They are total thieves and you will NEVER see any payout from them for one, but two, they will try to THREATEN you saying you OWE them money lmao.
And btw, anyone you EVER see online that has good things to say about Bovada including on this page are Bovada employees, they are the biggest jokes ever!
This is due to the Wire Act, which prevents many international transactions. Many card companies will chargeback out-of-country charges - just call them and have them reverse it. Never had any issues with them in my 2+ years of sports betting, but I haven't tried poker so who knows. I have been paid out many times, albeit for lesser amounts. It can get tricky as they have to avoid US regulations because they are based out of country (latvia i think) They also generate about 3.3 million unique users per month, which is by far the largest customer base for an internationally-based sportsbook in the us, so I'd imagine their support staff is pretty overwhelmed. I only ever had one issue with them, it was a free play bonus that I didn't receive, but I hit them up on twitter and they got it to me the next day.
Not a bovada employee just a sport betting fan in a state that has no state-regulated sportsbooks.
you may have no problems sports betting for a while but win big money or complain and htey will discontinue your account saying your a pro or this is for entertainment only. Draftkings will go nationwide. Bovada will one day not honor your winnings as they did to us for complaining about computer blackjack. They let you win a little each day in blackjack but one day they change the player levels which is fraud and you end up losing so many many times thta its becomes rediculous. You will then complain and htey disconintue the account calling it entertainment only and htta you are a pro or you have complained causing them to say your suicidal. But they dont give a [censored] and often take your winnings.
sounds like a bovada employee or some [censored] losing money and think he good and wins lmao sure buddy.
Complete fraud of a site