Betfair Account Restrictions & closed accounts - Getting them removed and accounts reopened

News, chat and debate about the Betfair betting exchange.
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Grinderman
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Joined: Sun Mar 08, 2015 2:44 pm

I deposited money into my account this morning. Things were going so well that I had to deposit some more later, but it wouldn't let me.

"You are temporarily restricted from depositing into your Betfair account. Contact us if you would like to discuss this further."

This I did and was told that they had put a daily deposit limit on my account of £5k. Not restricted my exposure limit or a limit on net deposits. I haven't been running up losses, so don't think that it's a Gamble Aware thing.

Anyone else had anything similar or a suggestion as to why?
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Euler
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Location: Bet Angel HQ

Looking at the Betfar CS timeline on twitter there is a lot of this going on at the moment, but why I've no idea.
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Grinderman
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Joined: Sun Mar 08, 2015 2:44 pm

I tend not to keep all of my bank in there for long periods. If I know I'm not going to be trading for a week or so, I'll take it out and put it back as needed. I'm not trading as often now until the crowds are back and we get a bit nearer to normal. Makes me wonder if they are doing it to discourage me from withdrawing so often.
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Euler
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Location: Bet Angel HQ

Some money laundering compliance techniques look for frequent deposits and withdrawals, so maybe it's crude version of that or some software has triggered false positive pattern of behaviour that indicates you may have a problem or something.
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Grinderman
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Maybe. They did say though that it was their traders who had taken the decision. Which I thought was odd.
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Euler
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Location: Bet Angel HQ

I'm getting quite intrugied by what is going on. It's tricky to get that involved as Betfair obviously won't give me information about a customers account and Betfair won't talk to be about something specific to a customer. So I can't really get involved, but maybe a few people chatting here can shed some light into what is happening.
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jamesedwards
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I'm finding draconian deposit limits being forced on many of my bookmaker/exchange accounts over the last 12 months. Always under the guise of 'responsible gambling' customer protection. As a direct result I now have to keep many more times the amount of £££s sat in various accounts than I would have before just on the off-chance I need to use more than my daily deposit limit. I also have to carefully manage the right time to make a withdrawal due to the concurrent ban on reversals. Nice one Gambling Commission. :roll:
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ANGELS15
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jamesedwards wrote:
Fri Dec 04, 2020 8:44 pm
I'm finding draconian deposit limits being forced on many of my bookmaker/exchange accounts over the last 12 months. Always under the guise of 'responsible gambling' customer protection. As a direct result I now have to keep many more times the amount of £££s sat in various accounts than I would have before just on the off-chance I need to use more than my daily deposit limit. I also have to carefully manage the right time to make a withdrawal due to the concurrent ban on reversals. Nice one Gambling Commission. :roll:
Prior to the pandemic and especially last year there were a number of polititians making loud noises about online and problem gambling. There were talks about affordability checks and even removing in-running betting. It's possible reccomendations were made and the various companies are putting their own interpretation on things to demonstrate they are complying with the current political mood.
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Euler
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Been chatting to a couple of affected people on twitter.

I get the feeling that Betfair have been forced to ensure compliance on a range of accounts and simply don't have the capacity to do that.

Somebody is quoting a backlog of 1200 accounts, but obviously that's just speculation. Because of that the support function is creaking under the strain it would appear. More and more people are popping up on the Betfair CS feed on twitter.

They seem to be making a right pigs ear of this.
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Euler
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From what I gather on people I've spoken to at the moment, this appears to be a compliance drive on recreational punters at Betfair. But it sounds like they did it without having the capacity.

I've haven't come across a lifetime winner affected at all at the moment.
Archery1969
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Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:25 am
Location: Newport

You might find allot more people with account restrictions as there is to be a shake up of UK gambling laws.
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Naffman
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Joined: Sun Aug 11, 2013 5:46 am

Archery1969 wrote:
Tue Dec 08, 2020 9:21 am
You might find allot more people with account restrictions as there is to be a shake up of UK gambling laws.
Going to be a bloodbath, will take months to sort out especially with the backlog that there already seems to be.
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alexmr2
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https://www.racingpost.com/news/latest/ ... rms/462538

I just hope this doesn't seep into affecting traders but I have a feeling it will, there are so many questions and potential flaws with trying to implement this.

Would it mean new traders who aren't employed can't trade after being £100 down in a month (because they will have to go through a period of losing money)? What if your source of income isn't from traditional employment? What if you hold alternative assets which can't be proven electronically? Will we not be able to open a trade with more than £100 in the market?
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Derek27
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As far as I can see that's at the 'call for evidence' stage. Can't see how Betfair can be restricting accounts willy nilly already.
TraderFred
Posts: 194
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2018 7:55 am

alexmr2 wrote:
Tue Dec 08, 2020 11:31 am
https://www.racingpost.com/news/latest/ ... rms/462538

I just hope this doesn't seep into affecting traders but I have a feeling it will, there are so many questions and potential flaws with trying to implement this.

Would it mean new traders who aren't employed can't trade after being £100 down in a month (because they will have to go through a period of losing money)? What if your source of income isn't from traditional employment? What if you hold alternative assets which can't be proven electronically? Will we not be able to open a trade with more than £100 in the market?

No point speculating until there are any official announcements. As that’s all anybody would be doing now, nobody is going to know.

As pointed out above the review is just starting and is in the evidence stage, apparently that last 3 months or so, then after that they have to decide what recommendations to take and how to act. Looks like its not going to be until the end of next year/ start of 2022 that they come into effect, and then we will all know where we stand.

There is also a proposed levy review coming next year too, though don’t see how they can do that with the legislation review ongoing. Be impossible to plan for any future levy until bookmakers know what the new rules are going to be.

It does feel like the vultures are starting to circle though, and whatever happens, it will never be enough for the anti gambling brigade, they will carry on trying to get gambling banned regardless.

Hoping that sports and racing gets left alone and they go more after the online casinos with the restrictions on time and money spent. The advertising laws should get reversed too imo, crazy that they ever allowed them to change really. Though I guess we know more this time next year, and just have to wait and see.
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