We Spent 117 Days Trying To Withdraw The Winnings From Twenty Free Spins
The spins were free. The $14.60 they won came with a wagering requirement, a deadline and a request for a photograph of the reporter’s kitchen.
In June, Larkspur Spins, an online casino licensed in Curaçao, offered me twenty free spins for signing up. The spins won $14.60. What followed became the longest assignment of my career and the most expensive thing I have ever been given for free.
The terms
The bonus terms run to 6,400 words, roughly the length of a short story, and in places read like one. Free spin winnings arrive as bonus funds, which must be wagered forty times before withdrawal, on eligible games, at no more than fifty cents a spin, within seven days. Clause 11.4 reserves the right to change any of this at the casino’s discretion, a phrase that appears nineteen times.
The timeline
- Day 1: twenty free spins, $14.60 won, $584 to be wagered.
- Day 6: wagering 71 percent complete. Bonus balance $2.10.
- Day 7: progress reset to zero after one spin on an ineligible game, which the casino’s homepage had recommended.
- Day 40: wagering finally complete. Balance $3.20. Withdrawal requested.
- Days 41 to 116: documents requested, including a passport, a bank statement and a photograph of my kitchen “to verify residence”.
- Day 117: balance confiscated under clause 14.2, “irregular play”, for having completed the wagering.
The terms are very clear. Nobody has ever read them, which we would argue is the same thing.
Right of reply
Larkspur Spins said in a statement that it “takes bonus abuse extremely seriously” and that the account had shown “an unusual pattern of attempting to withdraw.” By way of apology it offered forty more free spins. I have accepted them, for the purposes of a follow-up.
