Bad Experience at Silver Oak Casino

This post is intended to be a warning to anyone looking for an online casino. But if there is a way for me to get my money back l'd appreciate your suggestions.

On May 17th 2011 I opened an account at Silver Oak Casino with a deposit of $400.00. I accepted the 100% first-deposit bonus which made my account balance $800.00. That same day I lost $400.00. On May 18th I won $400.00 playing Sic Bo, making my account balance $800.00. I requested a cashout but the system denied my request each time. On May 19th I requested a cashout and the system denied my request each time. Frustrated and feeling as if Silver Oak was knowingly denying my requests in order to keep my money, I bet $400.00 on Sic Bo. I won $400.00 which made my balance $1200.00, so I tried to cashout again and my request was denied. I did a live chat with "Charlie" and it didn't resolve my issue. The next day I had a live chat with "Charlie" again and it still didn't resolve my issue. Then I called the casino and a woman told me that my requests were denied because I accepted the 100% bonus. She manually fixed my account on her end and told me to try to cashout again. In my opinion the casino probably does this to every new player, locking their account to make them stay, and continue to play, and lose their entire deposit. But that's just what I suspect. On May 20th I tried to cashout again and my request was approved, I withdrew $1,200.00 and my balance became $0.00. On May 30th I had a live chat with "Amanda" and found out that the reason I still don't have my money is because my cashout was canceled, due to me winning at Sic Bo! There is no small print and no conditions or rules posted regarding using bonuses at SilverOakCasino.com, but "Amanda" informed me that there are about six games you cannot play when you accept a bonus. I said "So, I won $800 but couldn't withdraw it because I accepted the deposit bonus?" and Amanda said "No, you can't cashout because you played non allowed games for this promotion. If you want to play any of those games you may, but only on your deposited funds." (How can Silver Oak decide if a player was betting with their deposit of if they were betting with the bonus that Silver Oak gave them? That's ridiculous.) I've been trying to get my money from this casino since the 18th. It is now the 30th. So instead of arguing with "Amanda" about my deposit and my winnings ($1,200.00) I asked if I could withdraw the $400.00 that I deposited. Guess what her answer was. No! She said that in order to make a withdrawal I had to win! So she credited my $0.00 balance account with $400.00. Why did she credit my account $400.00 instead of refunding my entire balance of $1200.00? Feeling that I had been cheated and there was nothing I could do about it I went back to Sic Bo. Knowing that I was going to lose, I bet and I lost. I feel like this casino cheated me by not letting me know the conditions of the bonus in the first place and then refusing to let me have my own deposit back. And there are no rules or small print or conditions regarding using bonuses on the website. They also have no information regarding fees. This was a bad experience and I want to warn people away from playing at Silver Oak Casino. You might win a lot of money but what's the point of winning if they won't give you your money? This casino kept me there, strung me along, eventually kept all of my winnings ($800.00) AND made me lose my deposit ($400.00). I advise everyone to stay away from this online casino.

Ouch! All I can do is offer sympathy and the obvious suggestion to stick with real casinos and real people. Good Luck and thanks for the heads up!

Did it ever occur to you to play at a casino that offers only a zero percent bonus?
I mean they offer you bonuses to induce you to play with them. Its like a bank offering a higher percentage to induce you to deposit with them, they are doing it to lure you into a situation of greater risk.

So after all these mouthings about bonuses, the time, the frustration... what did you get?

Why not go to a more reputable casino where they do things like deposit your money, let you play, and if you win they let you withdraw your winnings. No bonuses. No attempts to mislead you.

You went hunting for trouble ... and you found it.

(By the way, welcome to the board. Sorry your first post is about a loss rather than a win. Better luck next time.)

I just now googled it and found two warnings about it being owned by rogues and being the former Crystal Palace owners operating under a new name.
How did you think it was going to be anything other than a rip off?

Quote: FleaStiff

I just now googled it and found two warnings about it being owned by rogues and being the former Crystal Palace owners operating under a new name.
How did you think it was going to be anything other than a rip off?

I have always been a fan of the word "Rouge".
Ne'er-do-well is also a rather enjoyable word. Any word that contains two hyphens and an apostrophe is really in its own category.

But to the posters question about the seemingly great bonus may I quote Mr Sky Masterson:
"One of these days in your travels, a guy is going to show you a brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken.
Then this guy is going to offer to bet you that he can make the jack of spades jump out of this brand-new deck of cards and squirt cider in your ear.
But, son, do not accept this bet, because as sure as you stand there, you're going to wind up with an ear full of cider."

I actually wasn't aware that some casinos offer bonuses. I saw an ad for Silver Oak on another Blackjack strategy website and I made a deposit there because the website and software looked professional. I googled "Silver Oak Casino scam" today and found a ton of information. It turns out that Silver Oak is such a rip off that it's been blacklisted by several websites. Thanks Pete, Barona is the best of the big casinos in my area so the next time I want to gamble I'll go there.

I guess I can understand them causing a hassle for attempting to cashout. If I offered a 100% bonus, I'd sure have lots of restrictions regarding how the money may be wagered, how many hands must be played, how long it must remain on account, etc. Of course, this should all be clearly written down.

The part about your account going from $1200 to $400 is absolutely criminal. I don't see how this can be justified at all.

The sad truth is that there are quite a few online casinos which "look professional" but are not managed as such. Always check online reviews first. You are also welcome to ask around here. I know Bodog Casino is the only one that the Wizard supports, but others may have suggestions as well.

I feel your pain. This wouldn't be the first time a player has had trouble over alleged restricted games and accepting a bonus. For a long time I advised that the best strategy for "phantom bonuses," where the player must give back his bonus upon cashing out, is to bet on long shots, like a single number in roulette, or a specific three of a kind in sic bo. Eventually, the casinos caught up to the players and tried to exclude these games. Sometimes in very fine print in an obscure corner of the site. Other times changing the rules after the promotion started. It begs the question of what to do when the player does play a restricted game. Such illegitimate casinos usually don't count the bet if it won, and do count it if it lost. It just goes to show how inept and unfair many online casinos are. I say if you don't want a player to play a certain game then modify your system to not allow him to play it in the first place.

Quote: Wizard

I feel your pain. This wouldn't be the first time a player has had trouble over alleged restricted games and accepting a bonus. For a long time I advised that the best strategy for "phantom bonuses," where the player must give back his bonus upon cashing out, is to bet on long shots, like a single number in roulette, or a specific three of a kind in sic bo. Eventually, the casinos caught up to the players and tried to exclude these games. Sometimes in very fine print in an obscure corner of the site. Other times changing the rules after the promotion started. It begs the question of what to do when the player does play a restricted game. Such illegitimate casinos usually don't count the bet if it won, and do count it if it lost. It just goes to show how inept and unfair many online casinos are. I say if you don't want a player to play a certain game then modify your system to not allow him to play it in the first place.

Wizard, are there any associations or agencies that the OP can bring his complaint to? Does he have any recourse?

Good day all,

First time poster here.

I just had a similar experience with Silver Oak Casino - Wished I seen this first.

They have changed some things since this was posted.

They now "LOCK" games you can not play on a bonus. Example: a 270% Bonus will say no Craps / No Roulette.

So I did a small deposit, $50. I played a combination of BlackJack and slots. I worked my balance up to $1,695.xx

As soon as I completed the advertised "Play Through" ($3,000), my balance dropped to $235.29

I contacted them right away and asked where my $1,695 went to...

"Oh, you played BlackJack, you still have a $2,316 Play Through on BlackJack. WTF????

"And by the way your Max cash out is $100"... WHAT????

BlackJack was never locked and the Minimum Cash Out is $100.

Having really lost only $50 I decided to play a little bit with them.

I actually asked "Patrick" if this meant that all of the money beyond $100 was in reality "Fake" money.

He basically just repeated that the Max cash out was $100 and to get this off my account I had to zero out.

I will try to get my $100 (Doubt it, but worth the try) and certainly will NOT be doing business with them again.

Does anyone know of legitimate on-line casinos? I know the general consensus is they are all bad, but I am curious.

Thank you all,

DwitDwit

i joined Silver Oak a few years ago and every once in awhile would put $100 in on slots, I took bonuses on some, but the last few times I've played I have stayed away from the bonus enticer and managed to win $1,000. Around the end of August/first part of September I requested a withdrawal of $1,000, and was assured I would get it as soon as I sent the required paperwork. After sending everything three times to three different email addresses, I was assured everything was in order. Lo and behold as I patiently waited each time they told me it would take between 7 to 10 days they (different "chat" robots) then told me they couldn't send the funds to my account because I was in Alaska. So I opened a bitcoin wallet and now I am still waiting for my nonexistent $1,000 to arrive. They banned me from their site after I aired my frustration several times to the different Chat robots and "Steve" the manager of the Chat site (I assume) said he was banning me from Silver Oak also, but never sent the $1,000 I won. Live and Learn. We've also been Bovada players, but have learned to leave the enticing bonus' alone. Never won there, so have had no experience with that casino yet.

I had a bad experience too with Silver Oaks casino. Making deposit with them are fast but when making withdrawals is another story. My withdrawals with them didn't even reach my bank account and for so long I been trying to contact them but no response.

Silver Oak is allegedly rogue.

https://www.casinolistings.com/casinos/silver-oak-casino-review

How crappily shady is Silver Oak? So if I deposit $400 and decide I don't want to play my $400 anymore they won't even allow me to withdraw the $400? And they KEEP your wins when you do win if you decide to play with your $400? Let this be a lesson to all. Stick to brick and mortar casinos. At least in BAM(LOL at abbreviation) casinos if you put money into a slot and decide you don't want to play it anymore you can just cash out and keep your money. Plus in BAM machines you have cameras that can help you out. On an online casino you have no camera to help you out.

What really sucks is that in my experience that appears to be the norm w most online casinos. Now granted I have not seen any out of the states as I don't live in the states that offer them but the ones I have seen all have their wacky BS rollover rules and questionable play both in the virtual pits and poker.

It seems like there is a major opportunity for an online casino to just keep things really tight on the up and up and they'd probably clean up.

I hate reading stories like this because I reckon they are far too common. As if it's not hard enough as a punter!

The comfort of playing online can be TOO comforting. There's no reason to get up and leave if you are just hitting "spin," on an internet device in your bedroom. In a brick and mortar if you are playing way too much and you can stop by cashing out the TITO, collect your left over money, and going home. On an online casino, there is no "rush" to stop playing and get home as you are already there, so that is a huge drawback.

I somehow missed all the followups to my posts. Thank you all for your contributions. Online casinos and bonuses are fraught with danger. Stick with the best of the best and do not stray because as one poster said you will wind up with cider in your ear at these ten thousand percent and a teen age girl bonus places.

As to comfort at home versus "buzz" of a casino there are differences. Turn those differences to your advantage. Some people who work at home actually leave teh house at five pm, close their front door and then come back in and announce "Hi honey, I'm home". A sort of ritual to define time and place in their lives.

Online gamblers have to do this too. Or else you will find there is no time for sleep, no breaks for a bar band, no meals, no sweet young things at the next bj spot. If you shower and shave before hitting a casino floor... then shower and shave before cranking up the computer.