But seriously what kind of predatory policy is that in the first place?

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[–] 1 point 1 day ago*

Can I be real. I think it shouldn't be a snap to close accounts normally. If your account gets stolen you might like to be able to recover it if they try to scuttle it.

Not defending this site though fuck gambling.

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  • [–] 330 points 6 days ago*

    predatory policy

    gambling site

    same thing.

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  • [–] 261 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (13 children)

    be this site

    advertise to kids using discord servers

    if they win from gambling, ban them bc they're underage

    if they lose, it's their loss anyway

    double your profits with a simple trick

    btw this is not just a meme. This is something they literally do, see this vid for more details: https://youtu.be/yJZ9SwRArqs

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  • [–] 128 points 6 days ago (12 children)

    My nephew fell for this trick. He's not a child, but he was gambling online on a European site as an American. He won big, tried to withdraw, they asked for a European passport. RIP his entire account.

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  • [–] 55 points 6 days ago (10 children)

    For any finincial anything always do a round trip with a $10 too see if it's possible.

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  • [–] 45 points 6 days ago (4 children)

    I've heard of scammers paying out small amounts deliberately to reel in more money so this still doesn't guarantee it's real.

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  • [–] 26 points 6 days ago (4 children)

    He was putting in thousands, about $5,000 USD. They were letting him withdraw a few hundred here and there. Then he won something like $10k that's when they did a Know Your Customer check. Which he failed, obviously. They kept his principal and his winnings, lol.

    Hopefully he took it as a lesson. Not much else he can do. They said on their terms of service Americans were explicitly forbidden. Not much recourse.

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  • [–] 85 points 6 days ago (1 child)
  • [–] 56 points 5 days ago (8 children)

    As an European, the "you can't close your account too fast, this process is mandatory" thing would be a one way to a trial.

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    [–] 128 points 6 days ago (7 children)

    But seriously what kind of predatory policy is that in the first place?

    It's a gambling site.

    Gambling is inherently predatory. It's addictive. Gambling sites prey on this addiction. They're not gonna let you go so easily. The wait period is to see if you're really one of their best customers, unable to go cold-turkey.

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  • [–] 92 points 6 days ago (23 children)

    I started dipping into watching regular cable again since we have it at the moment bundled with our internet, and man the commercials are bleak now. It’s all weight loss medication, depression medication, and gambling apps.

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  • [–] 30 points 6 days ago (4 children)

    The programming is pretty fucking bleak, too. My elderly parents have cable TV and I try to watch it sometimes to entertain myself while I'm taking care of them, and I can't find a fucking thing worth watching despite them having 500 channels or so. I always end up watching Beat Bobby Flay on the Food Channel and I can't stand that fucking show.

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    [–] 159 points 6 days ago (44 children)

    Having worked in the industry, there's actually an explanation that is only half predatory.

    Most of those addicted to gambling can't and won't shake it. They refuse to seek professional help, and the decision to quit only lasts the "temporary embarrassment" phase of losing all their money. Meaning: most gamblers who decide to quit (and we've got statistics on this), about 80-85% on average, is back to their favourite gambling service within 60 days.

    At the company I worked at, the primary reasoning for having a cooldown period instead of instant deletion was the following:

    • the cooldown period can already be linked with our lockout service which blocks the person from using the service for X days, so if they REALLY wanted to, they could block themselves for the entire time (and it surprisingly is being offered as part of the cooldown period)
    • if there's a regulatory block (meaning you got formally diagnosed by a doctor, and that doctor, with your consent, reached out to the local regulatory body and requested a blacklist entry for you), the service is blocked either way
    • the users who do come back, don't want to lose their "stats" - their previous bets, wins, losses, etc. would all be gone with a new account. In fact, the number one complaint from returning users was that their data was gone.

    Basically the idea is "if they're coming back anyway, we might as well make it easy for them".

    Now the thing is, for all the regulations... Gambling services are unfortunately not responsible for the addiction they cause. In my opinion they should be, just as a doctor would be held responsible if they fed into a patient's painkiller addiction. And for all the regulatory crap... most people in gambling companies aren't interested in compliance that much. It's very much a "do it then say sorry and fix it in post" attitude from the leadership and higher management. So while the above might be the "official" explanation, I have zero doubt that the decision makers don't give a fuck and are specifically doing it to psychologically pressure people into coming back.

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  • [–] 31 points 6 days ago (10 children)

    ...just as a doctor would be held responsible if they fed into a patient's painkiller addiction.

    Yeah! Like all those doctors who got in trouble for the opioid crisis!

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  • [–] 23 points 6 days ago* (3 children)

    Oooh, I saw a part of that firsthand.

    Relatives in Maine, three at the same address, got hooked up with a pill-mill in Biddeford.

    One sold all his Oxycontins each month, made a grand off of it.

    How he passed his mandatory "pill count" every week was to get the balance of pills he needed from his other relatives. They all had the same prescription. Would go in, be one pill over or under ("I felt good last week and forgot.." or "yaah, it was rotten for the pain so I popped an extra..") and skirted the system for a couple of years.

    Coasted along fine UNTIL the Feds went and busted a Walgreen's Pharmacy Warehouse in Florida that was the source of the pills...

    The next day, 4 of the 7 MD's at the pill mill disappeared into the ether. A few months later the grapevine relays that two lost their licenses one got some sort of penalty and one likely left the country never to be seen again.

    Fucking crazy times.

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    [–] 48 points 6 days ago (4 children)

    fucking hell they are really playing on people's gambling addiction aren't they

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    [–] 83 points 6 days ago (5 children)

    Fuck is a cooldown period?

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  • [–] 50 points 6 days ago (9 children)

    What country is "you can't close your account unless you go 90 days without using it first" legal in?

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  • [–] 26 points 6 days ago (3 children)

    This looks like a gambling app. So it's not that you can't close it until it's not used. Voluntary exclusion is a mandatory policy required by legislation so a gambling addict can ask a casino to functionally ban them. This app is extra predatory in that they don't allow a permanent ban right away. Their goal is to make it take multiple requests so an addict can relapse and spend more money and it's the addicts fault.

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    [–] 115 points 6 days ago

    A gambling service has a predatory policy to make breaking an addiction as hard as possible. Yep that sounds about right

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  • [–] 40 points 6 days ago

    This is super clever. I cannot believe this never occurred to me, and I discovered it in a Lemmy 'shitpost' no less.

    Let's keep up the memes and shitposts in this category!

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  • [–] 26 points 5 days ago

    Another trick is to change your state to California, which has a click to cancel law.

    The FTC made C2C a requirement nationwide for the US but Trump undid that in 2025.

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  • [–] 32 points 5 days ago* (1 child)

    So you have to abstain for 91 days to be able to close your account??? Fucking slime

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  • [–] 24 points 5 days ago

    That policy is likely illegal.

    But the same can be said about gambling platforms.

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  • [–] 35 points 6 days ago (2 children)

    its called "laxed regulation for dubious reasons". happens all the time because government officials should probably wear F1 gear with all their sponsor logos slapped on them.

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    [–] 21 points 5 days ago
    [–] 34 points 6 days ago

    It's the wild West meets end stage capitalism out there.

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  • [–] 25 points 6 days ago (5 children)

    I wonder how permanent closure is different from permanent lockout, but maybe it is similar enough in this case (I expect, they keep your data in the latter case)

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    [–] 41 points 6 days ago (4 children)

    This predatory nature is going into my thesis on how gacha gaming led to the downfall of online porn

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    [–] 32 points 6 days ago (4 children)

    This feels more like a LifeProTip than a shitpost

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    [–] 27 points 6 days ago (6 children)

    I'm confused by 24 hour self exclusion, followed by 90 day self exclusion. So 91 day self exclusion? Why not just say that?

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