[mtneer1212]

I think it's a lot worse than "poorly handled." If they simply said "We need to investigate the possibility of chip dumping" without stating an opinion either way and took two weeks to investigate without sending hand histories, that would be a problem but not too major in the grand scheme of things. But instead, they said:

"10) On November 15, 2011 I re sent the same email I sent to them on November 12th, 2011 and got a response saying that my account had been reviewed and “chip dumping was detected and confirmed”. I responded requesting all hand histories of every hand I had ever played on the site. I got a response back saying “the complete hand history is too massive for it to be sent. But I will personally send you the hands in which you were found cheating. If that is ok with you.”"

They claimed they confirmed chip dumping, and blatantly accused him of cheating. It's very clear this guy was not getting paid without the pressure exerted from the forums. Any time a book only pays because the forum exerted pressure, I believe they deserve an immediate downgrade.

Additionally, they made this guy make a bet in the sportsbook when he isn't even a sports bettor:

"5) Later on November 9, 2011 I requested another $15,000 wire withdrawal. When I checked the morning of November 10, 2011 to see if it had been processed it said it had been declined due to me not meeting my rollover requirement. It said that in order to meet the rollover requirement I had to wager $1222.80 in the SportsBook. First of all, there should not be a rollover requirement because I received no bonuses at all when making my deposit. Out of frustration, on November 10, 2011 I did not fight this ruling (at this point I just wanted to be able to withdrawal my winnings) and proceeded to wager $1300 in the SportsBook on an ATP tennis match."

If that tennis match lost, they should add $1300 to his payout request.

It will be interesting to see how SBR handles BetOnline's rating. Their actions here, falsely accusing the guy of cheating and only paying because of forum pressure, means they are in need of an immediate downgrade, and if SBR does not lower their rating, it's more evidence of them sweeping complaints about sponsor books under the rug, a la all the BetPhoenix complaints when they were a sponsor.

This is the most intelligent post in the whole thread. Betonline has always been a good out for me, with prompt payments. But the issues outlined above require answers. I have always had great faith in Alex over there, and still do. But there has been and continues to be gross incompetence in some of the areas of that book. You can't say that an account has been reviewed, make an accusation, then take two weeks to conduct an audit before saying "NEVERMIND, It's all good". They already said you cheated. They should have said, "we would like to review the account for possible misconduct before we process your payout. Please give us a week to conduct an audit." That would have been more appropriate.