Villa (Costa) Fortuna Casino

Update 19th Feb: The offending clause discussed in this article is being removed from all Grand Prive casinos with immediate effect, although the affiliate issue referred to remains unresolved.

Update 16th Feb. This term applies to “outstanding balances” at all casinos operated by Grand Privé, including Big Dollar, Bella Vegas, Casino Grand Bay, Fortune Junction and Villa Fortuna.

Some of you may have spotted that Grand Prive have had some bad press recently for the way they treated their affiliates. In fact I blogged about it here and suggested caution as it might be a sign of things to come. Well, it looks like those times have come over at Villa Fortuna casino…

According to a post on the popular Casinomeister forum recently Grand Prive-run casino Villa Fortuna has implemented a new condition. A player in Hamburg who posts under the pseudonym “poser” discovered what is commonly referred to as a “F.U. clause” in the Villa Fortuna Terms & Conditions. I quote:

Inactive accounts WILL NOT receive balance payments for wins.

An active account requires that a player deposits a minimum of $/?/€20 per week, and that the deposit is wagered through 20X. (All table games and Video Poker excluded from meeting the wagering requirements).
You can ALSO keep your account active by depositing $/?/€80 and wagering it through 20X at least once a month. Again all table games and Video Poker games are excluded from wagering).

This applies to outstanding balances on cashouts over $10k which is the maximum monthly withdrawal limit. So let’s get this straight. If you win over $10k, you have to play at Villa Fortuna every week, deposting €20 AND wagering €400 of bets while the remaining balance is outstanding, or they can confiscate your balance! And what’s more, you have to wager it on slots! Your chances of keeping your €20 euro are slim, so either way you are probably going to lose it and presumably the idea is that you will then run into your outstanding balance and play that down too. Now it doesn’t take a genius to work out that this is not good. In fact, it’s so not good it could be regarded by some as theft. Exactly what our industry doesn’t need right now is casinos shafting players.

And to top it all, this is a Microgaming (MG) casino software licencee. This has caused a number of players and afilliates, myself included, to rethink how we treat new MG licencees. I’ve always held the misguided belief that MG would, if necessary, intervene to ensure their licencees treat players well. Not so anymore it would seem. The fact that one of their licencees is allowed to get away with this (and yes, MG have been notified on both this and the affiliate issue more than once) speaks volumes for the economic climate.

Were I a cynic, I would say Grand Prive are trying to head off financial difficulties, while MG too are thinking that losing a big licencee might be felt on the bottom line. The optimist in me says that MG will step in on this issue at some point. But every day they don’t both Grand Prive and Microgaming are losing friends and influencing people! And not in a good way.

Villa Fortuna casino? More like Costa Fortuna casino!

So I say to players: play at Grand Prive brands and expect the worst. Or better still, play somewhere safer!

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