eCOGRA Releases 2009 Dispute Mediation Stats

January 21, 2010 | News Category: Online Casinos

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Not only does eCOGRA give their seal of approval to online casino operators, they also assist in resolving disputes that arise between online gambling operators and their players. The statistics for the year 2009 have been released by Tex Rees, the Fair Gaming Advocate at eCOGRA, along with a comparison of similar statistics for 2008.

In 2009, eCOGRA received a total of 826 requests to help and settle disputes. Of these mediation requests, 83 of them were involving gaming operators that had not been certified as safe and fair by eCOGRA, and were therefore turned away. eCOGRA will only mediate between online gambling operators and their customers for those sites that have been certified by the organization. There were another 115 requested that were not considered as valid requests since they did not give the information needed in order to deal with the dispute.

There were, therefore, 628 valid requests that were received for mediation by eCOGRA. This number of valid requests for mediation grew by 14% since 2008, in which 550 valid cases were brought to eCOGRA. The 14% increase could be due to a new awareness that there is help for players to resolve their disputes with online gambling operators. It could also be a simple indication of the growth that has taken place in the online gambling sector.

In 2008, the percentage of valid disputes that were resolved in favor of the players was 49%. Last year, the number of disputes resolved in favor of the players totaled 303, which comes to 48%, and although that number has dropped by 1%, the drop is insignificant statistically. Since we see that just over half the disputes are resolved in favor of the online gambling operators, we can assume that it is likely that players may not be correctly reading the rules, terms and conditions that are set out by online gambling operators.

In both 2008 and 2009 nearly half of the requests for mediation were in regard to disputes related to cash-ins. The next highest percentage was for disputes regarding bonuses, after which came issues regarding locked accounts, which was then followed by a number of miscellaneous issues.

Obviously, eCOGRA cannot prevent disputes from arising, however, part of the safe and fair seal of approval by the organization shows that they will do all they can to ensure that the disputes that are raised dealt with by online casinos correctly.

Tex Rees commented about the 2009 disputes resolution, saying, "Once again, I found operators quick to respond and fully cooperative in addressing the mediated disputes."