Frustrated punters have accused the TAB of freezing betting accounts for months at a time and refusing them access to thousands of dollars in winnings.
Three customers who spoke exclusively to this masthead said their accounts had been locked without warning and they were left chasing answers and submitting paperwork with no satisfactory response from the gambling giant.
One punter said he had been blocked from withdrawing $5500 from his account for the past four months after he had three winning bets on basketball.
A second TAB customer said his account was frozen without explanation for two months when he deposited $860 in early January, while a third punter said his account containing $300 was inexplicably shut down permanently for “business reasons”.
All three men had a common experience – they were not told why their accounts were frozen, and they struggled to get any answers when trying to contact TAB.
They also said they had never had issues with their accounts when they were placing losing bets.
The three men spoke to this masthead about their experiences on the condition that their full names would not be used due to privacy concerns. Two of them live in regional towns.
Bookmakers, Tabcorp included, are beholden to the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing act, which is designed to detect, deter and disrupt money laundering, the financing of terrorism and other serious financial crimes.
Tabcorp can freeze accounts if it detects suspicious gambling activities – such as bets being placed from different addresses, or unproven sources of wealth.
It can also report fraudulent activity to police or submit a suspicious matter report to AUSTRAC. The Gillon McLachlan-led Tabcorp runs the TAB.
This masthead asked all three men whether there was anything in their backgrounds that could prompt the TAB to flag concerns about their accounts, and each said no.
The TAB said it does not comment on individual accounts.
This masthead is not suggesting the punters have or have not broken the rules.
In a statement, a TAB spokesman said: “Dealings with customers are governed by a range of regulations which we must comply with, as well as terms and conditions applicable to customer accounts.
‘Didn’t even get to have a bet’
Dylan was gobsmacked when he deposited $860 into his TAB account, only for it to be frozen before he could lay a bet.
He said he called Tabcorp and was told by the betting giant’s customer service to visit a TAB outlet to fill out an identity verification form and present his ID. He lives and works in country Victoria.
He had to get his ID verified by a justice of the peace before emailing it to Tabcorp. He then waited for weeks for a reply that did not come.
“I ring them up and query what is going on and get told I have to provide further ID in the form of a utility bill,” he told this masthead.
“I sent the utility as instructed and was met with silence from the TAB for another couple of weeks. I called them again, and they told me they didn’t receive the utility bill, but I’m convinced the guy had no idea. It was a circus.”
Dylan said he had no idea why the TAB froze his account in early January.
“At no point was I given any information as to what triggered this or what I’d done wrong, let alone any written correspondence,” he said.
“The money came from my account. It didn’t come from my mate’s credit card or something like that. It was my card, my debit card.
“The f—ed thing is, I literally didn’t even get to have a bet. This wasn’t a dispute. I just wanted my money back.”
Finally, after he told the TAB he was taking his story to this masthead, the betting company unlocked his account. They never gave him a reason why.
“Whatever they did was based purely on suspicion and was completely unfounded,” he said.
“The whole problem seems to be [that] they are answerable to no one. Where are the punters supposed to go when they are getting fleeced by the national, the trusted betting company in this country?”
In Victoria, the gambling and casino control commission offers a complaints and tip-off service to members of the public.
But while the commission’s director of regulatory services, Jason Cremona, encouraged the punters to refer their concerns for investigation, he told this masthead some complaints fall outside the VGCCC’s jurisdiction.
“In these instances, we will assist the complainant in progressing their concerns through the most appropriate avenue,” he said.
‘Fobbed off’
Nick said he had been blocked from accessing $5500 in his TAB account for five months.
“I had a couple of bets, literally just betting $1.90 lines on basketball and stuff like that, and I had three winners in a row, and then it was like, ‘Bang’ … they just flick up, ‘Account frozen’,” he said.
“The message said, ‘Ring customer service’. But you keep ringing customer service, and they say, ‘It’s with compliance’.
“Then when you ask to speak to compliance, they are like, ‘Compliance don’t have phones, compliance don’t talk to people’. You are just fobbed off by them.
“All you get are call centre operators who are obviously just there, just pushing buttons.”
Nick, a 49-year-old Brisbane warehouse worker, said he started using his 10-year-old TAB account more frequently in September last year. By October, it was frozen.
He said, overall, the account would be down.
“There’s no major lumps of money going through me, through my bank. So it’s nothing to do with any kind of money laundering,” he said.
Nick said he needed a kidney operation next month and had grown tired of the mental strain associated with fighting for his money.
Queensland’s Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation (OLGR) said it advised complainants to reach out to the TAB to resolve matters.
“If the complainant had already contacted Tabcorp and the matter had not been resolved in a timely manner in accordance with the legislation, the complaint could be progressed to OLGR, which would review the matter,” a spokesperson for OLGR said.
‘It’s just a business decision’
Jye said he used to be a “degenerate gambler”. He has had a TAB account for seven years and in that time, bet a lot and rarely finished in front.
Last October, he said, he refined his approach.
“I really tightened the screws and followed a few tipsters, [and] joined a sports betting analytics tool website,” he said.
The tipping advice involved betting on NBA and AFL games and utilising TAB promotions – “miss by one, and you still win”.
Jye said he staked a total of $8000 on his TAB account between October and January and was down more than $300 in that period.
He said he had a few wins, betting in $30 units. Then in early January, the TAB locked him out.
“I was down [losing overall] when they closed my account … I tracked all my bets and I reckon I was down nearly $300,” he said. “When I got banned, I couldn’t believe it. They never mentioned why.
“I went to log in, and it said it was frozen,” he said. “I had to call them. I said, ‘Were you going to contact me?’ They were like, ‘Nah’.”
Jye, who works in country Victoria, had to fill out identity verification forms at his local TAB outlet and provide a statutory declaration, bank statements, power bill and driver’s licence in a bid to retrieve his $300.
Last week, he was told his account was being closed for good.
“They said, ‘We’re not discussing why we closed it. It’s just a business decision. We’ll send you a cheque in the mail’.
“The cheque arrived last week, but it does not explain the way I was treated for months.”
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