The Foul Air and Smoke of Casinos’ Terms & Conditions Wildfires

Online hubs’ Terms & Conditions is the most critical document any punter can set eyes on. Yet again, more often than we’d like, the file remains unread. Let’s see why and how to deal with it.

Ever wondered, what is the most clicked-on button in the digital world? Even better, what is the most consequential one? Here is a heavy favorite, or chalk play, to use sports betting parlance: ‘I Agree,’ a.k.a. ‘Accept,’ and all of its existing forms. Excluding command ones like Ok, Play, Skip Ad, and such, there’s not a single pop-up we click as much.

Whether we give our consent to cookies, disclaimers, privacy policies, legal instruments, haunting messages, or strangers’ requests to connect on LinkedIn — we indiscriminately agree and accept.

In fact, one could argue we’re so consensual these days that all the fuss about online hostility is entirely unfounded: When it comes to ‘I Agree,’ we’re so easygoing and carefree.

Moreover, we behave so without even reading the underlying content, let alone considering potential consequences: Look no further than what we allow social media companies to compile from our mobile devices.

But, just like in a marriage — where there’s a fine line between ‘I do’ and adieu — each ‘I agree’ we click on is an actual decree we commit ourselves upon.

And, as we pursue our inclinations, desires, hopes, not to mention cravings, such a line can rapidly turn into the firebreak, a wide gap in vegetation firefighter hotshot crews must dig to stop the spread of wildfire.

While we may eventually seize control of unplanned and unwanted blaze in combustible area, often at a high cost — that is, if we get lucky — the wretched, ash-infused smoke lingers for quite some time.

In the iGaming world...

Terms and Conditions serve the purpose of such a line between the couple’s goodwill and bitter swill — and become a barrier to slow the casinos’ conflagrations ravaging the players’ forests.

When the latter happens, the ensuing foul air of our enthusiastic yet flammable ‘I Agree’ is thick, overly restrictive, and weirdly aggressive — not only to our senses but to bankrolls as well.

Such occurrences are not rare: In seven out of ten cases, the issues between online hubs and punters stem from T&Cs.

Why is it so?

Because we always hope for the best and remain blithely recalcitrant to untoward outcomes.

‘Lights Will Guide You Home’

Whatever we may think, when it comes to chances, choices, gains, losses, even tie results, in any walk of life — deep down, we’re optimistic, insouciant species.

As long as things are hunky-dory, we don’t consider any other endgame.

Those who flash a few warnings here and there are often tagged as put offs and, ultimately, declared paranoiacs. These people always visualize the worst possible outcome in any given situation and strive to conceive the solution, remaining unsettled until they do so.

Take marriage law attorneys, for instance.

Eighteen years ago, at the age of 27, my best friend dated her boyfriend for six months, got pregnant, and accepted his proposal. As a fast-rising corporate manager in the telecommunication industry, she was making loads of money, and, as a child of separated parents, all she ever wanted was a family.

While he didn’t resemble her previous boyfriends’ profile, nor did their relationship entirely fit the bill of her expectations, she leaped.

Two years later, she was unhappy, dejected. They struggled and fought a lot, but, for whatever reason, her husband didn’t care about that. After months of trying to fix things between them, she took their two-year-old son, moved out, rented an apartment, filed for divorce, and never looked back.

The dissolution turned out to be a brutal one.

As any man can be when he realizes he’s losing a woman, the guy became quite aggressive. He started to threaten her, begun to track her phone calls, tapped into her banking accounts as an extraordinarily talented software engineer. He sent numerous emails to her friends and, more importantly, to her employer, labeling her untrue, unsubstantiated epithets.

When we tried to reason with him, he sent some scumbags from low places as deterrence.

A couple of admonishing, man-to-man conversations later, and once our friends from lower places visited those he hired to play hardball, the guy finally came to senses and accepted her decision.

So…

When my friend went to see the divorce attorney for the first time, she asked me to join her since the whole experience was way much more than she bargained for. As we came to the appointment, she could not handle anything anymore and tore up, weeping and crying, in contrast to rather stoic behavior up to that moment.

Trying to console her reasonably, the lawyer, also female, inquired if she could ask three questions, to which my friend agreed.

The first one was: “Prior to the marriage, have you ever talked to boyfriend about how your future union should look like, what kind of life would you love to get one from another?”

“No,” my friend replied.

The second question was: “Before you got pregnant, have you ever chew over with your husband how should you raise your child, what values would you like to instill upon, and what kind of person would you like it to become?”

She again replied with no.

The final one was: “With a baby on the way, have you ever discussed with him how your love-life should further develop? How would you sustain the spark of love as the couple with a kid?”

The answer was the same.

Lackluster Bellwethers of Legal Intricacies

The lawyer, a wise woman, mildly offered her advice: “Well, my dear, you should not be desperate about the outcome. It was inevitable. Without proper answers to headlight your path, you had no way to avoid baobab tree standing in the middle of the road you drove on so fast, at night.”

If it weren’t for the flooring in the lawyer’s mezzanine office, both mine and the jaw of my friend would have probably dropped to the ground level. Those were three elementary, straightforward questions neither of us ever asked ourselves nor our partners before.

My best friend is quite all right today. She has a steady boyfriend, and she still rocks the corporate world. Her son is an exceptional sophomore. She and her ex-husband have a great relationship, they share their son’s custody, and the guy positively influences the kid’s life. The initial raging inferno was a one-time-only glitch in an otherwise excellent mind and an upbeat personality, to his credit.

(The War of the Roses can happen to anyone; luckily, theirs turned out well for all parties involved.)

The lesson of a fine line, however, remains.

We should not enter the room and commit ourselves before aligning expectations with possible outcomes awaiting us within, especially fire exits’ locations.

Thus, again — why do seventy percent of casino-patron issues derives from Terms & Conditions?

Because we don’t always read T&Cs and we accept them on the spot, eager to play.

Why on Earth wouldn’t we ascertain the casino processes, KYC and player account procedures, deposit and withdrawal policies, promotions’ terms and conditions, wagering requirements, bonus restrictions and contribution percentages, betting limits, gaming rules, and in-house prohibitions dovetailed with country restrictions, personal data collection and privacy information, banking methods, responsible gambling guidelines, the casino’s general info, licensing credentials, and relevant statutory obligations?

Would we buy a brand new model of sneakers without trying them first? Would we give $500 to a total stranger, apart from charities? Would we purchase an apartment without touring it? Would we kiss a girl or a guy just like that, without taking a measure?

(On that last one: If you’re going to pull out those couple of instances when we were high in a night club, then you can also probably dial-in the morning after feeling: In searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self-respect took second place, to borrow from Iggy Pop.)

Hell no.

So, why don’t we determine T&Cs beforehand? Because reading them is boring to death, which compound the whole challenge.

They are a humdrum piece of writing made by dead rubber letters. They’re tedious, mind-numbing, six-thousand-word documents, give or take, written by legal professionals who never studied creative storytelling.

Sifting through T&Cs may dent our brains.

But…

Without our voluntary, even gleeful submission to one hour of careful examination of Terms and Conditions — that is, before we deploy our funds — many things can happen. Only the future knows what they are.

One thing is guaranteed, though, definite just as the craps dices have six sides.

Sooner or later, we will hit that baobab tree in the middle of the road, driving pedal to the metal in pitch black dark.

Explore Inevitable Relentlessly

When that happens, we end up lying in the wreck of our imprudence, crashed, red-eyed, as flashes of well-deserved losses hit our temples like heavily spiked maces. That’s where the whole nine yards of denial and aggression begins.

And then, in the corner of our eyes, we see the raging wildfire of unwieldy coping as it gallops our way — with no hotshot crew at hand to dig the firebreak.

No client service, no lawyer or team of professional moderators, no affiliate in the world can save us.

Once we burn to the ground, we remind ourselves that “what we lost in the fire, we’ll find in the ashes,” and we turn the new page in our book of gambling and life.

It doesn’t have to be that way. And, indeed, it shouldn’t be.

First off, Terms & Conditions and their elaborate setup have nothing to do with such a possible outcome. The casinos’ lawyers masterfully did their job; we should give them credit.

Online hubs are fully entitled to govern their websites in a way they deem proper, in line with gambling jurisdictions’ policies. They have every right to protect their business from the malevolent machinations of indecent patrons.

With that in mind, T&Cs have one purpose: To shield gambling houses from any conceivable axis of attack, covering angles we couldn’t even think of, with extreme prejudices.

(It’s like when Oliver Platt, the family counsel of Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson in the movie Indecent Proposal, prepares the contract for Robert Redford: The wording states the couple gets $1 million even if the billionaire dies during sex. Who would think of such a detail, in such a situation, except for a lawyer?)

In other words…

Terms & Conditions are a must. They have to be in place. We have no choice on this one: They are given, just as the gambling regulations are.

Correspondingly, they are written in such a convoluted, nauseating language so that we won’t read them in the first place. The majority of legal documents are like this; that’s why trustful business solicitors make so much money.

Thus, as players, whenever we see ‘the wall of such text,’ we proceed and agree blindly.

However, we do read the laws in our countries. Their existence is necessary for our social peace, just as our compliance is mandatory. We know them and act accordingly, especially when it comes to financial penalties. Without laws and rules, there can be no progress.

Similarly…

There can be no consistent iGaming gains without a careful reading of T&Cs.

Sure, we cannot opt-out of various online services that run on our mobile devices or laptops, but we’re entirely free to use our patience and empower ourselves with all the compulsory details T&Cs institute.

Their comprehension is a matter of choice.

Check, Preempt, Recheck: Always Protect Yourself

Secondly, we have to learn how to interpret Terms & Conditions.

No matter how we observe them in lights of limitations or responsibilities, T&Cs always let the online hubs roam home free.

Whether we talk about reasonable assurances, guarantees, judgmental enforcements, incurred losses, ensuing compensations, recouping of damages, and liabilities of casinos’ respective companies, including employees — the onus is permanently on punters.

We can either accept this fact or walk away.

(This is without even considering online hubs with predatory T&Cs, which you should avoid at any cost.)

Unless we’re ready to pack our bags and travel a couple of thousand miles to some speck of land in the middle of nowhere hoping for legal achievement in the local court while addressing our grievances — good luck with that — we better do T&Cs homework well.

That is why, other than careful reading and interpretation, we should select hubs from reputable online jurisdictions, which may provide us with at least some form of legal aegis.

That is why we should pay special attention to reliable direct casino support affiliates with decades of experience and impeccable integrity in offering the proper mediation and the best available advice to patrons.

Finally…

This whole T&Cs angle resembles David and Goliath, the story worth remembering: Even though the giant fielded armor and long javelin, he fell, hit by a single stone hurled from the sling of a brave, long-headed youngster.

Once we devote ourselves to such an approach to Terms and Conditions, we soon realize how great Nikola Tesla was when he said: “The smarter you are, the more selective you become.”

To understand and embrace T&Cs is to give ourselves — our gambling passion, knowledge, and skills — the best possible and prudent choice to have a shot at the ultimate prize, which, to a significant extent, resides in the hands of chance.

We can entrust someone with anything, but we cannot delegate personal responsibility to anyone — especially when gambling.

Hence this editorial: As the mindset inspiration on how to strategically avoid possibly devastating wildfires of eagerness to play in pursuit of good fun.

As far as the three questions are concerned…

To this day, they reverberate in my life. Whenever a relationship gets serious enough to wonder whether a woman could be the one, I ask them vigorously, can’t help it.

(Editor’s note: This also might explain why you’re still not married. Maybe you’ve read too much on Tesla’s work, or you’re just too hard on yourself, for I know you have no fear of failing, or perhaps you’re way too paranoid. Anyway, keep spinning them love reels.)