Casino Review Pinnacle is Threatening to Confiscate my Six-Figure Balance

As a penalty (my term) for moving countries, Pinnacle is telling me that I must either:



1) convert my account to another fiat currency for a one-time fee of approximately $4125


or

2) Withdraw my full balance via Tether (USDT), which will almost certainly cost me $1000s in conversion fees


or



3) Turn over my full ~$150,000 balance to Pinnacle so they can "donate it to a charity" of their choosing.


These are the only three options Pinnacle is giving me and they gave me 30 days to make a decision. As far as I can see there is nothing in Pinnacle's terms and conditions authorizing them to confiscate my balance nor to charge the conversion fee.



Cliffs: My Pinnacle account is in good standing, yet Pinnacle is threatening to confiscate my full six-figure balance and "donate it to charity" if I don't withdraw the full balance within 30 days using Tether (USDT), which is a sub-optimal withdrawal method which will almost certainly cause me to lose $1000s.



Cliffs (medium-length version): Moved to new country, found that I couldn't withdraw from Pinnacle, contacted customer support on Jan 1, 2022. First Pinnacle said I could withdraw from my account in CNY (the account currency) or convert the account directly to fiat currencies GBP or USD or EUR or MXP.



I liked these options and planned to convert since I had been happy with Pinnacle. Then they said I could only withdraw in bitcoin (Cryptopay) and that it was not possible to convert the account directly to GBP/USD/EUR/MXP. They pressured me to withdraw the full balance in bitcoin "as soon as possible" as bitcoin had been crashing (Jan 5 to Jan 10). I called them out on this, then Pinnacle waited until the bitcoin price started going up again, then disabled the bitcoin option and offered only the Tether (USDT) withdrawal option. Today they've started saying the direct conversion of my account into USD/EUR/MXP is still available for a "conversion fee" of 2.75%, which they of course never mentioned before and is nowhere in their terms and conditions. Finally, today they said if I don't withdraw in Tether (USDT) before February 15, 2022 that they will confiscate my balance and "donate it to charity".



Longer version available at the bookmakersreview forum but I think posting the link violates the forum rules here.

 

VPN to your old country, then withdraw? Is this still an option?

 

My question is why would you have that much money in an online casino. Way too many of these places wait for people like you to screw up so they can snatch all of it.
It's built right into their business model.

 

Good question. It seems not to be an option anymore. In Pinnacle's own words: "the longer this is taking, the least (sic) options there will be available. "

Also, "We will be able to process the withdrawal until February 15th, 2022. After this date, the account will be closed and all funds in the account will be donated to a charity of our choosing. "

Pinnacle's own terms of service require me to withdrawal using my only method of desposit (i.e., fiat withdrawal into my Chinese bank account):

All withdrawals must be made to the original debit card, credit card, bank account, or other method of payment used to make the payment to your pinnacle.com Account. We may, and always at our own discretion, allow you to withdraw to a payment method from which your original deposit did not originate. This will always be subject to additional security checks.


I guess that option isn't convenient for them, so they are violating their own terms of service by forcing me to withdraw in USDT. Also nothing in their terms allows them to confiscate my balance. Pretty much I'm just waiting for them to come up with some horseshit excuse about how my account was supposedly involved in supposed illegal activity so that they have no option but to confiscate it and give it to "charity" (lol).

Excellent point. The answer is because I didn't know that Pinnacle was this scummy. I thought they had a great reputation. I was naive. My total deposits were 50k and I built it to 175 at peak. I thought Pinnacle was a safe place to park my balance.

 

You started with 50K and have six figures now. Withdraw in Tether and eat the conversion fees (they may not be as high as you think). Lesson learned. That is what I would do.

 

I appreciate your advice. On the advice on people like you, my wife and my best friend, I did submit the withdrawal request about 14 hours ago. No response from Pinnacle yet.

 

I think this is the best option for you

 

I took this option in the end and---just as I predictied---I lost nearly $2,000 on the withdrawal.

The way Pinnacle behaved during this ordeal is completely ridiculos, like something out of a mafia movie. My account was in good standing, and Pinnacle's rules required them to allow me free withdrawals using the original deposit method. Instead, they told me I had to withdraw the balance within a few weeks or they would confiscate my balance and "donate it to charity".

Needless to say, I won't be playing with Pinnacle again and will advise those in my network to avoid Pinnacle.