GameDuell

One day after writing this review, I filed a complaint with the BBB, and two months later they got to my case. They contacted Gameduell about it, who contacted me, and said:

"I apologize for the delay in contacting you, unfortunately we were only informed of your complaint with the BBB yesterday and could not locate any mail to ourselves regarding the matter.

When withdrawals are requested, they go through several verification procedures. On this occasion, your withdrawal was subject to a verification of identity, for which reason we contacted you from the e-mail address *******@gameduell.com on 10/01/12 requesting that you complete the form that I have also attached to this e-mail and a copy of a government issued ID, e.g. drivers license.

This is common procedure on our website and aims to ensure that the person registered on a player account truly exists and is also very likely the person using the player account.

On 10/16/12, your player account was deactivated and you were contacted again as we had failed to receive these documents. If you did not receive either of these mails, it is possible that gmail automatically sent them to your Spam folder, though they will have since been deleted automatically by gmail.

Your account is still in our database and the identity verification can still be completed at which point your withdrawal can also be processed.

I apologize again for the confusion and delay.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us."

After I submitted the form they sent me, my account was reactivated.

I may have jumped the gun and allowed myself to believe the worst after reading the other reviews here.

Below is my original review.

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I've been a member of Gameduell for almost a year and a half and never had any trouble withdrawing money, until recently. My latest withdrawal amount was for $142. It's always taken 4 weeks maximum to receive the money I withdraw, and so seeing as the four week mark has just passed, I was feeling like I'd probably be getting the money soon. What happened instead was that today I tried to log in and they kept telling me the login info was wrong. When I tried to fill out the "forgotten your password?" form, they told me they had no record of my email address, so it would be impossible to send me my password. I know I didn't change or forget my password or email address though, the only explanation is that they're doing something wrong.
Someone else here said after they tried to withdraw 300 euros their account was deleted, and now that I've had a similar experience it's seeming more and more like their strategy might just be to make excuses to cancel your membership when they don't want to pay up. Before today that seemed unlikely, because I had withdrawn $70 all at once recently, $35 at once just after that, and before those two withdrawals there were 5 instances spread out over the year where they paid small amounts between $11 and $19 that totaled $66. Apparently their generosity does have a ceiling, though!
I can't even contact customer service to ask what's going on, because only account holders can email them, and they don't have the option of contact by phone. And I'm afraid to create a new account in order to contact them, because then they can use my multiple accounts as an excuse not to help me, claiming I'm violating their terms of use. I'm not sure they'd even answer anyway, though, because they had stopped responding to my emails in the few months before today, which I thought nothing of at the time but now am definitely suspicious about. I don't trust these people anymore.
If there was some legitimate suspicion they had about my account activity, and they weren't just playing a crooked game, you would think they would have contacted me about the problem instead of just suddenly excommunicating me.

What makes this even worse is that I considered myself to have reached a skill rating too high for it to be possible to be matched to any players who weren't too good ever to beat more than once in a great while, so my ability to earn large amounts through Gameduell was at its end. I wish they had at least paid me this last time and THEN deleted my account.
I can't give them only 1 or 2 stars, though, because like I said, they've been great until just recently.
It may be, though, that it was just coincidence that I wasn't exposed to their shady behavior until now, and they would have been screwing me over earlier if I hadn't been somehow flying under their radar. Who knows.

I agree with the previous posters who have stated Gameduell will not pay out. I have made around 6 withdrawal requests in the last year, not for any large amounts as I simply don't play that well. 2 of these requests were paid - for around £30 GBP total, the other 4 are not being paid. First they asked for ID which I provided, they are now asking for me to video myself playing and send it into them so they can see how I am doing so well.

Firstly I am not doing very well and am around average statistics wise, secondly they have refused to pay out unless I send this video and it cannot be wobbly, and must fulfill all sorts of other criteria. Clearly they simply don't want to pay.

I echo what someone else said on this site, there are huge problems if you try and withdraw money. I actually found a game that I could regularly play and win money on however I have never actually seen that money. They owe me nearly £300. They asked me to send copy of sensitive documents which I did and then they claimed I had created "multiple accounts" which was complete rubbish. They suspended my account and have never paid me my winnings. A complete scam.

I'm an avid Hearts player andI love the game of Hearts at GameDuell; however, if you play for money, then the odds are really bad. For example, i had to pay a fee of 80 GD$ for a chance to win 120 GD$. That means if i play 3 games and win 2 times i break even. (80 * 3 = 240 for fees vs. 120 * 2= 240 winnings). That's horrible odds when you're playing against others with equal or better skill. I think they should set it up so that a skilled player has a reasonable chance of making money. If you're playing against someone equal or better, then the odds of you winning can't be better than 50/50. GameDuell's high fee requires you to win 2 out of 3 just to break even. Anyone that can do the math will only play at GameDuell if they enjoy losing their money or simply don't care about their money. For players that do the math and value their money - well, i don't imagine those smarter ones will play GameDuell for money very many times... unless they are compulsive gamblers. And that's sad. What kind of people enjoy making money off of others addictive weaknesses Huh?

Personally, if i only had to win say 4 out of 7 to get ahead, then i'd being playing at GameDuell all the time. Yes. I' m that good!

I have not tried to withdraw money (see other posts), 'cause they took all my money -- and yes, I did win a majority of the games i played.

It is popular, but like i said, if you can do the math, you won't be playing for money on that site.

Complete and total rip off! I deposited money played a bit and when I figured out that not only it was impossible to win, but in fact it was designed to make you lose, I tried withdrawing the remaining amount.

They never responded to my withdraw request, when I tried to close my account and withdraw that way, they sent me an e-mail that there is something suspicious about my requests and that someone will contact me.

Some one definitely contacted me TWO MONTHS LATER. They said that unless I provide a whole bunch of sensitive information, they will not let me withdraw my money. At this point I decided to just let them choke on the $15.

Oh, and did I mention that their method for withdraw is through some half-assed service and thats the ONLY service you can use to withdraw, the minimum you can withdraw is higher than the maximum you can deposit (which means that you'll only be able to withdraw if you win)... and the amounts are set up in a way where if you play a game thats worth let's say $0.40 - if you lose the game then you lose $0.40, but if you win the game you get $0.30.

So even if you keep wining and losing equally you're still gonna lose your money.

STAY AWAY FROM THIS SCAM