Before anything goes wrong
The complaints that succeed are the ones with a paper trail, and the paper trail starts on day one. Save the terms and conditions as they appeared when you registered. Screenshot every bonus offer with its terms before you accept it. Keep the confirmation of every deposit and withdrawal. Save chat transcripts. Most operators email them on request, and you should request them every time. None of this takes more than a minute, and it is the difference between “the operator changed the terms” and “here are the terms as they were on 3 October, and here they are now”.
We keep this record for every account we open in testing. On the occasions we have needed it, it has settled the matter within a single exchange.
Step one: the operator, in writing
Start with the operator, and start in writing. Live chat is fine for a quick question, but a complaint should go by email or through the operator’s complaints form, so that there is a dated record. State what happened, when, what evidence you have and what you want the operator to do: pay a withdrawal, reinstate a bonus, correct a balance. Be specific and be brief. A complaint that says “pay my €340 withdrawal requested on 5 October, held since then with no document request” is far easier to act on than a page of frustration.
Licensed operators must acknowledge a complaint and resolve it within a set period (eight weeks under the EGC’s rules, and a similar window under the EGA’s). Most are resolved well within that. In our testing, the operators on our list all acknowledged within a working day and resolved our (deliberately minor) test complaints within a week.
Step two: the independent dispute body
If the operator rejects your complaint or the deadline passes without a resolution, the next step is the independent dispute body (an alternative dispute resolution provider) named in the operator’s terms. Every operator licensed by the EGA or the EGC must name one, and the service must be free to you. Send the body the same complaint, the operator’s final response and your evidence. It will ask the operator for its side, review both and issue a decision that the operator is bound to follow.
Dispute bodies decide on the evidence and the terms. They will not award compensation for inconvenience, and they will not overturn a decision that was correct under terms you accepted. But they are independent, they are free and they are effective where the operator has simply got it wrong.
Step three: the regulator
Regulators do not usually resolve individual complaints — that is what the dispute body is for. What they do is investigate licensees who breach their conditions, and a pattern of complaints is evidence of that. If the dispute body cannot help, if the operator refuses to engage with it, or if your complaint concerns a licence condition (fund segregation, responsible gambling tools, marketing to self-excluded players), report it to the regulator with the full record. You may not get your money back from the regulator, but you may be the reason the operator is sanctioned, and the better registers publish those sanctions.
What a good complaint looks like
A good complaint has a date, a specific account of what happened, the evidence attached, the clause of the terms you believe applies and a clear request. It is polite, because the person reading it did not cause the problem and is more likely to help someone who is civil. It is sent to the right place, in writing. And it is followed up: if the acknowledgement deadline passes, send one reminder quoting the deadline, then escalate rather than sending a tenth email.
A bad complaint is a chat message at 2am, in anger, with no evidence and no request, followed by a public post naming the operator. Public posts have their place once the formal route is exhausted, but they are not a substitute for it, and operators are not obliged to respond to them.
What we do with complaints we receive
Readers send us complaints about operators we list. We cannot resolve them, because we are a publisher and not a dispute body, but we read every one, and where a reader can show us evidence of something we can test ourselves, we re-test. A verified pattern of the same problem at an operator lowers its score and, if serious, removes it from the site. The corrections log on each review shows when this has happened.
If you are in a dispute now, the route above is the one that works. If you believe your gambling is causing harm, the organisations listed on our responsible gambling page are the right place to turn, whatever the state of the dispute.
Frequently asked questions
How long does the operator have to respond?
Under the EGC’s rules, eight weeks to a final response; most operators acknowledge within days. Check the complaints page in the operator’s terms for its stated deadlines.
Does complaining to a dispute body cost anything?
No. The service must be free to players under both the EGA and EGC regimes. If a body asks you for a fee, it is not the one named in the operator’s terms.
Can you make the operator pay me?
No. We are a publisher. We can re-test an operator and adjust its rating, and we will if you can show us evidence, but the formal route goes through the operator, the dispute body and the regulator.
Sources
- Licence conditions and codes of practice (2026 edition) (Example Gambling Commission)
- Example Gaming Authority licensee register (Example Gaming Authority)
Spotted an inaccuracy? Tell us — we publish corrections publicly.
About the author
Priya Nair
Priya oversees editorial standards and methodology, ensuring every review is independently researched and updated on a fixed cadence.
