General Consumer advice

If you find yourself in a dispute with a gambling business, our advice is:

• Make as much effort as practically possible to resolve the dispute directly with the business – this is almost always quicker than trying to resolve it through IBAS.
• Be patient, within reasonable constraints. Don’t necessarily expect the matter to be resolved overnight. Don’t send e-mails to IBAS, the regulator or company’s CEO. Generally that ends up causing confusion about who is dealing with the issue and the process ultimately takes longer.
• Take care to keep all records of information or evidence relating to the dispute. Some information can be very hard to recover. If you think that relevant evidence is held by the gambling business contact them, ideally in writing, at the earliest opportunity requesting them to retain the evidence that you will believe supports your case.
• Review the business’s rules or terms. If you believe that a business hasn’t stuck to them make a note of them and be sure to include that argument in your submission to IBAS. If you see a rule or term that you think conflicts with the approach taken by the company, make a note of it, copy and paste it or screenshot it. The same applies to any advert or promotional offer that you think is confusing or misleading.
• When you are submitting a Claim Form on the IBAS website, please make sure to include details of your account number or username and any reference number given to you by the business when you completed the company’s internal complaints process.
• If at any stage of the process, including in dealing with IBAS, you believe that you have been treated unfairly or unreasonably, seek external independent advice on the matter, perhaps from a local consumer support centre, family member or trusted friend. If you are considering pursuing a dispute through the courts, seek legal advice because the legal process can be confusing and cost more than the original court fee.
• You are welcome to use a third party to represent you in your dealings with IBAS. We hope that no consumer should feel the need to do so. We urge you not to part with any money to anyone offering to represent you, or who offers to do so in return for a share of any sums that are awarded to you. Our team are experienced at understanding the arguments made by consumers and exploring the difficulties they have encountered. We do not treat disputes any differently just because a letter is from a solicitor or is written in ‘legalese’.
• We don’t treat cases any differently if we receive ‘threats’ to report details of any unfavourable outcome to media outlets and politicians, although we may choose to end the ADR process if you contravene our Unacceptable Behaviour Policy.
• We don’t object to you sharing details of your experience of IBAS with other people.