2010 Online Dispute Stats from eCOGRA

In 2003 the eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (eCOGRA) was founded by competing online gambling companies with its main objective to improve the quality of play for online players and maintain a standard of operation for the gambling sites and by complying with these standards a site can eCOGRA Safe and Fair seal.

Recently eCOGRA has released its 2010 statistics on disputes that involve their accredited online gambling sites. In total the statistics only showed a slight rise in the number disputes compared to 2009. Here is what they found:

A total of 846 disputes (2009: 826 complaints) were submitted online to eCOGRA throughout 2010, an increase of 10 percent over 2009. 67 of these concerned companies not accredited through eCOGRA and therefore outside the ambit of the FGA’s authority.

A further 125 were found to be invalid, being fraudulent, non-specific or abusive and anonymous in nature.

The remaining, or valid, 654 disputes (2009: 628 complaints) concerned cash-in problems (44 percent); Bonus issues (25 percent); and Locked accounts (19 percent).
12 percent were categorised as ‘other’ and involved software fairness, responsible gambling and spamming allegations.

Over the 12 months, an average of 43 percent of disputes was resolved in favour of the player.

According to Tex Rees, the Fair Gaming Advocate at eCOGRA,

“The small decrease in the percentage of disputes resolved in favour of the player, and a corresponding increase in allegations of unjust bonus disqualification have been proved through detailed investigation to be connected.

A fraudulent player syndicate was caught out by sophisticated security systems, resulting in its members submitting allegations which subsequently proved to be false, but had to be painstakingly followed up.”

eCOGRA has accredited some of the biggest names on online gambling so if you look at the overall volume of business generated by these companies over a year, the number of disputes are incredibly low. On average an accredited site would have .38 disputes per month compared to .37 in 2009 according to eCOGRA’s report.

Author: GamesAndCasino