Informal Gambling Complaint Options | New Zealand Guide

What Are Informal Complaint Options?

Informal complaint options are ways that allow you to pursue a complaint about an online gambling operator outside of regulatory or legal complaint channels. Where formal options exist, players who resort to informal options have a lower success rate than those who opt for formal, though recourse to informal options can still help you recover money.  

Types of Informal Complaint Options

The most common informal complaint options include:

• Contacting gambling complaint services

• Taking your complaint to social media

• Writing a TrustPilot review

Read on to learn more about each option and how to leverage them when pursuing your complaint.

Taking Complaints to Social Media

Another option is to try and raise your concerns on social media, looking to pressure the gambling operator via negative public messaging. Whilst some complaints do get addressed in this manner, we would caution that lots of unhappy players try this without success. Unless you have a large following on social media, or some way to gain a lot of coverage for your issue, this strategy is unlikely to prove successful.

Writing Trust Pilot Reviews

TrustPilot is an internationally renowned business review site and gambling sites are subject to the same public scrutiny as any other business. It may be worth checking whether the gambling operator is responding to complaints posted on the operator’s public TrustPilot profile.

If the gambling operator in question appears to ignore TrustPilot reviews, then whilst you may find it cathartic to vent by posting your complaint, it's unlikely to result in the resolution of your complaint. However, if the gambling operator is indeed engaging with TrustPilot, then it may be worth posting your complaint there and seeing how the operator’s complaints team responds.

Can I Resolve My Claim Through Informal Complaint Channels?

Whether you will achieve the outcome you desire through informal complaint options really depends on the nature of your case, the operator's good will, and how far you're willing to pursue your claim.

⭐ Expert Tip: remember that it is only worth exploring informal options in the following scenarios:

• when you’ve already exhausted your options with the operator’s internal support channels and still haven’t reached a satisfactory outcome

• when you don't want to resort to any formal gambling complaint options to manage your complaint

If you are willing to be patient and consistent in correspondence and updates on your informal complaint platform of choice, then the alternative complaint channels listed on this page may be worth your time.