Casinomeister says 2025 disputes hit 699, average recovery ~€2,150

Player disputes reaching Casinomeister’s arbitration service rose 174% between 2016 and 2025, to 699 a year, while the sums recovered grew faster, the player advocacy site says. The Malta-based site published the figures in a report dated 8 October 2026, drawn from its own internal case records of its Player Arbitration (PAB) service.

Individual cases have taken from about 45 minutes to 20 months to resolve, it says, and the casino largely decides the timeline.

By the numbers

• Disputes: 699 in 2025, up from 255 in 2016.
• Recovered for players: €1,500,835 in 2025, against €225,000 in 2016, a rise of about 567%, according to Casinomeister.
• Average recovery per case: about €2,150 in 2025, from about €880 in 2016.
• 2021 to 2025: cases rose from 465 to 699, while recoveries doubled from €750,000 to €1,500,835.
• Since 2016: more than 5,000 disputes resolved and more than €8 million recovered.

The details

The fastest case, about 45 minutes, was settled the same day because the operator’s management verified and paid the claim, Casinomeister says. The longest, 20 months, involved a casino that held to withdrawal limits of $10,000 a month, falling to $5,000 once a balance reached ten times total deposits. Payments arrived in chunks, and some did not arrive at all until Casinomeister chased them.

The site says fake claims and scam attempts have risen more than tenfold with the spread of AI chatbots, and that there is no reliable way yet to detect them. Content editor Natasa Milojevic said each fake complaint takes time from a genuine player.

Casinomeister says that in more than 80% of the know-your-customer (identity check) cases it handled, the cause was a blurry document or a mismatched name. Other reasons for non-payment it lists are bonus-terms breaches and multiple accounts.

Cases dipped in 2018, which the site says coincides with the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) launching its own designated alternative dispute resolution programme. It says many players tried that route first and a good number later came back.

Data caveats

Figures for 2018 to 2020 are manual reconstructions that Casinomeister calls conservative low-end estimates, made after a migration to a new case-management system. The 2026 figures, 477 disputes and at least €500,000, are year-to-date. The report covers only cases that reached this one service.