Evidence checklist
Exactly what to preserve for a withdrawal or payment dispute, grouped by where it comes from, with the reason each item matters. Work through it before you complain — not after.
Why order matters
Account access is frequently lost once a dispute is raised — accounts are closed, restricted or archived, and chat histories are cleared when a session ends. Everything on this sheet is straightforward to collect while the account is open and often impossible afterwards. Collect it all first, then send your complaint.
- Export to a file wherever the interface offers it; screenshot only where it does not.
- Keep the date and the full window visible in every screenshot — cropped images carry no context.
- Store originals unedited, and work from copies if you need to annotate anything.
- Keep everything somewhere the operator cannot reach: your own device or storage, not the account.
Printing this sheet
Use your browser’s print command. Site navigation, the breadcrumb and the calls to action are removed from the printed sheet, leaving the checklist, the capture rules and the boxes to tick against what you hold.
Informational only
This checklist is general information about preparing a payment dispute. It is not legal advice, it states no entitlement or obligation, and it cannot account for the facts of an individual case. GambleLABS publishes no deadlines: time limits exist, differ by country, product and provider, and must be confirmed directly with the authority, scheme or payment provider concerned.
01Preserve
Account and parties
Who you were dealing with, on paper. Complaints follow legal entities, and the brand on the homepage is frequently not one of them.
Every channel opens by asking which account is in dispute. The identifier and the date you opened it tie the whole file to one record.
Taken from the operator’s own terms or footer, not from the brand name. A complaint sent about a brand can be refused by a body that supervises the licensee under a different name.
Whatever the site claims, captured as it appeared on the day. It is the starting point for checking the authority’s register — and if the claim turns out not to match the register, the capture is what shows the discrepancy.
Licensing statements are edited without notice. A dated capture fixes what was being claimed at the time you played.
02Preserve
The money
The transaction record on both sides. Without references, a payment provider cannot identify the payment you are asking about.
Exported if the account offers an export. It is the only record showing deposits, wagers, wins and withdrawal requests as one sequence rather than as isolated screens.
Establishes what went in, when, and by which route. Withdrawals are frequently restricted to the method used to deposit, so the inbound record shapes the outbound argument.
The reference the operator assigns to each movement. It is what support and any reviewer will use to locate the transaction in the operator’s own system.
The reference and the descriptor your payment provider shows. The descriptor often names the processor rather than the operator — which is frequently the only clue to which intermediary is involved.
A screenshot showing the balance, ideally alongside the transaction history. Balances change; a dated capture is the difference between a figure and a claim about a figure.
03Preserve
The withdrawal itself
The specific request that stalled, and every status it has held since. Dates convert a grievance into a sequence.
The core fact of the dispute. Capture the confirmation screen at the moment of the request if you still can.
Pending, processing, in review, cancelled, reversed — each with the date you observed it. A status history distinguishes a payment that is moving from one that has been stopped.
Where a request was returned to the balance or the balance was adjusted, capture both the event and the balance before and after. Adjustments are frequently the whole substance of a dispute.
Error text, codes and the screen it appeared on. Codes are meaningful inside the operator’s systems even when they mean nothing to you.
Where part of a balance paid out and part did not, record both. A split payout usually means a condition was applied to one portion, and identifying the split narrows the question.
04Preserve
Terms and promotions
The rules as they read at the time. Terms are revised without notice, and a dispute is normally about the version in force when you played.
A dated copy — a saved page, a PDF print, or a screenshot sequence. The version in force at the time is the one that matters, and it may no longer be online.
Including wagering conditions, maximum withdrawal limits and any restriction on the balance. Bonus conditions are the most common stated basis for a withheld payout.
The offer as presented — email, banner, landing page — alongside the terms actually applied. Where the two differ materially, the difference is only visible if you kept both.
The exact clause quoted in support of a decision, and the message quoting it. It is the point at which a general argument becomes a specific one.
05Preserve
Verification and correspondence
The full record of what was asked for and what you sent. Verification is often triggered by a withdrawal, so this is frequently where the delay lives.
What was asked for and when. A sequence of repeated or escalating requests is a materially different record from a single one.
The documents themselves, the upload confirmations and the dates. It answers the question of whether the delay sits with you or elsewhere.
Rejections without a stated reason matter as much as rejections with one. Record both, exactly as worded.
Saved at the end of each conversation, unedited. Chat windows are frequently cleared when a session ends or an account is closed — a transcript you did not save at the time is usually gone.
Including the messages that do not help your case. A complete thread closes the question of what was left out; a partial one invites it.
They let a reviewer or the operator locate the interaction, and they date it. A complaint with reference numbers is checkable; one without is a recollection.
06Preserve
Context and technical detail
The surrounding facts that are easy to capture now and impossible to reconstruct later.
The exact hostname, including any regional variant or redirect. Sites operate under several domains, and the one you used may not be the one supervised where you assume.
Open, restricted, closed or suspended — captured with the date visible. Where a closure coincides with a withdrawal, the timing is part of the record.
The setting, the date it was applied and any confirmation you received. Where a protection was in place, its existence and its date are the evidence.
One line per event, with dates and references, in order. It is the only document that makes the rest legible to somebody reading the file cold.
07Keep it usable
A note on the file itself
A pile of screenshots is not a case. Whatever you send, send it in an order someone else can follow.
- 01
Lead with the timeline
A single dated sequence, one line per event, referencing the attachments by name. Whoever reads your complaint reads this first, and everything else exists to support it.
- 02
Name the files for a stranger
Date, source and content — the date first, so they sort chronologically. Nobody assessing a dispute should have to open six attachments to find the statement.
- 03
Separate fact from inference
State what a document shows, and separately what you conclude from it. A file that marks its own gaps is far more persuasive than one that quietly papers over them.
- 04
Keep the file current
Add each response, reference number and date as it arrives. A dispute that moves between channels is judged largely on the record you can produce at the moment you are asked for it.
08Once you have it
What to do with the file
Escalate
Who supervises gambling where the operation is licensed, what the authority publishes, and the order in which channels are normally approached.
Player rights by countryUnderstand the dispute
What separates a delayed withdrawal from a blocked one, why an intermediary adds a third party, and the four questions every channel asks.
Withdrawal and payment disputesPut it on the record
A report to GambleLABS is private by default, encrypted at rest, and published only after review, redaction and your explicit consent. It cannot recover funds — it makes a pattern visible.
Report a case