A dormant-account fee is a monthly charge a casino deducts from a balance you have left untouched – typically €5 a month after six or twelve months without a login, until the balance reaches zero or you log in again. Of the 15 casinos we profile, six carry such a clause in their binding terms, one closes inactive zero-balance accounts without charging anything, and four have no dormant-fee clause in the documents we read. This guide explains how the clauses work, what the UK rules require where they apply, exactly what each profiled casino states, and how to leave an account without losing money to it.
What a dormant-account clause is
Almost every casino’s terms contain a paragraph about accounts that stop being used. The mechanics have four parts:
- The trigger. What counts as “inactive”. Most clauses count consecutive months without a login; a few count months without a deposit, withdrawal or bet, which is a stricter test because simply looking at your account would not reset it. Six and twelve months are the usual periods; 365 days is the same thing written differently.
- The fee. Usually a flat monthly “administrative” or “inactivity” fee – €5 is by far the most common figure among the casinos we document, and one of them states a minimum of €25. Some clauses say “a minimum of”, which means the stated amount is a floor, not a cap.
- The notice. Many clauses promise an email before the account is reclassified (30 days under UK-facing terms); others say only that you will be “informed”.
- The end state. The fee is deducted monthly “as long as the account has a positive balance”. It stops when you log in (reactivation) or when the balance reaches zero; a balance smaller than the fee is reduced to zero, never below.
A dormant fee is different from an inactivity closure, where the casino closes an account after a period of non-use. Closure of a zero-balance account costs you nothing. Closure of an account that still holds money is only acceptable if the balance is returned or remains claimable – which is why the two things should be read together, and why we flag them separately in our terms review.
What the rules say – where there are rules
Great Britain: the Gambling Commission’s position
The clearest public rule set comes from the Gambling Commission’s guide on account inactivity, which applies to operators licensed in Great Britain and is grounded in consumer-contract law rather than a specific licence condition. Its main points, in plain words:
- No confiscation for inactivity. An operator must not rely on a term that lets it confiscate all or part of a deposit balance, or deduct from it, simply because the account has not been used. The guide explicitly rejects wording such as “your deposit balance will be forfeited and transferred to the company” after a notice period.
- Try to repay first. Where an account with a credit balance has been inactive for at least twelve months, the operator must try to repay the money to the last payment method used before anything else happens.
- A periodic charge is allowed only for genuinely dormant accounts, must be explained in the terms, and must not be disproportionate or unreasonable. The Commission’s related page on fees and charges on customer funds adds that any deduction must be shown in the customer’s account, and acknowledges that dormant-account fees “can bring a customer’s balance to zero”.
- At least 30 days’ notice. Players must be reminded a reasonable period – no less than 30 days – before a fee is applied.
- The money stays the player’s money. Reclassifying an account as dormant for accounting purposes must not reduce the protection of the funds or change their legal status.
The consumer-law side comes from the Competition and Markets Authority, whose online gambling investigation (2016–2019) targeted “dormancy terms that allow firms to confiscate funds” and secured undertakings from several operators not to remove funds from unused accounts. The resulting GOV.UK advice for gamblers summarises the standard: companies should not confiscate your money because you have not logged on, but may charge cost-reflective fees after twelve months of inactivity, as long as the fees are clear and they attempt to return your money first.
In practice: a €5 monthly fee is not forbidden in Great Britain. What is forbidden is a fee without notice, a forfeiture in disguise, or a clause that lets the operator keep a balance it could have returned.
Other licences
We could not verify an equivalent public rule for the Malta Gaming Authority (its player-protection page covers responsible gambling, not dormant balances), so we make no claim about Maltese requirements. For Curaçao-licensed casinos and brands only listed in an issuer’s register (Anjouan and similar) we found no published dormancy rule at all: the casino’s own terms are the only rule you have, which is why the clause text and the check date matter more than the licence badge. Our guide to casino licences explains why protections differ this much between regulators.
What the 15 casinos we profile state
The table below is generated from our records of each casino’s binding terms and shows the finding, the clause wording we recorded and the date we checked it. “No dormant-fee clause found” means we read the terms on that date and found nothing – not that the casino has promised never to charge one. Terms can change; the clauses that change the value of any offer guide explains why we date every quote.
| Casino | Finding | What the terms say | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| 888casino | Dormant-account fee | 8 "If you do not log in to your account for a consecutive period of 365 days, your account will be considered an inactive account." · "Once your account is classified as inactive, we may begin charging a monthly inactivity fee." · "5.00 EUR… the balance is reduced to zero if lower than the fee; the fee stops at zero balance and a refund may be considered at the casino’s discretion). | Documented 7 Oct 2026 |
| BC.Game | No dormant-fee clause found in the documents we read | — | Documented 5 Oct 2026 |
| Betway | Dormant-account fee | 4.5 "Once an account becomes an Inactive Account, We will deduct an administration fee of 5 EUR/USD/CAD (or 5 EUR currency equivalent) from the Inactive Account on a monthly basis until such a time as the Inactive Account is no longer in cr… Inactive = 12 months after the last login; the terms say "We will contact You prior to Your account being deemed an Inactive Account"; The same 5 EUR/USD/CAD monthly fee is also stated in 4.6 (brand/m… | Documented 7 Oct 2026 |
| BitStarz | Dormant-account fee | Terms 13.1–13.2 13.1: after six consecutive months without login the account becomes dormant; "The Casino reserves the right to charge Your account for a monthly administrative fee of a minimum 5 EUR ... as long as Y… | Documented 5 Oct 2026 |
| Gamdom | No dormant-fee clause found in the documents we read | — | Documented 12 Oct 2026 |
| Guts | Dormant-account fee | 6.1 "we are entitled to charge a monthly account maintenance fee of €5, starting on the 13th month of inactivity" 6.1: inactive = no login for more than 12 months; a reminder e-mail is sent after 12 months and the player has 30 days to log in and withdraw; "€5 of Deposit Funds, or in the absence of Deposit Funds,… | Documented 7 Oct 2026 |
| LeoVegas | Dormant-account fee | 18.4 "Where the Operator elects to charge an inactivity fee, such fee shall be a monthly administrative fee of €5 (in words: five euros) or the equivalent in any other currency." 18.1: "Your Member Account shall be deemed inactive if it has not been accessed for twelve (12) months and has a real money balance."; 18.2 a 30-day notice precedes the inactive status; 18.3 the fee o… | Documented 7 Oct 2026 |
| mBit Casino | No dormant-fee clause found in the documents we read | — | Documented 6 Oct 2026 |
| Mirax Casino | Dormant-account fee | 15. "If you have not logged in or logged out for twelve (12) consecutive months, your account obtains Dormant status. The Casino reserves the right to charge your account for a monthly administrative fee of a minimum 25 EUR (or an equivalen… Fee is stated as "a minimum 25 EUR" per month, charged from the month after dormant status, stops on reactivation or when the balance reaches zero; the player is informed by email. | Documented 7 Oct 2026 |
| Mr Green | Dormant-account fee | 13.1 "if you do not log into your account for a consecutive period of 365 days, your account will be considered an inactive account." 13.2 "5 Euro (or equivalent to your local currency), provided the account maintains a positive balance." 13.1: 30 days advance notice by e-mail before the account is designated inactive; the fee is deducted monthly until the balance reaches zero (13.2); 13.3 reactivation by logging in; 13.4 refund of an … | Documented 7 Oct 2026 |
| Rizk | Dormant-account fee | 6.1 "we are entitled to charge a monthly account maintenance fee of €5, starting on the 13th month of inactivity" 6.1: inactive = no login for more than 12 months; a reminder e-mail is sent after 12 months and the player has 30 days to log in and withdraw; "€5 of Deposit Funds, or in the absence of Deposit Funds,… | Documented 7 Oct 2026 |
| Roobet | Inactive accounts may be closed (no fee clause found) | ToS 7.1, 7.3 7.1: inactive = not accessed/logged in for 6 months; 7.3: "We reserve the right to close inactive accounts with zero balance at our own discretion." Matches the definition literally (closure, < 12 mon… | Documented 5 Oct 2026 |
| Shuffle | No dormant-fee clause found in the documents we read | — | Documented 5 Oct 2026 |
| Wild.io | Dormant-account fee | Terms 8.10 "If a player’s account stays inactive during 12 months … The casino reserves the right to charge a monthly administrative fee of 10$ or cryptocurrency equivalent (or the current balance … if less than 10$) as long as the balance … The fee starts after 12 months of inactivity; no inactivity closure is stated. | Documented 10 Oct 2026 |
| Winz.io | Dormant-account fee | Terms 12.1 "An Account is deemed “inactive” if there has been no login or gameplay for 12 consecutive months. Once your Account becomes inactive, we reserve the right to charge a monthly dormancy fee of €20 (or currency equivalent), deducte… Starts after 12 months of inactivity and continues monthly until the balance is zero. | Documented 10 Oct 2026 |
Reading across the records, the picture is this:
- Six-month trigger, €5 minimum: BitStarz (Terms 13.1–13.2) treats an account as dormant after six consecutive months without login and reserves the right to charge “a minimum 5 EUR” a month while the balance is positive; the player is informed by email and deductions stop on reactivation or at zero.
- Twelve-month trigger, €5: Betway (Terms 4.5) deducts 5 EUR/USD/CAD a month once an account is “Inactive” (twelve months after the last login) and says it will contact you beforehand; after 24 months the account is closed and you may contact Betway to have the real-money balance returned. LeoVegas (Terms 18.1–18.4) applies a €5 monthly fee to accounts not accessed for twelve months that still hold real money, after a 30-day notice, and may close the account instead. Mr Green (Terms 13.1–13.2) and 888casino (User Agreement section 8) both use 365 days without login, a 30-day email notice and €5 a month until the balance reaches zero; both state that a refund of the fee is at the casino’s discretion.
- Twelve-month trigger, €25 minimum: Mirax (Terms 15) charges “a monthly administrative fee of a minimum 25 EUR” after twelve consecutive months without login – the highest figure in our set, and five times the usual amount.
- Closure instead of a fee: Roobet (ToS 7.1 and 7.3) defines an account as inactive after six months without login and reserves the right to close inactive accounts with a zero balance; no fee is stated, and because only empty accounts are affected no funds are touched.
- No dormant-fee clause found: mBit, Shuffle, BC.Game and Gamdom. Two of these still have inactivity wording worth knowing. Our mBit record notes clause 12.1: an account is “Dormant” after twelve months without a deposit, withdrawal or bet, an email notice follows the eleventh month, and at 36 months the account is “Abandoned” and the balance is forfeited “minus administrative fees” – with no fee amount stated. Our Shuffle record notes clause 11.6: after 24 months of inactivity the casino may contact you, and after a further three months it may close the account and deal with the balance “in accordance with applicable law”. Neither is a monthly fee, but a 36-month forfeiture is the outcome a dormant fee is usually there to avoid, so we treat it as the more important sentence.
No clause in our set charges a percentage, and none takes the account negative. The clearest notice promises (30 days in writing) come from the brands holding British or Maltese licences; the crypto-first brands either charge sooner (BitStarz), charge more (Mirax) or say nothing at all.
Bonus funds and crypto balances
Two situations the clauses rarely spell out:
- Bonus money. Bonus funds and unfinished wagering normally expire on their own timetable – days or weeks, long before an account counts as dormant. None of the clauses we recorded distinguishes real-money from bonus balances, so assume the fee applies to whatever is left once the bonus has expired. Bonus expiry rules are covered in our guide to bonus terms.
- Crypto balances. A fee stated in euros is converted at the casino’s rate and deducted from your coin balance, so the number of coins removed changes with the price. Small residual amounts are the typical victim: a few dollars of a coin left after a session can sit below the minimum withdrawal, cannot be withdrawn, and are then eaten by the fee. The terms we read do not address this case – general practice, not a documented rule.
How to read a dormant clause before you deposit
- Find it. Search the terms for “dormant”, “inactive”, “inactivity” and “administrative fee”. If nothing turns up, the terms are silent – which protects you less than a clause with a 30-day notice promise.
- Check the trigger. Login-based or activity-based? Six or twelve months? A six-month login trigger is twice as easy to hit by accident.
- Check the amount and the word “minimum”. “A minimum of €5” is a floor; a fixed “€5” is not.
- Check the notice. Is an email promised, and how long before the first deduction?
- Check what happens at the far end. Closure with a returnable balance is fine. “Forfeited”, “abandoned” or “appropriated” means the money can stop being yours – look for a stated attempt to repay you first.
How to avoid the fee
- Withdraw when you stop playing. The simplest answer. If the balance is below the method’s minimum withdrawal, ask support whether a one-off smaller withdrawal is possible before the fee starts – some casinos allow it on request, though none of our records documents a rule.
- Close the account if you are not coming back. Closure with a zero balance removes the question entirely and is also a sensible step from a responsible-gambling point of view. If you later find your account was closed by the casino, our guide on what to do when a casino closes your account covers your balance and complaint routes.
- Log in periodically if you intend to return. Every clause in our set that is login-based resets on a login; the record for Mr Green states reactivation by logging in explicitly (13.3). Set a reminder shorter than the trigger period. Where the trigger is activity-based (mBit), a login alone does not count.
- Keep the email address current. A 30-day notice sent to a dead mailbox is no notice at all in practice.
- Ask for a refund if a fee was taken without the promised notice. Mr Green and 888casino state that refunds are considered at their discretion; under a GB licence, a fee charged without the 30-day reminder, or without an attempt to repay a twelve-month-inactive balance, is something you can raise with the operator and then its alternative dispute resolution body.
When a clause should make you pause
- A fee that starts earlier than six months, or a trigger based on “activity” with no definition.
- A percentage fee without a cap, or a “minimum” amount with no stated maximum.
- No notice promised – or a notice shorter than the 30 days the Gambling Commission regards as the floor.
- “Forfeited” or “abandoned” wording for a balance you have verified, with no stated attempt to return it to your last payment method.
- A fee charged while identity verification is pending. The Gambling Commission’s guide allows a charge on an unverified credit balance only after twelve months, and only after the operator has tried to repay it; if you are stuck in verification, our KYC guide explains how to get through it rather than wait.
Frequently asked questions
Can a casino take my money if I don’t log in?
It can deduct a disclosed monthly fee until the balance reaches zero – for a small balance, the same result over time. What a GB-licensed operator may not do is confiscate a balance outright for inactivity or keep money it could have returned to your last payment method. Outside Great Britain the casino’s own terms decide – look for the word “forfeited”.
How long until an account counts as inactive?
Among the casinos we profile, six months without login (BitStarz, Roobet) or twelve months / 365 days without login (Betway, LeoVegas, Mr Green, 888casino, Mirax) are the stated periods. mBit counts twelve months without a deposit, withdrawal or bet. The table above shows the wording and the date we checked it.
Is a dormant fee legal?
In Great Britain, a clear, reasonable periodic charge on a genuinely dormant account is permitted, provided the operator gave at least 30 days’ notice and tried to repay a balance that has been inactive for twelve months. Elsewhere the answer depends on the licence and local consumer law; we found no published rule for Curaçao or issuer-only registers. “Legal” and “worth accepting” are different questions – a €25 minimum monthly fee is lawful under the terms you agreed to, and still a reason to withdraw before it starts.
Does logging in reset the clock?
For login-based clauses, yes – that is what “reactivation” means in the BitStarz, Mirax, Mr Green and 888casino wording. For activity-based clauses such as mBit’s, only a deposit, withdrawal or bet resets the count. If the terms do not say which test applies, ask support in writing and keep the reply.
What happens to a small balance I can’t withdraw?
If it sits below the method’s minimum withdrawal it stays in the account, and once the account is classified as dormant the monthly fee reduces it to zero – a balance smaller than the fee is removed in one deduction. Ask support for a manual withdrawal before the trigger date, or spend it down to zero deliberately and close the account.
The short version
A dormant-account fee is small, lawful in most places and easy to avoid – but it is designed for exactly the balance you forgot about. The clause tells you how quickly the casino counts you as gone, how much it takes each month and whether it promises to warn you or return the money first. Six of the 15 casinos we profile charge €5 to €25 a month after six or twelve months; the rest either close empty accounts or say nothing. Either way: withdraw what is yours when you stop playing, and close the account if you are not coming back. Gambling should stay entertainment you can walk away from – see our responsible gambling page for deposit limits, cooling-off and self-exclusion tools. 18+.
Sources
- Gambling Commission – Account inactivity (guide for licensees), accessed 2026-10-08.
- Gambling Commission – Customer funds: fees and charges, accessed 2026-10-08.
- Gambling Commission – LCCP condition 4.1.1, segregation of customer funds, accessed 2026-10-08.
- Competition and Markets Authority – Online gambling case page, accessed 2026-10-08.
- GOV.UK – Online gambling promotions: advice for gamblers, accessed 2026-10-08.
- Casino terms as recorded in our profiles with check dates: BitStarz Terms (13.1–13.2), Betway Terms (4.5), 888casino User Agreement (section 8); LeoVegas 18.1–18.4, Mr Green 13.1–13.4, Mirax 15, Roobet ToS 7.1/7.3, mBit 12.1 and Shuffle 11.6 as quoted on each casino profile.