On This Day: Shuffle Moved to Buy Sherbet Amid Player Disputes

On October 21, 2024, Shuffle co-founder Noah Dummett announced that the company had signed a letter of intent to acquire Sherbet. The plan was to wind down the rival casino’s operations and offer its players a transition to Shuffle.

Sherbet had launched before Shuffle and was once a competitor Dummett took seriously. By the time of the announcement, it was also facing public accusations from players who said they had been unable to withdraw substantial balances.

Why Shuffle Wanted Sherbet

Dummett’s explanation was that Sherbet had not found the same traction as Shuffle, despite building a product and brand he respected. His announcement described discussions with Sherbet’s team over the preceding week, but did not disclose a purchase price.

The outcome of the acquisition was: Sherbet would stop operating as a separate casino, with its users offered a new home at Shuffle. This gave Shuffle an opportunity to acquire an existing player community. 

The Player Disputes Before the Deal

On October 3, 18 days before Dummett’s announcement, Gamdom founder Felix Roemer posted allegations against Sherbet on X. He linked accounts from two players, P0LYG0NBets and dwmgm_, whose posts alleged disputes involving $125,000 and more than $38,000 respectively.

A Deposit Bonus, a Winning Run and an Account Closure

According to dwmgm_’s account, he joined Sherbet on September 30, 2024 after seeing a streamer’s Discord promotion offering a 100% deposit match up to $2,000 with a 25x wagering requirement. He said support checked his eligibility and manually activated the bonus before he deposited.

He said his balance reached roughly $10,900 after clearing the $50,000 wagering requirement. He then requested a $9,999.99 withdrawal, the daily maximum he said the site allowed. His published transaction screenshot shows that request and a remaining balance of $900.35.

The withdrawal did not arrive immediately. He said support told him it had triggered a manual review. While waiting, he continued playing and increased the remaining funds to $30,144.67. A second screenshot shows that balance on the Sherbet account “iplay2win”. Together with the pending withdrawal, that puts the outstanding balance at about $40,145 before any deposit refund.

Sherbet then requested KYC. He described himself as an American living abroad and said the Sumsub verification flow would not accept American documents. According to his account, he emailed a passport photo, an internet bill, immigration paperwork, a government link to check his immigration status and a selfie holding his passport and utility bill. He also offered a video call. Those document submissions and his claimed residence are his account of events, rather than facts established by the balance screenshots.

An email screenshot dated October 1 shows Sherbet’s stated reason for taking action: it alleged he had used VPN connections set to Norway and Singapore to conceal his true location, citing Section 7.4 of its terms. The player disputed that he was gambling from a restricted territory and said his documents demonstrated his residence abroad.

A further email screenshot says Sherbet would close his account and refund his initial deposit of $1,997.67 as a “gesture of goodwill”. It also says the operator was transitioning to an Anjouan licence.

He also said he was removed from a VIP Telegram group after raising the dispute. Separately, he alleged Sherbet no longer held a valid Curaçao licence after contacting the regulator. The supplied material does not include the regulator’s response.

VIP Outreach and a Locked $125,105 Balance

P0LYG0NBets, referred to as Leon in the other player’s account, said he had lost about $45,000 on Sherbet in 2023 before stopping. An August 13, 2024 email about a remaining $500 balance brought him back into contact with support. After resetting his 2FA and withdrawing that money, he said co-founder Rhys repeatedly approached him on Telegram with calls, promotions and high-roller offers.

He said he initially deposited $6,000, then joined a VIP Telegram group with Rhys, co-founder Josh and staff members 8lowie and Logan. He then deposited $32,500 and lost it playing roulette. After lossback and further bonus offers, he deposited another $10,000 and increased his balance to about $50,000.

According to his account, a $10,000 withdrawal limit prevented him from taking out the full balance. He said he submitted KYC documents by email, waited for a response and continued playing, eventually reaching $125,105.50 before Sherbet suspended his account.

The dispute centred on his residence being in Malta. He said Sherbet’s compliance team rejected his withdrawal on jurisdictional grounds, but argued that Malta had not been explicitly listed as restricted and that the site had allowed him to register and play without a location warning. He also alleged that a Malta warning was added afterwards. The pasted account does not include the underlying compliance messages or dated captures of the terms and location warnings, so those details remain his allegations.

He said Sherbet later refunded his two most recent deposits, totalling $42,498.40. His published figures listed lifetime deposits of $117,513.63, withdrawals of $26,177.00 and a locked on-site balance of $125,105.50. 

Buying The Competition's Players

October 21 marked a letter of intent to acquire Sherbet, rather than a published confirmation that the transaction had closed.

Sherbet’s own website confirmed that Shuffle had acquired the casino. The notice also directed NFT holders with unclaimed SHFL allocations to contact Sherbet support and said support would later pass to Shuffle.

The plan nevertheless showed what Shuffle wanted to do with the business: close the competing operation and bring its users onto its own platform. Sherbet’s product and brand had earned Dummett’s respect, but the proposed deal offered its players a route out of the casino.