In response to Fandango’s Who Won the Week post, I have been looking at my own newsfeeds.
You’re probably used to me going off on one about gambling. One more week? I just wanted to highlight the rules by which these companies play.
Ostensibly, this is a story about a guy who won a load of money. Very few gamblers do, so his story is worth sharing.
Way back in January 2018, Andy Green, from Lincolnshire, was playing a Blackjack app on his phone, provided by UK gambling company BetFred. Whatever game he was playing, he won the jackpot three times, which amassed a staggering win total of £1.7m. He took a screengrab of his phone, and I suspect this was key.
The initial reaction of BetFred’s customer service team was to congratulate him. A lucky winner, good for him. And not surprising. It is a drop in the ocean in an industry which is worth approximately £15 billion per year. And, on the strength of this reaction, Mr Green splashed out thousands in celebration of the win. Well, wouldn’t you?
A couple of days later, his big win had obviously reached the ears of BetFred’s directors. One contacted him. He told Mr Green that there had been a glitch in the software. BetFred’s bad? Apparently not. They have a clause in their Ts & Cs which states that in the event of a bug, all bets are off. Winners lose. So BetFred told him that because the game had not been functioning correctly, they were withholding his win.
When Mr Green then started legal proceedings, BetFred offered him a token £60k, on the condition that the matter was never raised again. Mr Green refused, and last week had his day in court. After three years, the judge ruled that BetFred had no reasonable grounds to withhold payment, and finally awarded Mr Green his £1.7m.
Perhaps a lesson there that companies should try testing their software before releasing it to the public?
Mister Bump 
wow! He was lucky to get the money! I agree the screen grab probably helped! I’d say he’s a happy camper now!
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He said in the interview that he’d felt pressured during the whole process, but that the ruling had finally lifted him out. How much of this is actually true, I don’t know but I can imagine.
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Yes, that would be a load of pressure I imagine 🤗
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Yay for the little guy winning against the corporation. My guess is that there was no glitch in the system, and it was just their way of trying not to pay.
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That could be true. I just thought that glitch or not, if they badge something with their name badged all over it, then deliberately put it out for the public to consume then they carry the can.
It’s like you or I having a clause “we reserve the right to be rubbish at our jobs” in our work contracts. Nonsense – we’d get fired.
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Good for him.
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The payout would be a drop in the financial ocean of BetFred. they should have coughed up immediately.
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Yes, I didn’t mention it but they also announced that they would not appeal. Says something, when you can pull that amount of cash out of your back pocket.
Having said that, they’ll probably have it back odd him in a few years – isn’t that what generally happens?
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They will recuperate it. I dare not gamble for fear of becoming addicted.
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I found that with a lot of things. I also ended up staying pretty much drug-free for that same reason. Took me a while to learn about alcohol though.
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We have to have some vices don’t we!
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oh yes, still 🤣
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Yikes! What a story! Big business trying to lord it over the little guy really pisses me off. So glad Mr Green won.
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I’m guessing that anybody who spends their time away playing Blackjack will be handing it back soon enough…
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True. But the company behaved awfully.
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Test software? Are you serious? Radical.
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