Betfred’s Refusal to Payout £1.7m Jackpot Win Overturned

Back in 2018, Andrew Green, a 54-year-old from the UK was playing a popular casino game over on the Betfred website when he struck it lucky! Going from an emptying bankroll to a life-changing sum of more than £1.7m in an instant, he was smiling from ear to ear and was rightly so on cloud 9, but his joys and elation soon turned to disbelief when the operator refused to pay out his winnings.

For 5 days after his win, Mr Green was being congratulated on becoming a millionaire, but those delightful messages soon turned to messages no winner wants to hear – no money would be paid out due to what Betfred called a “defect” in the game. Mr Green was having none of this and vowed to drag the operator through the courts, and that’s what he did.

Over 3 Years of Hell

Frankie Dettori’s Magic Seven Blackjack was the game in question and according to the lawyers representing Betfred, the “defect” was making it more likely for the game to pay higher sums than intended, but that excuse didn’t sit well with the court. It’s taken 39-months of hell and torture, but Mr Green finally has the outcome he very rightly deserves – his full winnings! But Mrs Justice Foster ruled in the winner’s favour by saying the operators defence was “just not apt to cover the circumstances of this case at all. It is not dealing with the failure to pay out winnings at all. Nor is it dealing with a fault or glitch or programming mistake that is undetectable to either party.”

The judge added: “I am of the clear view that these clauses in the terms and conditions are inadequate to exempt Betfred from the obligation to pay out on an ostensibly winning bet or series of bets,” before pointing out that none of the terms and conditions to revoke the jackpot win were “sufficiently brought to the attention of Mr Green so as to be incorporated in the gaming contracts he entered with Betfred”.

So, man wins big while playing casino games with a huge jackpot to entice players. Operator is not happy with said win and decides to tell the winner some 5 days later that he won’t receive his winnings. Instead of the full £1,722,923.54 win, he was offered £60K by way of compensation for what had happened. What’s to stop other operators declining winnings on the claim of a “defect”?

Thankfully, instances of this are rare, but when they do hit the headlines, it’s always life-changing sums that are being refuted, and not just in the UK or Europe, but the whole world! In February last year, a woman from Oklahoma won $8.5m on a casino jackpot machine but the casino is still refusing to pay out. The screen print outs and records indicate her win, but no money has been awarded to this day. Linda, the winner blasted the casino by saying: “It’s crazy how they want to rely on ‘it’s a malfunction’ when somebody can easily go up there and lose all their money and ‘it’s a malfunction, give me my money back.’ It doesn’t work that way. So, why would it work that way for them? It’s pointless.”