Betfred Faces Legal Action Over Non-Payment Of £1.72m Jackpot
British gambling firm Betfred is facing legal action after it failed to pay a jackpot worth £1.72 million.
Andy Green hit the massive £1,722,500.24 jackpot when he played the “Frankie Dettori’s Magic Seven Blackjack” on the UK online casino. Green celebrated his life-changing win with family and friends after receiving confirmation from the customer support team at Betfred.
However his pleasant surprise was ruined as just four days later customer support called him and informed him that the company could not honor the jackpot and payout as his win occurred due to a system glitch.
A Betfred representative claimed the online casino encountered a software malfunction and thus it could not award the £1.72 million jackpot. This isn’t the first time that an online casino has refused to honor a payment on the basis of a software glitch.
According to Green, the company decided to be ‘generous’ by offering to reimburse the £2,500 he spent on celebrating his win. In addition to that, Betfred would pay him £60,000 under the condition that Green would not talk about the non-payment of the jackpot payout. Realizing he was being put at a disadvantage, Green decided to take legal action against Betfred to force it to pay the full £1.72 million.
Anomaly Exposed on The One Show
BBC’s popular UK prime time TV program ‘The One Show’ unveiled Green’s story and exposed Betfair’s deliberate attempts to gag him.
Sharing his story on the show, Green said he started out with £100 when he played the online casino game and almost lost all of it until he hit a £10,000 bonus. That was a good amount of cash but Green continued to play. His winnings increased to £38,000 and he kept having a good run and saw it go all the way up to £600,000.
Good fortune sided with Green when a flashing banner appeared on the screen of his mobile phone saying he won the £1.72 million jackpot. Extremely surprised, Green then took a screenshot of his winnings. He received confirmation from Betfred that it was for real which caused him to make plans with his partner on how to spend his money.
Landmark Case Taken to High Court
Green decided to take the legal route and his solicitor Peter Coyle stated that Green had been put in a really unfair situation. Betfair has so far not provided any evidence of the glitch and has been unwilling to share any information on the supposed software malfunction. Green and Coyle had their first court appearance at a High Court in London on Nov 19 and a decision is yet to be made on the matter.
Carolyn DuttonAuthor
Carolyn is our legislation expert, with a background in law she is able to cover the current state of gambling around the world
