Over Three Years of Legal Hell!

I’ll never gamble again” are the words of Andrew Green, a 54-year-old from Lincoln who won £1.7m back in January 2018, but his winnings were only credited some 39-month later after a high court ruled in his favour. The single father vowed to take the bookies right through the courts after they decided not to pay his jackpot win, but the harrowing proceedings have left him unable to sleep and ill with stress.

Having won a jackpot fair and square, Mr Green was facing a second gamble which would be worse than his first if he had lost. The single father revealed if his legal battle against the popular bookmaker had failed, he would have lost is home to legal fees and would be penniless. Thankfully, the judge saw past the one-word excuse by Betfred and awarded him his full jackpot win.

Defect” was the word branded around by the Betfred legal team, claiming the Frankie Dettori’s Magic Seven Blackjack was paying more large sums than it should’ve, so it took them five days of congratulating Mr Green before decided not to payout. Styled on the popular slot release of the same name, the table game pays out based on the number of sevens in play and he managed to hit the top prize after betting fairly and squarely.

Timeline of Events:

  • January 2018, the single parent was elated to land a win of more than £1.7m on the Betfred casino.
  • Started out with £100 and lost it all before hitting a win of £10,600. Continuing to play, his winnings multiplied to £38K then to £76K before a whopping £600K.
  • Playing on mobile, he almost dropped his device when his screen lit up with a banner congratulating him on winning the jackpot of £1,722,500.54.
  • Celebrating with friends and family, he amassed a bill of £2,500.
  • Betfred contacted him days later to say they wouldn’t be honouring the win and was offered £2,500 reimbursement costs as well as a payout of £60K as a goodwill gesture.
  • Refusing the measly payout, Mr Green declined the offer and demanded the full amount. Mr Green has been through a great ordeal having suffered four heart attacks followed by 11 bouts of gruelling treatment.

Speaking to the media, Mr Green said: “I will never gamble again, just because of the experience I have had.It has been stress which has made me very unwell at times. If I had lost it would have bankrupted me, I would have lost the house, my vehicles, everything. I felt all along I was in the right and for the last week I did have a feeling the judge was going to find in my favour. I couldn’t believe it was finally over after three and a half years. After it was announced, I actually couldn’t sleep last night because so much was going through head.”

What did he do to celebrate his win? He bought a £10 pizza! Although the judge ruled in his favour, he must wait to hear when the money will be paid to him, all £1,722,923.54. The scary aspect of it all is the operator was congratulating him for almost a week then came up with an excuse not to pay, something along the lines of the gaming machine was malfunctioning which would prevent it from resetting. Surely if it was malfunctioning, he should receive every single penny back he spent on it – but nope!

Is this an isolated case? Sadly not! The Independent Betting Adjudication Service revelled there were more than 7,800 complaints of operators not paying out winnings in 2017. More recent figures are not available. As delighted as Mr Green is, he feels very emotional due to the fact he had planned to give some of his winnings to his sister, who has tragically passed away since his win.

Source: “Betfred Punter’s 1,167 Days of ‘Torture’ Relying on Overdraft As He Waited for £1.7m Win”. Mirror. April 8, 2021.

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