How do bookies get away with it?

It’s hard to know what I must do to get paid out. A bookie refused to give me my winnings and confiscated my slip.

Ultimately, they claimed that the customer who placed the bet was paid out and that I wasn’t that customer.

They provided me with a story but then changed it when I demonstrated that what they were saying couldn’t possibly have happened. How you provide details of an event and then change the landscape completely is a mystery to me.

I was convinced that somebody was mistaken, so I made a subject access request. This provided clear audio of me being fed one story and then having the story changed on me later.

I gave them an opportunity to revisit the case and make payment.

Their response stated

‘We have had multiple departments look into this case and all have concluded that the winnings have been paid to the correct customer’.

This is truly worrying. I have the audio evidence which demonstrates this simply wasn’t the case. At this point it should be apparent to the company that something is not right and regardless of anything else they should carry out an internal investigation.

They should acknowledge that something has gone wrong with their security.

It’s not the only evidence I hold. I placed other bets before and after the bet in question and placed a bet on an identical selection with a different bookie. I venture to suggest that not many people would be placing identical bets to mine.

I do know that they say the customer who was paid is a shop regular. As the stake was for £400, I would imagine that this customer was having their bets monitored. Therefore, it wouldn’t be the most challenging thing for them to go back and review this person’s trading habits. I would be amazed if the betting pattern was like mine.

It’s tough enough for punters without the bookie playing hardball. I am owed money by them but must fight tooth and nail to get what is rightfully mine. They’ve put up the shutters and the best I can hope for is to get back to where I should have been originally and receive my payment.

The facts are staring them in the face but still they refuse to co-operate.

Do the right thing by not making life difficult for the customer in the hope that they’ll go away.