Running Up to Hill’s (A Deal with Satan)

William Hill hold my money and aren’t prepared to pay me out.

Yes, there I was, running up to Hill’s (Kate Bush, if I’m being obscure) with much excitement to collect my winnings. Trouble is, they are withholding payment and refusing to do any business with me.

Over the course of the football season, I placed several bets with them, my favourite being a £200 double on Wigan and Port Vale to be promoted, both at 4/1, returning £5000.

The trouble all started on 18th May when the shop received a letter for my attention with a request for documentation, known as KYC - Know Your Customer.

The opening sentence begins ‘To protect our customers’. An interesting choice of words as I wonder in what universe preventing me from collecting my winnings is any protection for me.

Yes, I know, they’d been taking bets all season and only now, when I go to collect my money does this request surface. A more cynical character than myself might suggest this information was only required when it came to pay-out time. Even with the request I don’t understand why they can’t pay out winnings from prior to carrying out the KYC.

Bookies want to avoid paying £3m fines but there needs to be a sense of perspective here and a reasonable timetable for events. I spoke to the Gambling Commission who didn’t offer a great deal of encouragement. The sympathetic impression they gave was that it was down to the bookmaker to make the decision, but I couldn’t help feeling I’d just dealt with a rottweiler dressed up as a pussycat, because they certainly haven’t done anything to help resolve my situation.

Having received the Hill’s request, I returned to the shop on around the 26th with a copy of a bank statement.

They now held documentation showing funds. They also held several winning slips of mine, enough to cover some magical ‘threshold’ trigger point more than a few times over. At no point was there an explanation of the financial amount I needed to demonstrate in order to pass this KYC test.

Another acceptable proof of income document is proof of winnings from other gambling operators – not William Hill – just other operators. Surely, the most relevant information would be winnings from Hill’s but maybe people just don’t win from them!

I have visions of somebody providing details of gambling winnings, finally being paid out, returning to place a bet and then be told ‘sorry, we can’t take bets from you, because you have demonstrated yourself to be a winner!’.

Having heard nothing, I emailed Hill’s on the 6th June further putting my case, explaining they had been taking bets from me for many years. The KYC letter had my name on it, so they knew who I was, I’d provided a bank statement in addition to my winnings that they already held, even explained why I’d placed some of my bets. The response came back – documents under review.

I waited a week before following up with another e-mail. Back came the response that they were chasing for an update. Once received they would be in touch. Another 4 weeks have passed and nothing.

I’d also furnished them with some questions.

If a client won’t show evidence of funds, what happens to the winnings? Do you just keep them?

If they decide a customer can’t afford to bet with them, what happens to the winnings? Do they just keep them?

What if a client dies, do they just keep the money? I thought that might sound flippant but as there appears to be no time limit and the process for this can drag on, I’m thinking it’s a not unreasonable question.

What do they regard as a reasonable timeframe for reviewing customer submissions and will they compensate customers for holding on to the money for so long?

Not one of the questions has been answered by William Hill.

I am used to them refusing to take bets, regular price changes and stake restrictions but this is a new low.

Do they honestly believe they will be fined for paying me out?

I place bets in good faith. If I lose, I lose. If I win, I expect to be paid by a company who knows who I am and holds more than enough information about me.