Anyone had experience buying a house with gambling winnings?

You look like a money launderer. I mean, to your solicitor, you look like a
money launderer. There are a few types of people who build up a sum of capital
by putting cash into bank accounts: drug dealers, criminals and professional gamblers
are the ones that spring to mind.

At least you've got it into a bank. You can't even buy a car for cash, these days,
without being reported to the serious crimes people. Usually (in my experience) the
most difficult part is getting it into a legitimate institution. It's supposed to be
the step from cash into a bank that is scrutinised most closely. I wonder if your solicitor
is being a bit over-cautious. Have you thought of ditching the parrot and tricorn hat?

Here is a link to the Law Society. It might help explain things from your solicitor's point
of view

http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/support-services/advice/articles/help-im-a-new-mlro-your-firms-compliance-culture/

Actually, reading that page through to point no.4 gives you a pretty good idea why
he's being so stuffy.

It makes you realise how difficult it is living a life slightly out of the norm.

if you can't provide a decent history of your gambling winnings you don't have one in the eyes of the non-gambling outsider

so you should work hard on veryfing this history and having it confirmed by the financial authorities....they won't understand at first, you won't have the benefit of doubt, they probably won't even like you and you may need a lawyer down the road but if your winnings are legit you have nothing to worry about


then you can buy a house and enjoy it yielding a cool 0.5% or so net after tax not taking into account your labour ;-)

Assuming you are paying for the property outright, you should get yourself another solicitor.  I had no such problems when buying a new house 2 years ago.  Unless there is no new legislation in place, I remember having to sign a document basically agreeing that my funds were not sourced from criminal activity/fraud etc.  There may have been something along the lines of stating my occupation, for which (assuming you don't have another paid occupation) you are either "retired" or you could declare yourself as an "investor", both are legitimate titles (from my research, and speaking to accountant friends) depending on your other taxable affairs.  Don't take my or anyone elses advice, do your own research (my disclaimer :) ).

The only problem I had was transferring my funds from the bank to the solicitor, I wanted to use CHAPS to send a large transfer.  The bank made me feel like a criminal asking me all sorts of questions, fortunately it was easy for me to prove exactly where the money had come from.  I would suggest not using CHAPS in your case, probably best to send the daily transfer limit each day (circa £25k - depends on your bank) to your solicitor. Again, they should have no problem with this.

Thanks for the replies

No problem ,i provided my solicitor with bank statements and entries etc  .

Don't know whether they checked further ,but no problems all the same .

Exactly the same experience as Getafix here.  Get a new solicitor.

i bought a house from winnings.
just showed the solicter the money in my account and that was it

Why should your solicitor be concerned if the money has already been vetted through a bank account?

Buying from an auction with cash is easy enough. And I've never had any problems paying cash using a solicitor either. 

I'd tell your solicitor to get on with it or you'll find another one.

Why should your solicitor be concerned if the money has already been vetted through a bank account?

How does he know it has been "vetted"?  OP says he keeps getting bank accounts shut down because he looks like a money launderer, so it shouldn't come as a surprise.

Still made no progress.
I did get investigated by HMRC some years ago with the result being they accepted that I had made my money from gambling, so I have been trying to get copies of the letters.
Despite having my NI number they were unable to find them. I then found the reference number for the correspondence and I am still waiting.
Meanwhile they seem to manage to send me two letters a week about self assessment !!!

I bought a house with money from betfair. For the solicitor I just took a screenshot of my lifetime p and l from the premium account screen. They seemed happy to accept that.

Ten years go maybe.
Recent P/l on betfair showing a loss.

hi mr ed

i have bought houses , with on line accounts there is a paper trail which is easy to prove. maybe too late but with cash winnings get a receipt or photo copy winning tickets. solicitors will accept this proof

Bought a place on a self-certificate with Betfair winnings in 2007, I literally only showed a results spreadsheet I could've entirely made up and the broker just asked how much I wanted.  Couple of months later the sub-prime chaos started, went back to see the same broker a couple of years later and he couldn't get my out the door quick enough.

definately buy to let available with 33% deposit

Unfortunately society likes to pigeon hole everyone, so unless you are conforming to the stereotypical 9-5 job with a documented wage, people will always ask questions as they can't accept not everyone is doing the same as them. A typical example is when someone asks "do you want kids" and when hearing no they feign indignation at how strange it is that not everyone wants to endure the screaming/stress and hassle involved as their brains can't cope with any other reality to life unless it is allied to one they live in.

social conditioning  .

I might look into self conveyancing if it doesnt get sorted this week

I have bought two houses with cheques. One in about 2002 and the other in about 2006/7. I don't recall having any issues with my solicitor.
Mr Ed, if your recent betfair p and l shows a loss I am sure if you have a high turnover/profit on here over your lifetime you can get your account manager to send you the details. Or phone the helpdesk. As far as bookies go I wouldn't have a clue.

Also if you go to Account - Activity and click on the Premium Charges button you can get your lifetime Gross Profit, commission paid and any premium charges incurred.

Cheers... but I think  a lot has changed since 2007

I have managed to sort it though

I'd love to have 'gambling winnings' that could buy a house, think I'd find your problem a nice one to have...