Seemingly William Hill slots fcked up and gave massive jackpots to a lot of people

Imagine winning £141,897 but only being offered 11%

Jackpots of £236k, £175k, £142k and more on William Hills Jackpot Drop game a few days ago.

Now the bookies are demanding it back.

The classic goodwill gesture? 11%

Betfred was forced to pay out a few years ago after a "software glitch".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-56663830
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Funny how you never hear about lotto having a glitch…

in a betting shop the other month there is a lunchtime numbers draw and a tea time draw. the numbers at lunchtime came out again at tea time.a glitch they said and voided all bets at tea time

No surprise there. The bookies will always blame the software / machine in any mega payout they deem unlikely. The bookies are the perennial whingers, and they are getting away with it.

hope those "affected" have withdrawn all funds & said foxtrot oscar

Heart bleeds, poor bookie and their leaching money through addicts on machines...

h1lls giving 11% to those that send money back...

Punters have benefited from bookmaker system errors previously, such as when Corrine Durber was credited with winning more than £1 million on a casino game by Paddy Power in October 2020. The bookmaker blamed a computer error and attempted to reduce Durber’s winnings to £20,000, but lost in the High Court last year.

I'm an honest person. However, I'll not return any winning to the bookie in this matter, period. If I'd played the game / machine, won and got paid out, then the bookie later claimed there had been a "glitch", I'd say tough luck.

Take me to court. I'll take my chance with a judge.

If the bookie concerned wants a legal issue, it should be with their provider of these machines - not their customers.

If anyone copped for over £140k because of a glitch in the softrware and then baulked at taking 11% - £15k - for returning the money they must be bonkers.

Why try to hang on to £140k when Billy H have more legal resource than most. That £140k might be lost anyway and possibly legal costs on top.

No, take the £15k and regard it as a gift from heaven.

After all, imagine that £15k had been dropped into their accounts accidentally? That would seem like manna from heaven, but now they can have £15k and sleep at night!

But, no doubt, naivety and greed will overcome most of those lucky enough to be on the right side of this issue.

It is surely about risk and reward and taking the £15k is a pretty good reward for no risk...remember, there are old gamblers and bold gamblers but very few old AND bold gamblers!!!!

As has been pointed out Betfred and PP both lost court cases over similar claims of "software glitchs".

If you are the sort of person to whom 15k is a lot of money then take what the devil is offering you.

If you are Sir Richard Rich and 141k is just a drop in the ocean then fight them all the way to the supreme court.


Its just the way of the world.

the problem is the knight  if you were to take the £15k they can claim a "glitch " every time they have a mega payout ,claim a glitch and offer £15 or 20 k "loyalty " my arshe payouts , if they are offering 15k they know that theres a good chance they will lose if it gets to court ,id say take the claim to any good reputable lawyer , the big firms will try and wear you down with costs threats etc but the betred and paddy results put the ball in the winning punters court imo.

they claim  glitches when big payouts are won ..........do these glitches work the other way and would they inform and offer losing punters money back?

Or, you could ask Billies for 22% or 25% to settle...

Of course, it is down to how much you already have behind you...

But if you are playing fruit machine games online I would suggest £15k would be a lot of money.

What would I do?

Well I am onto my third milion but I am 66 in August. Even with what I have, £15k FOR NOTHING is worth having - and that is based on years and year of gambling and business experience.

What the UK has no idea of as a nation is the balance of risk against reward. We see that everyday with daft health and safety rules etc etc

Of course, you may ask why Billies are being so seemignly generous with the 11% (why 11%, BTW?). Perhaps they have looked at what their legal costs might be to recover all the money and worked out that 11% is worth paying so as to save money in the long run...risk against reward for them.

OR, and this is my cynical nature derived from age, PERHAPS this glitch did not happen at all. Perhaps this is all a publicity stunt to suck a few more into their fruit machine games etc....

Foyleswar,,,yes, your latter point about it working the other way around is very valid.

Indeed, I have sometimes wondered if a punter playing, say roulette, could claim there must have been a glitch on the software if they have encountered an outragous run of bad luck. In that case, could a punter claim that red 9 times in a row (as an example) must be a glitch rather than pure chance?

But this might be different to the current Billies issue. Here it might be that the gaming software is OK, but the payment software has gone wrong - IE people have been paid out who should not have been? If that is the case, in my view, the law would side with Billies. If it did not then everytime a bank made an erroneus payment the money could be kept.

Hence, another reason I personally would be looking to hike the 11% up somewhat...

Can you imagine the turmoil of actually thinking you've won £140K and then someone turns around a long time later and tells you it was a mistake. Sorry. I can imagine many people would struggle to ever get over it.

Yes, effectively it will be a deal or no deal scenario. What will it take to buy this person off and prevent court action. Bully boy tactics. The court process could be almost as traumatic, not counting the cost. Even if you win, you've gone to hell and back. WH have made it a kind of a poison chalice by trying to renege, as they can. Awful stuff.

yes its a difficult one the knight if you are just a normal everyday punter 15k is a lot of dough and  a bird in the hand scenario ,and at the very least try to get more out of them 25 or 30% at least , the sleepless nights  and stress if you are holding out  would get to most ,but id also have sleepless nights thinking what if id have held out ,and id always have that" they have done me up like a kipper "here in the back of my mind .

can you imagine someone saying to you hey didnt you win £140 k from william hill and you replying i did yes but i settled for 15k

It's hard to have a lot of sympathy. The classic line about degenerative and addicted gamblers, is that they would bet on 2 flies crawling up a wall - but the people that play these games are effectively betting on 2 pretend/imaginary/virtual flies crawling up a wall! - If you're that desperate for a bet, you need to Sea Kelp.

Hopefully it's a wake-up call in two regards. Firstly a realisation that they have a gambling problem and secondly that the people they are betting with are parasitic charlatans with no honour, self respect or dignity. They are barely regulated and there is no ombudsman. They only take bets from degenerative addicts and losers - and even then, they will still go to great lengths to avoid paying out.

It would be a nice touch if they had a slots game - where you win the Jackpot by aligning the reels into an image of the original William Hill spinning in his grave?

Worth pointing out that a £100k is £100k to the consumer but only £79k to the bookie and £21k to the Treasury.

Actually they'll be corporation tax of 25% on the £79k if they make a profit

I think I'd be looking for a no win no fee solicitor myself before refunding any money.

It goes without saying that people shouldn't be using online slots with real money, but that's not the point here. They did, they won, the bookie wants to renege and bully their way out of paying up.

It shouldn't actually cost the bookie anything in the long run. Surely the way rtp works means that it will revert to the same margin. The 'loss' would be clawed back from future spins. A lot of them, granted!

It's almost like being Regulated and Licensed in the UK means nothing!

The 'state' is fundamentally incompetent. But that should go without saying, also.

as the management says most of those who play slots etc are  prob degenerate gamblers who are easy targets for the big firms .......it does give the firms carte blanche any time of  a big payout just say it was a glitch and offer em 15 or 20k  and they will more than likely take it ,reminds me of my younger days ,a couple of druggies /smack /cokeheads  nicked some jewelery and were looking to sell it to get more ,a bloke offered them £4000 (obviously worth way more )which they eagerly accepted but it was on a saturday and we are talking the 1970s and he said i can get you around 200 quid now and 200 quid on sunday and the rest on monday morning when the banks open , they couldnt wait and accepted £1500 cash from another bloke a few hours later .

We'll just have to hope and pray that none of the people involved get driven towards the nasty black market - where they won't be afforded the protections that they have with the firms that are Licensed and Regulated in the UK.

If the 140k is in your bank and you have no other assets  ie.  rent no car  and on the dole how do h1ills get their money when u have spent it ? ( eg. gambling )

I'd be surprised if anyone managed to withdraw, as to do that they would need to produce the birth certs of all great-grandparents plus every bank statement and utility bill for the last ten years.

If there truly was a glitch then the onus is on the bookie to prove it in court. The players or recipients should not as they have hot set out to deceive fraudulently. Leave the judge to decide post listening to evidence / opinions from tech / software experts.

I used to win regularly on free spins from bookies. Then it stopped. Even now when I play the odd promotion the wheel would re-adjust itself as soon as I press the start button eg a slight movement, before it actually spins normally. Is this a managed 'glitch' that has stopped me from winning again? This 'glitch' was not evident in the past when I was winning regularly. Is the slot fixed?

Can someone really withdraw a mega sum eg several thousands, and be paid out almost immediately eg within minutes? I've only withdrawn much less the last couple of years, and some withdrawals had to be staggered and subject to further approvals.

lets say the £140 is in your bank you have no car or an old banger worth a couple of hundred tops are on the dole . you draw it out of the bank and when hills come a calling say ive done the lot  , even if you have only done a few thousand and still have the rest ,they can only pursue you though the courts and a good chance you will win anyway. correct me if i am wrong .

im assuming there was a time lapse before the" glitch " was discovered .

Ask oneself why the bookie was so keen to offer an inducement to "retrieve" the money back, assuming there was a glitch? The machines have helped them and the manufacturers mega bucks. I'm sure if there was to be any "reimbursement" it ought to be between the bookie and the machine / software supplier.

I'd say "take me to court", and let the judge decide.

they would put ths ball in your court imp refuse to pay you or offer the 15k and say take us to court

You have to pay back any erroneous payment unless you couldn't be expected to know it was in error (prob true in this case) and have "changed your position" as a result of the payment (efectively spent it).

it should be a warning to slot players that you cannot win a big pot and should lose them buissness but we are talking degenerate punters who will play whatever the odds .

have to pay it back but if you havent got it are on the dole  or any assets how can you pay it back.

I think if one bought an item advertised at a much reduced price online the vendor would have to honour it at least to a few of the early birds. Correct?

The bookie will have personnel / department monitoring, spotting and policing any untoward or odd happenings in any game or withdrawals. Anything untoward or action will have been picked up very soon after unless it is "facilitated".

btw if you spend money that is obviously not yours, it's a criminal matter, so you can look forward to an "I'm disappointed in you" face from the judge and an ankle bracelet for three or four days.

Perhaps the 11% is because there should have been one winner and they actually had nine?

Given the recent court case precedents I wouldn't be taking the offer.

"A gardener who was told by Paddy Power her £1m jackpot from an online game was a computer error has vowed to "enjoy retirement" after a High Court judge ruled she was entitled to the entire sum.  Corrine Durber, from Gloucestershire, played the Wild Hatter game in October 2020 - a two-part game involving a fruit machine and a wheel of fortune.  After spinning the jackpot wheel, Mrs Durber's iPad Screen displayed she had won the "Monster Jackpot", which was stated as £1,097,132.71.  But the gambling giant only paid out £20,265 telling her she had won the smaller "Daily Jackpot", with the difference attributed to a programming error with the game's display.

Mrs Durber sued PPB Entertainment Limited, which trades as Paddy Power and Betfair, for breach of contract and for the rest of her winnings, based on what she was shown on screen.
In a judgment on Wednesday, Mr Justice Ritchie granted summary judgment in her favour, meaning she won her case without a trial.  He said: "When a trader puts all the risk on a consumer for its own recklessness, negligence, errors, inadequate digital services and inadequate testing, that appears onerous to me."
"

...........

That was a High Court summary judgement.  Doubt WH would even pursue legal recourse myself as it doesn't appear this issue is materially different.  Legal action remains on the cards for those who haven't withdrawn their money.

If you have any big win from a bookie withdraw all of it straight away.

If he has won it ina horse racing ACCA they wouldn't have paid out either, they would have come up with some excuse. It's impossible to win a huge sum from a bookies these days,they just won't allow it. Stick to the exchanges at least you'll get your money.

One woman won 147k  twice

138 Million Gone

As stated earlier surely the issue is with the software provider not with Joe Punter , I would give them Sweet F.A back , not all punters managed to withraw

That's a bit different from the "thousands" mentioned in the RP

Surely Hills can't risk going to court? if they lose everyone who got credited winnings but was unable to withdraw before they took it back would then be able to put in a claim. Then they risk losing losing everything.

One of my friends works in the tech department at Evoke (parent of William hill/888)

Long story short there was a huge issue with their jackpot system. It was paying out 20x at far boosted rates. There was 138m won in approximately 30 minutes across all systems.

I know this doesnt help but it was a huge incident on their side. There is lots of evidence this is an accident and there are thousands of customers this has happened to.

From a legal POV I'm fairly certain as it was a malfunction and they can easily prove it was a malfunction its in the t&c that it won't be paid out.

Its also worth noting a lot of the jackpots are 50k on certain games so if she's won over that it is quite obviously a glitch

https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/1ryduq6/friend_won_just_under_236000_on_888casino_jackpot/


Happened with 888 also apparently according to some

"One of my friends works in the tech department at Evoke"

Think he might need to look at another line of work ,,

Accounts were all frozen punters could not even Contact Hills to see what was going on ,Not everyone managed to withdraw

Imagine you win a hundred bags , Then get locked out of your  account , Shocking

I think the bookies have cried "wolf" too often that even the judiciary has little sympathy; self-infliction has no place in the courtroom.

I keep seeing their casino advert on TV - the one that ends 'effortless' and brags about how great a provider they are.

I hope this story is well publicised and stops next generations of addicts, at least in part...

They don't want you to win.

Just announced they are closing another 200 shops

if there were glitches in the software where the player could not win ,would they let losing players know ?

Likely not Foyles - win one way, not lose the other way ay

The public will be missing nothing. The majority are there because of fobt - not horseracing or footie. I hope more will go until only one remains in any high street. Betting shops are a blight in any high street landscape with fobt junkies and ciggie addicts hanging outside the entrance.

mavis ya wofflin donut, the high street is full of rent free charity shops and stinking dodgy  uber eats.
Ffs.

Yep funding the   F  I  L  T  H