Lad brokes refuse to pay me out & loss of inheritance on

[JG]

I prefer to reload and become a toad. That way if someone unsavoury tries to pick me up, I can excrete a mildly toxic poison from my back and deter any would be welchers.

[bigv038]

Let me first say I inherited the sum of £13,613 on the sale of my grandfathers house following his passing. What followed was a mixture of temptations & my own stupidity from local bookmakers. They should take some responsibility too as I never intended it to go this far. To cut a long story short I lost the entire amount in the space of 2 weeks but that story is for another day. What I want to focus on is what I believe to be crookedness from one bookmaker in particular.
Early in the morning on the 19th April 2010 I went into Ladbrokes bookmakers on Market Place in Leicester city centre. Even though I had only began to use the shop for around 2 weeks, I think I became known to the staff due to the fact that I was withdrawing & staking large £100 sums on blackjack on the fixed odds betting terminals. Anyway I ended up walking away with a loss of exactly £800 after spending no longer than 5 minutes on the machines. To say the word "fixed" is an understatement but I had no proof of this so I will not focus on that any further. After work, I visited Ladbrokes again & made a withdrawal of £200. Slowly but surely I turned it into £1,300 & quickly hit the collect button. At this time my overall losses were at about £3,000 so I was happy to collect the £1,300 & write off the rest of the money & put it down to experience & work a bit more overtime to offset the loss. Anyway trying to collect the money didn't go to plan. I handed over the slip to a cashier who first of all was bad mannered & said "we couldn't pay that amount". I said "sorry" & he said rudely "I have another customer" & made a hand movement as to push me to the side. After he was done with 2 customers he claimed that the shop didn't have that cash & I informed him that I'd already put £1,000 into the machines. He said, "don't lie." At this point I was shocked that I was being spoken to in that manner so I asked him to call the manager. The cashier said "he's outside & will be back soon" so I waited for several minutes. The (what I know to be now) manager walked through with a stubbed out cigarette in his hand & went into the booth where they both had words. I asked the manager that I be given an apology for being treated in such an unprofessional way (I work in retail too & would never call a customer a liar). The manager made perfectly clear he couldn't care less & protected his member of staff. I asked them both for their names & told them that I would make a complaint to Ladbrokes head office only to be told by the manager that they wouldn't care & that it was my word over theres. I decided then just to forget the whole thing & just take my winnings by whatever means they offered. This is not what happened.
The manager said "we're not paying you today", so I said, "ok, give me a cheque". He shook his head and said that he would need to investigate my claim with head office, I them informed him how much I had already spent in the shop & that this was just a partial return. He made no comment & there was no expression on his face. At this point time was getting on so I asked for a receipt & he said they couldn't give one & that he would remember me & (can't remember the technical name). Anyway he wrote something on a betting slip & scanned it. That was it. I asked him to telephone me as soon as it was sorted & he told me that I would have to come down. On return the next day I was told by the same manager that the regional manager had told him that they could not pay out due to insufficient evidence that I had placed the bet & that I would need to contact their security department. After 2 months of liaising with them & Ladbrokes customer service, they told me that they wouldn't be paying out & wouldn't offer me a valid reason. They also said I could not get in contact with IBAS as this was out of their remit as they only dealt with settlement of bets & they didn't dispute the fact, that the slip was made up from legitimate returns.
I was that angry & thought that even if I could attempt to sue Ladbrokes it could take over a year & it could cost me an arm & a leg in the process, so I went into a different bookmaker "on tilt" the same day trying to recoup the £1,300 they owed me & lost over double that amount on a mixture of blackjack & roulette.
Total loss around £6,000, I joined up with the nearest casino where as you can probably guess I blew the remaining inheritance & about £2,000 of my savings on lower than expected table limit blackjack & roulette. I was hoping to just put £5,000 on one hand or one spin but they simply would not allow that & my whole bankroll sank over the evening.
I put this all down to a knock on effect of Ladbrokes crookedness & my stupidity falling for the marketing & social acceptance of roulette which is being shoved down our faces in various mediums.
I have now got myself a second job to try to recoup my grandfathers money which I will continue with for 2 years until every penny has been paid back, then I can use it wisely as intended.

You should be ashamed of yourself for gambling the money away for starters. Also why would you leave the shop without your winnings in the first place without any sort of proof? They could have emptied any one of the machines to pay you out!

[GeoffSharman]

i dont get how they refuse to pay

they have at least 30 days worth of security footage at all times,

all they have to do is use the machines records and the security footage and a bank statement, and they can track what you put in,

are they allowed to refuse to pay you out?

id take this to the newspaper... try and find someone who is already lobbying against fobt and get them on board... at a push id go for that anne robinson tv show thing



unless there is a known fraud on the fobt, there is no way they have the right to no pay you, unless there is something you havent told us?

agreed ,they have the footage .................the very same footage they would have been able to use instantaneously if you had barricaded the doors and went for the world greenstick fracturing record.

they have the statistics for every credit played on their machines .they have to keep a copy of every betting slip for so many years also.

you've been f##king mugged geoff ,as already stated some members of the press would lap this up.

alot of people do need to return next day to collect sizeable winnings ,i've had to wait till next day for 470 quid at a Laddies before,but welching is certainly something i've not heard alot about.
:x

Officially Ladbrokes would not give me a reason in writing, why they have refused to pay out however in the more earlier stages, the person who claimed to be the area manager told me on phone that as there were a group of people around me on the machine, they could not confirm that I was indeed the player (how did he know what I looked like then? My picture wasn't taken by ladbrokes until after that conversation). Granted there were a number of people gathered around watching me & others play, but I find it difficult to believe that they had blocked sight of all images & in any case why should it be my problem if their CCTV is not positioned correctly? I said this myself to the area manager & all he kept saying was they had strict rules to adhere to. Sounded like a broken record.

In the same days I was given other false reasons too such as there were limits to which they could pay out, so which one was it or wasn't there a real reason?

If Ladbrokes had sufficient funds & had paid me on the day this would not have been checked anyway. I believe this only came about after I had stern words with the rude cashier & manager. Why else would they have looked into it.

Ladbrokes have told me in letter that they will no longer correspond with me in relation to this matter and that "our internal investigations have concluded the matter."

I think I have left it too long to approach the media & I just want to forget the whole thing now BUT warn people of the dangers of gambling on those hungry terminals. A cheeky tenner can quickly turn into a heartbreaking hundred or a tearful thousand as was the case with myself & even if you are lucky to hit the "collect" button you may find difficulties being paid. I'm sure it is a rare occurance but unfortunately I was one of those people.

Thank you for the kind words everyone.

Geoff.

[Spyder]

yeah geoff, im sure you're right, afterall, the newspapers dont like printing stuff that happened a while ago, its too late to go to the press

hmm, so that girl that go raped and kept in the cellar by her dad for 20 something years... and that world war they mention occassionally...


your reluctance to persue £1200 is slightly alarming...

[2 down for the melons]

I think it's a matter for the police! Would'nt surprise me if someone in ladbrokes, had stolen ur money!!

I know someone that works there, and iv'e heard of loads of stories about them being dishonest!!

From what uv'e said about the arguement u had with the staff there, and now they're saying, theyr'e not sure of the identity of the person!!! wtf!!

[JG]

It does sound like an agrieved staff member taking revenge.

For what it is worth, the roulette and Blackjack are rigged to pay at lower than true % Roulette typically pays at around 88% Your number is still chosen at random, but from a larger bank than 0-36 inclusive. It can choose 37,38 etc and display these as the greatest loss.

Similar mechanisms are used on Blackjack, but the virtual racing games are true to what odds are displayed apparently.


Don't gamble on those FOBT, unless you have a tool or a foolproof enough system to win.


I know that doesn't help what has happened, but it may help you and otehrs not to waste time and money. How would you persue the lost £1200 Spyder, now they have ceased all communications? Surely it's his word against theirs and the media will want some sort of proof before they can release a story.

[Glendale]

I dont know about anyone else as i dont play that rigged shit, but if a miracle happened and i did play and win then no way would i leave without my ticket, if they said we will pay you tomorrow then that is when they would get my ticket, tomorrow! If thats not possible at least get a witness that you handed it to them!

[Spyder]

i see your point jg, but details of their investigation would have to be released if you went through the proper channels, afterall gambling debts are recoverable by law now, so a decent solicitor would easily get details from them of their investigation..

personally i wouldnt have left without the cash, BUT i suppose i might have trusted them, although i probably wouldnt have due to the attitude..

also, i wouldnt have had 10 people watching me play..

fuck knows,

all i know is that if i didnt get money from a legit claim, from a bookies where i would recognise the staff, i would eventually by one means or another get my money back, or my piece of mind back.

[2 down for the melons]

Get the police in!! There's bound to be data on that terminal showing the win...

I feel wound up, just reading about it!!

About 20+ yr ago, i was in an arcade, put 50p in change machine..and it swallowed it, told them about it.. when i went back there again, i mentioned the 50p, the manageress said, u did'nt put it in!! I was absolutely tamping, not so much over the 50p, just that they were calling me a liar!!! So fuck knows, what id do over 1200 quid.. :x

[Spyder]

is it the school holidays? if so, take a couple of zeros off...

or maybe having a screwdriver hanging out of your pocket wasnt a good move?

[PMK]

I've had to go back to ladbrokes a few times either later on in the day or the next day if my ticket was printed not long before close.

But they don't keep the ticket!! And I certainly wouldn't leave without it either.

I'm sorry but something doesn't add up here.

You don't just laugh off £1300 do you?

[superpav]

so you spent all your money and now your not botherd about 1300 they owe you. somethng dont seem right here

why would you hand them your ticket if they cant pay you.
they couldnt pay me out before so i kept the ticket and went back the next day. plus its all recorded so if the money in the machine ladbroks should be 1300 over that day.

[Spyder]

and 1300 isnt realy that much to them, ive seen a guy with 4k in the bank of one...

if the original story is accurate, basicly, the cashiers were intending to steal that money from you, but they mustve chickened out on cashing the slip..

[TINYMcFINEY]

GEOFF: I'VE DONE MY PIECE B4, ON ROULETTE, SO, I KNOW HOW GUTTING IT FEELS,BUT I WOULD NEVER LEAVE A BOOKIES WITHOUT MY RECEIPT FROM THE MACHINE.( WINNER OR JUST CUTTING MY LOSS ON THE DAY) IF TOLD THEY HAD "NO MONEY , COME BACK NEXT DAY." LADBROKES HAVE BAD P.R AND THIS CONFIRMS IT. I HAVE NOT GONE IN MY LOCAL ONE FOR SIX &HALF YEARS AS O.K WHEN LOSEING BUT TOTAL COCKS WHEN YOU WIN (NOT TOO OFTEN)...

[pager]

To counter this,never had any trouble ever in Ladjokes cashing in any winnings either on the bet side or Fobts,however Bedfreds is a completely different story with a constant "Can you come back in half a hour?" which can then be repeated again when you go back.