William Hill not paying out

[joker53]

Walked into a WH on Thurs nite around 7pm and after proceeding to put £80 through a FOBT I was then told 'if you win' you will not get paid out' by one of the staff. Tey siad the earliest would be the the next morning at 11 am and will have to be the same shop.

I ended up winning £320 and after arguing for 30 minutes and stressing I needed the money that night, they refused and said they only had money in the safe for the racing ifor the next morning and there was nothing they could do.

I was wondering what is the legal stance on this?Surely it is false advertising to keep the machines on and the shop open when there is no money to honour any bets until the next day or at the very least there should be a disclaimer stating this.

I work for a leading law firm as a business analysis but I am bit relunctant to ask anyone due to the fact it my given them a wrong opinion that I am some gambling addict, so thought I would garner some advice from here.

My aprroach was going to be to send a letter notifying WH I will reporting them to trading standards, gambling commision and OFT to see if I get any compensation.

[blackmogu]

At least you have the option of getting paid the next day - I had to wait 3 days for £500 once (WH Chiswick).

[joker53]

That is a joke.They're are usually ok about paying out, just may have been the two women being lazy twats!

[Spyder]

so if you won a bet on a horse at 100 to one, and you put £50 on, they'd tell you the same thing... would you start shouting and say you needed the £5000 straight away

fair warning..


it happens a lot actually, lol, must mean you dont win very often!!

[joker53]

£5000 is a completely different story and I have won over 10k on a footy acca and understood it was not your 'everyday' payout. £300 win is an average daily payout, which should be easily catered for!

[prizeguy]

had a problem with a betfred once when won 500 on the roulette didnt say didnt have any money was told to come next day only to be then told they had paid loads out that day and didnt have any cash, took about 3-4 days was a joke. Sure it was wiilliam hill who credited money to my bank card one day when they couldnt pay out

[JG]

Standard procedure unfortunately and it's the perils of not playing playables. Your discipline was poor, very poor, to play the FOBT in the first place and had they seen you out and about playing Monopoly Boom or Bust or The Perfect Game, they would have been entitled making you wait for two weeks to a month for your money. It's all about discipline.

[Mr Bubbles]

Had simular problems before, usual answer to asked them to split the amounts back over 2 machines, and then reprint 2 tickets one for the value they can't afford to pay that day and one for the amount they can afford that day. At least then you can go and have a good evening.

[stuart4010]

The more cash they hold on the premises, the bigger the target for thieving scum.

That said, there's no excuse for all bookmakers not being able to credit your bank account in these modern times.

[Hangmanfan]

They said they couldn't pay you, but you proceeded to play anyway. It's not justifiable then for you to feel angered or disappointed.

A typical banking formula for bookmakers is "Cash In Shop - (75% of holdover + FOBT allowance) = Money To Bank". The holdover (£) is the combined total they expect to pay from already settled bets. A FOBT allowance might be £500 to £3000 depending on past figures. After they've banked, they expect to reach the end of the night with optimal (minimal) cash, which means that an unusually large payout (from the machines or a bet) after they've banked will leave them too short. In your instance, you just picked a bad evening for them.

If there was a William Hill shop in walking distance of the one you visited, I'm sure your shop will have been in touch with them to see if they could transfer some money to them in order to keep them 'solvent' until the shop was due to close that night.

And as one poster said, you can have the money paid straight onto a debit card, which reaches your bank the next day I believe. So you could have asked for even £30 cash and the £290 to your card, for example.

Just one question: If you needed money that night, why then put £80 in a FOBT?!

[CrosbyRules]

That last line is very very true...

[stuart4010]

They said they couldn't pay you, but you proceeded to play anyway. It's not justifiable then for you to feel angered or disappointed.

A typical banking formula for bookmakers is "Cash In Shop - (75% of holdover + FOBT allowance) = Money To Bank". The holdover (£) is the combined total they expect to pay from already settled bets. A FOBT allowance might be £500 to £3000 depending on past figures. After they've banked, they expect to reach the end of the night with optimal (minimal) cash, which means that an unusually large payout (from the machines or a bet) after they've banked will leave them too short. In your instance, you just picked a bad evening for them.

If there was a William Hill shop in walking distance of the one you visited, I'm sure your shop will have been in touch with them to see if they could transfer some money to them in order to keep them 'solvent' until the shop was due to close that night.

And as one poster said, you can have the money paid straight onto a debit card, which reaches your bank the next day I believe. So you could have asked for even £30 cash and the £290 to your card, for example.

Just one question: If you needed money that night, why then put £80 in a FOBT?!

I happened to get lucky and won £500 one night in a local Ladbrokes, they said they didn't have the money to pay out but phone another shop nearby. I went back in 2 hours and hey presto.

[Hangmanfan]

, they refused and said they only had money in the safe for the racing ifor the next morning and there was nothing they could do.

That's nonsense. There's nothing in their policies which tells staff to forsake FOBT players for the benefit of horse racing/greyhound punters. The truth there, is that they don't want to find themselves in the position of telling their regular - probably known-by-name - punters that they can't pay them out after they've just had a bet. You? Well, as discerning a human as you may be, you would have been just one of the ten-a-penny FOBT punters that they see from one day to the next, 'undeserving' of the 'right' treatment.

[joker53]

To be honest I didnt need the money that night but they were not to know this, so played that card out of principle. I agree my discipline was comprised but it usually wavers when i've had a few drinks - this time I got out with a bit of credibility!

I played a a FOBT last weekend which really opended my eyes. I tried to place £7 bets on one single numbers and I was surprised by the amount of 'waiting for next draw' messages I kept getting up before I pressed spin. Never experiend this even when I was re-betting on big spins covering more than one number.

Does this add to the theory that these things are rigged?I dont really want to open up a new debate, as its been played to death. My opinion whether they are rigged - most definately!

[harry2]

There's a 30 second rule, which is maybe why you were kept waiting !