A woman was left 'absolutely gutted' after being told she'd have to pay back £33,000 of a jackpot she won online.
Gemma Bradley is a William Hill customer who was told by the online casino operator that her winnings were a 'glitch' that had manifested as 'unintended jackpot behaviour' and resulted in 'incorrect payouts'.
A number of customers who won during a 40 minute period on the morning of 16 March have been identified as affected by this 'glitch', as William Hill said they'd had 35,072 jackpot payouts during the time it was happening compared to 518 over the same time period a week before.
Wakefield woman Gemma had said she'd been 'crying with happiness' after winning £47,182 on the Jackpot Drop game and planned to pay off her mortgage.
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Thinking of the financial weight that was about to be lifted from her shoulders, she transferred the debit card limit of £33,000 of the jackpot from the online casino to her bank account.
While she planned to move the rest of it the next day, Gemma was instead contacted that evening by William Hill as they ordered her to give back the £33,000 she'd already moved out of her betting account.
They told her a technical issue had affected the game resulting in more payouts than planned and Gemma's been looking for help from gambling adjudicators to help her proceed.
She said: "I’m absolutely gutted. I haven’t been sleeping properly. It’s all I’ve been thinking about since Monday."
Other players have been claiming on social media that 'winnings' of up to £200,000 had been taken from them, with gamblers realising after their celebrations that their betting accounts had been locked.
People affected by this alleged glitch were offered 'settlement agreements' worth 11 percent of the winnings William Hill said had been mistakenly given to them if they paid it back in three days, but others have decided to pursue a dispute.
Gemma said she'd been planning on paying off the mortgage which would allow her mum Ann, 69, to 'enjoy her retirement a lot more' before being told the money would have to go back.
She said: "They said it was an issue at their end so I’d have to pay it back and that I wouldn’t be able to withdraw the rest of the funds.
"It’s a good job I didn’t book a holiday or something like that. What if it’s happened to someone who’s gone out and bought a car? I was quite sensible but it did get my hopes up."
She said that if she's got to pay the money back she will.
Another man said he and his wife had been planning to clear debts of £30,000, but now said she hasn't got out of bed since she told him 'the money's gone'.
William Hill's terms and conditions say they can withhold winnings or ask for them to be returned in the case of technical errors.
A William Hill spokesman said: “During a routine review of platform activity, we identified an issue affecting the Jackpot Drop game which resulted in incorrect sums being credited to players’ balances and withdrawals being processed incorrectly.
"Whilst we quickly identified and resolved this issue, for a short period of time funds were erroneously credited to some customer accounts that were not correctly generated through valid or properly functioning gameplay.
"We have contacted relevant customers to clarify the error, and - in certain cases - organise the return of the funds in line with our standard terms and conditions."
Joe Harker