William Hill – Non payment of part of winnings

Ruling

Unresolved - This player has submitted two complaints about casinos in the William Hill group. After reviewing communication the player's received from this group it's clear that William Hill feel that the player has either been involved in the operation of multiple accounts or is not the person named on the account.

The William Hill group will not share evidence related to this type of complaint and as such there's nothing further we can do for this player. We've advised they contact William Hill's regulator in Gibraltar.

The other complaint can be found at https://thepogg.com/complaint/prestige-unfair-id-request/.

Read our William Hill Casino Review.

Player's Complaint

Back in April I was playing in my favourite internet casino William Hill and after receiving a small bonus on a large deposit was very lucky to win a big amount. It was nearly £30,000. And not the first time I had won there using a combination of real money and bonus money. Playing in exactly the same way in fact and the first time around there were no issues with my withdrawal.

This next time around I withdrew £5000 and they paid no quibble as they always had done. But then when I went to withdraw the rest they didn't give it to me and closed my account. Around about the same time I started receiving e-mails from other casinos in their group (Prestige etc) saying I would no longer receive bonuses and the like. So it seems I did something they didn't like. However, Prestige continued to pay my winnings. So it's all very confusing and I asked William Hill what the problem was but they have been unable to explain to me only copying and pasting a large chunk of the rules.

To me this seems like strange behaviour from such a respectable casino so I think it's possible they have got their wires crossed somewhere down the line or just made a genuine mistake. I would appreciate it if you could help me to patch things up with them.

My username is [EDIT] and email address on the account is [EDIT] Please do not publish my username and email address.

Thanks in advance.

Read the casino review

2 Responses

ThePOGG

Jul 10, 2015

Hi hardtimes,

Can you provide me with the terms that William Hill quoted you when they tried to explain the situation?

Thanks,

ThePOGG

Jul 13, 2015

Hi hardtimes - thanks for your email.

Having read through the email it raises some issues. Firstly I would say that William Hill have explained what the problem is, albeit in a rather convoluted fashion. To demonstrate I'm going to copy the email they sent you below highlighting the significant parts;

We are writing in reference to your recent activity on your account where our Security team conducted a review.

Whilst we understand that you may be unhappy with the fact that we have taken steps to close your account and remove winnings from it, we can assure you that we have acted completely in accordance with our Terms and Conditions where we reserve the right to do this. Whilst we will not go into detail as to how potential accounts may be identified for review, our Security team carefully consider each case prior to taking any action on it.

Following the review, we took the decision to close your account due to the activity which they have observed. Whilst we do take such steps extremely seriously, I can assure you that this decision has been taken in line with our Terms and Conditions which you accepted at the point of registration, specifically section 11.4 which states:
"11.4 If:
11.4.1 We have reasonable grounds to believe that:
11.4.1.1 You have participated in or have been connected with any form of collusion, cheating, unfair or fraudulent practice, or otherwise any other criminal activity; or
11.4.1.2 You have, in relation to any bet placed or game played, gained an unfair advantage over us or any other person participating in the relevant game; or
11.4.1.3 a game in which You participated included the use of collusive or fraudulent practice, or any cheating; or
11.4.2 we become aware that You have placed bets and/or played online games with any other online provider of gambling services and are suspected (as a result of such play) of collusion, cheating or fraud (including in relation to charge-backs), or otherwise any criminal or otherwise improper activity; or 11.4.3 we become aware that You have "charged back" or denied any of the purchases or deposits that You made to Your Account; or
11.4.4 You become bankrupt or suffered analogous proceedings anywhere in the world,
then we shall have the right to suspend Your Account for an indefinite period of time; and/or withhold the whole or part of balance of Your Account; and/or close Your Account and terminate the Terms of Use; and/or recover from Your Account the amount of any pay-outs, bonuses or winnings which have been affected by the event(s) contemplated in paragraphs 11.4.1 to 11.4.4 (inclusive) above."

The reason for this decision is that we found activity which would confirm abuse of our casino bonuses by taking advantage of multiple bonuses and/or opening several accounts. We have been able to trace this fact through a variety of pieces of information which are gathered both at registration and also your account activity and as such reserve the right to suspend any further activity. This information regarding our bonus information is also held within our promotional Terms and Conditions found at which state:

"The Bonus will only be issued once per deposit, per person, family, household, address, e-mail address, any environment where computers are shared (schools, workplaces, public libraries, etc) and/or per account. reserves the right to review transaction records and logs from time to time, for any reason whatsoever. If, upon such a review, it appears that customer is participating in strategies that in its sole discretion deems to be abusive, reserves the right to revoke the entitlement of such a customer to the promotion. "

Furthermore, if upon such review, the customers' practices have been deemed to be "Promotion Abuse", has the right to take the following actions, at its sole discretion, against such abusers:
•All winnings on any account/s opened will be null and void and all cash-ins will be cancelled where play has been deemed abusive.
•Abusing customer accounts may be terminated immediately.
•Customers found to be abusing promotions may be barred from receiving further promotional offers at the Casino.
In addition to this, and in line with our terms and conditions, we also reserve the right to cancel any balance (including deposits) which you have been able to accrue from such activity and as such these have been removed from the account and are forfeit. This action is taken pursuant to section 12.6 of our terms and conditions which state:

"12.6 Where we close Your Account and terminate the Terms of Use pursuant paragraphs 11 (Collusion, Cheating, Fraud and Criminal Activity) or paragraph 20 (Breach of the Terms of Use) of these General Terms and Conditions, the balance of Your Account will be non-refundable and deemed to be forfeited by You. Closure of Your Account and Termination of the Terms of Use, other than pursuant to paragraphs 11 or 20 of these General Terms and Conditions, will not affect any outstanding bets, provided that such outstanding bets are valid and You not in breach of the Terms of Use in any way."

Should you need any help, don't hesitate to contact us via chat, email or ring.

Kind regards,

If you look at the 2 sections of the above email in bold text you will see the term stipulating that the operation of multiple accounts is prohibited (collusion, cheating or fraud) and the statement by the operator that this is what William Hill casino believe you've been involved in.

At this stage there's very little I can do to help you. The William Hill group will not share evidence in these types of cases so further discussion of the issue would be fruitless. All I can suggest you do is approach their regulator in Gibraltar. While we would sometimes offer to help with submission of a complaint to a regulator due to a pre-existing negative relationship with the GGC our involvement would likely do your case more harm than good.

You can find contact details for the GGC at hxxps://www.gibraltar.gov.gi/new/gambling-commissioners-advice-complainants (replace the 'xx' with 'tt').

ThePOGG