A woman ordered to return £33,000 she won through an online casino game in UK has said she was left “absolutely gutted” after being told the payout was due to a glitch.
Gemma Bradley, 47, from Wakefield, said she had been “crying with happiness” after believing she had won £47,182 on the Jackpot Drop game operated by William Hill. “I’m absolutely gutted. I haven’t been sleeping properly. It’s all I’ve been thinking about since Monday,” she said.
Bradley, a care assistant, withdrew £33,000, the maximum allowed via debit card, and had planned to use the money to pay off her mortgage and support her mother. “We were crying with happiness,” she said. “I was under the impression that my mortgage was going to be paid off and my mum could enjoy her retirement a lot more.”
However, her celebration was short-lived after the betting company contacted her the following day, saying the winnings were the result of a technical error and must be returned. “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,” she explained.
According to an internal incident report, there were 35,072 jackpot “hits” recorded during a 40-minute period affected by the glitch, compared to just 518 during the same timeframe a week earlier.
The company is now reportedly in discussions with tens of thousands of affected users, with some being offered settlement agreements of around 11% of their winnings if they return the money within a set timeframe.
Bradley questioned the fairness of the situation, noting the emotional and financial impact on players. “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? It did get my hopes up,” she said.
Another affected player, who chose to remain anonymous, said the incident had deeply affected his household. “My wife… has been unable to get out of bed since she woke me in the middle of the night to announce ‘the money’s gone’,” he said.
Despite insisting the situation was “not my fault,” Bradley said she may still return the money if required. A spokesperson for William Hill 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.”