William Hill won't allow me to withdraw winnings

espritlibre87

Hi all

I opened an account with William Hill this week having seen an advert for a sign-up offer (deposit and bet £10, receive £30 in free bets). When registering I was asked to send a number of forms of ID to them to verify my account, which I did, and received an e-mail on Monday confirming these had been accepted, my account verified and that "we don't require any more verification documents from you." On Wednesday I proceeded to deposit £10 in my account using my debit card, placed a bet on the football and placed my two free bets.

Immediately after the bets had settled (one of which I had won) I was locked out of my account. When I tried to log in I received the simple message "there is a problem with your account, please contact us". A couple of hours later I received an e-mail stating that "after a recent trading review, we wish to advise you that your account has had all sports and gaming concessions removed and stake restrictions may apply moving forward... This decision does not affect any qualifying bets you have already made... and will not prevent you from receiving any free bets or the full expected value of any free bets from those qualifying bets."

Fine, I thought - I've heard that bookmakers can restrict customers' access to offers etc, never happened to me before but that's their prerogative. However I can't even access my account to withdraw my winnings!

I e-mailed William Hill asking why my entire account had been frozen. I received a response confirming the outcome of my bets and that I had a balance of £23.75. "Upon checking I can see that following a review of the recent activity our Trading department have taken the decision to close your account from a sports betting perspective." This baffled me as the only 'recent activity' so far was me signing up using an offer they had advertised to me! I was then asked to provide verification documents, including the documents I had previously sent, and photos of myself holding further documents.

I responded explaining that I have already previously provided these documents and received an e-mail confirming these were sufficient to verify my account. I questioned why William Hill had felt these were sufficient to take money from my card, but not to return the money to me on the same card. I also requested an explanation as to why my account had actually been closed when all I had done was use the sign-up offer that they themselves advertised to me. I reiterated that I would like an immediate refund to my debit card of the money I was owed.

The next response said "I've checked your account and I can see here that there's an ongoing security check on it" and again requested a whole host of documents. I again highlighted that my documents had previously already been verified and said that at this point I simply wish to close the account and receive the money I am owed. (Is a security check the same as or different from a 'trading review'? I seem to be getting different answers every time!!)

The latest response again says that the security team "is in need" of these documents to further investigate your account".

To date I have received no actual explanation as to why my account is under investigation or why MY money cannot be returned to the same debit card I used to make a deposit in the first place. I do not understand how it can be lawful to take money from my bank account but then claim to need further information in order to give the money back. Furthermore, having looked on Trustpilot countless other users have had exactly the same experience - signed up using the offer, won a bet and then had their account frozen. Asked for increasing numbers of documents and sensitive information, none of which proved successful as William Hill kept continuing to say they needed more documents and photos. (One of the reasons I'm not happy to provide them with further private data)

I have never found myself in this situation before and feel slightly naive. I did not think a company could legally verify my account, take my money and then claim the account needs further verification before refunding the money! I cannot think of what I could have done to cause the company to investigate me, I am not a 'professional gambler' and my winnings are hardly in the hundreds or thousands. I realise it must seem a small amount to argue over but it is my money and to be honest I feel scammed, especially after reading how many other people this has happened to.

My question is, what are my rights here and is it worth pursuing a court claim?

bradders1983

Just out of interest - what was the £10 cash bet you placed at  (I presume) 11/8?
You could try and lose the money to yourself on a shared roulette table they share with another bookmaking site, tbh its hardly worth going to court over such a small sum of money, personally I would just jump through every hoop they provide, in the end they get bored. If not, you can speak to the Gambling Commission.

Has someone else in your household had a Hills account in the past? Do they think its a duplicate account?

What are they actually asking for in their latest email?

espritlibre87

Hi Bradders

The hoops they are providing are asking for increasingly sensitive information. From reading the stories of others online, this does not result in the money being refunded but rather the company gaining increasing amounts of private data whilst still holding onto the money.

I would like to know if it is legal for William Hill to claim my account is verified, take money from me and then tell me it needs further verification before giving the money back?

bradders1983

I added a bit to my opening post there, what are they asking for now?

They do have a duty to verify customers, this is the Gambling Commission take on it:

http://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news-action-and-statistics/News/reminder-to-operators-new-licence-condition-on-customer-identity-verification

Also what was the cash bet on? They sometimes get the hump if it is on an arb.

espritlibre87

Thank you so much, that link is really helpful.

I provided verification documents before depositing any funds into the account. They now want photographs of me holding the same documents, copies of my bank statements and more. Nobody else in the household has a William Hill account.

The bet was on the match result of a Japan J-league football game - I figured I'd make a bet in the morning before work and then check it at lunchtime. What's an arb? Sorry I'm a very infrequent gambler and not familiar with the lingo...

bradders1983

An arb is something where you can bet on both (or all) outcomes across different bookies and make a profit....for example if over 2.5 goals was evens on William Hill and the under was 11/10 on Paddypower, in theory you could stake it in a way to make a profit either way. It usually arises from one of the bookmakers pricing something up a bit wrong or not reacting quickly enough to market moves.

I suspect they found your first bet a bit odd there then (or indeed it was an arb, but for the sake of a tenner they usually arent going to care) and are making you jump through as many hoops as possible as a result.  I must say I have never had to send in a photograph of myself for any of my accounts, and believe me I have a few. I would be speaking to the Gambling Commission now, or at least threaten that in your next reply and see if they back down.

espritlibre87

Thank you for your help. I have sent them a further e-mail quoting the licence conditions you provided and threatening further action if I do not receive a satisfactory response within one week. Fingers crossed.

Potbellypig

They might be investigating the match you bet on, and whilst working on that they've frozen the accounts of the people that had a bet on it. Was there a reason you signed up to William Hill to bet a tenner on a Japanese football game? 

Yahoo_Mail

Potbellypig said:

Was there a reason you signed up to William Hill to bet a tenner on a Japanese football game? 

Matched betting and/or arbing I would guess.

espritlibre87

As discussed above, I signed up because I saw an advert for the free bets and thought it seemed like a good offer. Is the problem that I didn't bet on a European game? In the past I've also placed bets on the MFL, A-league, I had no idea this would be an issue? I didn't bet on multiple results as suggested earlier in the thread (surely that would just result in an overall loss?) I find it strange that several posters are questioning which match I bet on - maybe I'm misunderstanding but it sounds as though there is something suspicious or 'wrong' with betting on certain games? I'm not clear on what the problem is but I guess my question is, if certain matches aren't acceptable to bet on, why does the company allow customers to do so? Similarly, if there was an issue with that particular game meaning that everyone's accounts had been frozen, why would WH not just come out and say this rather than couching their responses in vague terms like "trading review" and "security investigation"? There are countless reviews on Trustpilot from users with the same issue, so presumably this isn't linked to a specific match?

I've now received an email from William Hill claiming that it is standard security procedure for them to request additional documents, and a link to a help page on their site stating reasons that they would ask for additional documents upon withdrawal. None of those reasons (withdrawing to a different card, making a large withdrawal, inactive account) apply to me. Furthermore the page they directed me to lists the forms of ID they would request in this instance - most are ID I've already provided, and the others are completely different to what's been requested in the e-mails. This also seems to be in direct contradiction to the information from the Gambling Commission (provided by bradders1983 above) which states that bookmakers cannot make additional ID checks a condition of withdrawal, nor can they withhold money on the basis of ID not being provided.

Potbellypig

From the outside looking in, it seems to me there is a part of this story that you're not telling us.