Gambling of tens of thousands can I sue?

DillyDee
DillyDee Posts: 6 Forumite
edited 12 May 2018 at 9:10AM in Consumer rights
Hi there, sorry if this is the wrong section, but I just wanted some advice on best way to proceed and how to format an email to send to the gambling company in question on the losses I've racked up gambling on their site. As I've emailed a number of firms that specialize in gambling disputes around 10 in total and none other that one, who stated to send the emails correspondence across over to them between me and this company, they'll review the communication and send them a letter across, would be a number of hours and overall cost would be about 1k, there's no guarantee this may work to be recompensated though they may sit up and take note from a legal firm..

Anyway.. this isn't your average gambling website, like a bookies, sadly as no action has been taken against them yet I need to limit exactly what I say to limit my identity being exposed and the website in question..

Anyway early 2015, I played on this website with real money and won, a lot of money, just under £50,000 worth. Shortly after winning, I placed a few small bets, nothing major.. shortly after that (a few weeks) their account manager phoned me up stating if I wanted to play through him, he can get me better discounts through him then if I played through the website.. I said thank you very much but no, I'm trying to be sensible with my winnings and that I did not want to spent a certain amount, which was quite a lot in order to qualify for his discounts.

However he kept phoning and phoning me stating he's helped a number of people to win and I just fell for his words and said ok go on then..

This accounts manager who works/worked for the website in question that I won this amount from claimed that players who have played through him, a number of them have won, and these amounts in question is a minimum of tens of thousands of pounds EACH.

Me being young, naive and seen the appeal for another win, taken in by someone who claimed has helped a number of players who played on the site in question and won. (I mean this is a major plus as you would think this guy gave of the impression he had insider knowledge and another win would be on the cards if I just kept sticking to him by the reasons explained below) kept playing through him, racking up around £10,000 worth of transactions playing through him and about £4/5000 extra playing on my own..

From the time I won in 2015, I spend that £15000 amount back on the website in the space of about a year and a half. Shortly before the end of that time period word got from a few small number of other players on social media who had never been in contact by this account manager were made aware that he had this thing going on with a number of players with the website in question whereby he was providing discounts on the competition costs overall AND (THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT) giving his insights on what the result would turn out to be to do with this competition and if it happened you'd win thosuands. The results of the daily competitions are determined by third parties, not software, HUMANS...

The majority of the time I played through this accounts manager he provided his thoughts/insights on the outcome of the competition, I then went away, did what I had to do on the website and wait for the results to come in. Throughout the emails he mentioned a number of times that he's had a number of winners and I think the one week very early on playing through him, a week I didn't play or did play, he helped someone won, which made me extremely depressed as I was spunking thousands back on the site through him where he was obviously getting commission through each time I played through him and he wasn't delivering he's diagram insights were way off. Shortly afterwards of word getting back to themselves, that other playing members were made aware of this arrangement of their account manager helping others to win by providing insights on the outcome of the results, the emails between me and account manager stopped.

This left me feeling cheated and felt that they, the company/the account manager targeted me shortly after my win so they could essentially get their winnings back. Now because the arrangement stopped with the accounts manager and having lost hope of winning again. I turned to other forms of gambling to try recover my losses, football betting, horse races, these wins never happened so I ended up spending more and more money placing these football/horse racing bets in the hope of reclaiming my losses and be done once and for all.

As a result, from when I won the tens of thousands of pounds through this website, come the end of late 2017, I practically gambled it all away. (the original winnings from the company in question)

I'm just wondering on what's the best course of action should I take by what I've stated and if anyone could help in the approach on what I should state when emailing the company, as whilst spent around £14000 on the website over the space of the year and a half, I felt like if that person who works/worked for the company should never contacted me and gave of the impression that he's helped others win, when he knew A, this was wrong, B, I believe is against company policy. (Well It must of been if they stopped this arrangement to continue with a number of players) I just feel I would of been more sensible and not frittled it all away. My spend before contact from the account manager was very small after the win before he contacted me and when it did, that's when the spend got bigger and bigger. I am wanting to recoup all of the winnings approx £50,000 back them as I feel they played a major role in me losing a lot of money.

Some key points:

- I win approx £50,000 in 2015

-Accounts manager of website called me a number of weeks after winning this amount asking if I wanted to play through him. I said no, trying to be sensible with my winnings. Kept phoning telling me he's helped a number of other players to win. I fall for his words and kept on playing to win again. He provided his thoughts (diagrams) each time when playing through him on the results of the daily competitions, results are determined by third parties, humans not software.

- He constantly through email mentioned how many players he's helped win.

- I rack up over £10,000 worth of losses playing through the accounts manager, over the space of a year to 1 and half.. this shortly ended after other playing members on found out of the arrangement between him and other players and went ballistic.

- Me desperate to win again after spending so much on the website continued to play, as a result racked up further losses around £5000. Stopped playing but continued to play very small amounts in the hope of sealing another win.

- Tried to make the £15,000 worth of losses back through other gambling channels, football, horsebetting, continued to rack up losses which meant I have practically lost it all.

A few months after I won, they introduced a rule where the winner could no longer play for 2 years. There has NEVER been any self exclusion steps one can take through there website to this day.

I aim to seek full losses of approx £50,000 even though I spent around £15,000 of my winnings through them. My argument is that they took advantage of me, their accounts manager gave the impression that he would make me win again if I stood by his advice on playing strategy even though the winner is not determined by him, this spiralled out of control, I mentioned through email and phone conversations through him a number of times a few months after playing through him that, I needed to watch my money but he continued to call and email me asking if I wanted to play.

The company in question is constantly fighting on social media to prove the legitimacy of the competition and I believe this emails would be damaging to their brand if they got out, especially if a person who works/worked from them directly and is high up has stated a number of times through email that he has personally helped a number of players win by them following his strategy on how to win by the form of digraphs.

Thanks for reading this long winded post, please don't judge me, I just want some sound advice on how to proceed,

(Text removed by MSE Forum Team)

Thank you
«1345

Comments

  • photome
    photome Posts: 16,361 Forumite
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    Sorry, not read it all as it is rather long

    Is the jist of it , you have lost money gambling but its not your fault?
  • pinkshoes
    pinkshoes Posts: 20,075 Forumite
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    edited 12 May 2018 at 9:11AM
    You agreed, you gambled, you lost.

    The only winners are the company owners.

    Learn your lesson and move on.

    You have no case.
    Should've = Should HAVE (not 'of')
    Would've = Would HAVE (not 'of')

    No, I am not perfect, but yes I do judge people on their use of basic English language. If you didn't know the above, then learn it! (If English is your second language, then you are forgiven!)
  • Aylesbury_Duck
    Aylesbury_Duck Posts: 13,967 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post Name Dropper
    edited 11 May 2018 at 9:26AM
    You didn't lose anything though. You simply gambled money you had already won, so you're no worse off than when you started. Presumably you were entirely happy with the way their website operated and the way they looked after you when you won £50,000? I can't see how you can sue a firm that hasn't caused you a loss. Surely every gambling firm would go out of business pretty quickly if punters were able to sue to recover their peak position?

    I hope you are seeking professional help for your addiction? Perhaps part of coming to terms with the situation will be to sit back and view the story as a whole. You talk about your "losses" but there's only the initial mention of your "winnings". Had you not been involved with this firm at all, you would be financially in the same position you are in now - i.e. a net zero.

    Get help, and not the legal kind.
  • dacouch
    dacouch Posts: 21,637 Forumite
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    This guy will help you for free if you have a genuine case and you are UK based

    https://justiceforpunters.org/
  • AndyPix
    AndyPix Posts: 4,847 Forumite
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    Intrigued - What kind of competitions were you gambling on ?


    It all sounds very shady
  • soolin
    soolin Posts: 72,186 Ambassador
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    Another preposterous dilemma post.

    OK, assuming this is genuine (and frankly I gave up after the first chunk) I echo the advice above- you lost money gambling, that is your fault and no one else's unless you have any proof that the website does not comply at all with UK regulations. However, I think the main point here is to get help, try gambling anonymous as a starter:

    https://www.gamblersanonymous.org.uk/

    stop this habit before it gets any further out of hand.

    Also, you appear to mention getting third party assistance to sue someone (not entirely clear about that?) if you are paying someone to help - STOP, that in itself could be a scam. There are a lot of unscrupulous sites out there conning addicts or persons who may be vulnerable, into parting with more money with no ultimate benefit.
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  • wesleyad
    wesleyad Posts: 754 Forumite
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    If you hadn't won in the first place I'd say the company would have been on shaky ground. You can't encourage someone to lose this amount, if anything they are meant to be actively helping stop large losses nowadays.

    The ABB publish this and if this bookie is a member you can complain to them directly

    http://abb.uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Responsible-Gambling-Code-2015.pdf

    However as they have a record of your win, they are just trying to get their money back, this probably won't apply.

    As others have said you may need to think about help, it's not a weakness to do so.
  • DillyDee wrote: »
    This accounts manager who works/worked for the website in question that I won this amount from claimed that players who have played through him, a number of them have won, and these amounts in question is a minimum of tens of thousands of pounds EACH.

    If I ever set up a gambling website I will definitely ensure I hire a whole team of account managers to help all my customers win large amounts of my money and ensure I am left out of pocket, sounds like a foolproof business model to me,
  • steampowered
    steampowered Posts: 6,176 Forumite
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    It sounds like you are trying to shift responsibility for your actions onto somebody else.

    Sorry, but you decided to gamble that money. Not the account manager.

    It sounds like you have a gambling problem. You should not gamble in future. If you do gamble, restrict it to the odd tenner for fun. Not large sums of money. And never try to win back your losses, that won't happen.
  • newatc
    newatc Posts: 845 Forumite
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    I'm not sure you have a case sadly unless you can prove that because of the account manager's knowledge, you had no chance of winning.
    I'm not sure from what you have written that you need gamblers anonymous but you have found that chasing losses is what moves bettors to reckless gamblers. If you still think that you can get your money back by gambling then certainly contact GA.

    Good luck.
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