When placing a bet, there is always an expectancy that when it settles as a win, the bookmaker will pay out. As long as players have followed the terms and conditions of a bookmaker site, that’s exactly what should happen. But it’s not something that occurs in every case, because there are circumstances when the operator may withhold funds.
This is a tricky and often complicated area, and it is all down to the transparent terms and conditions that all legal top betting sites have. These are the legitimate rules established to protect the operator and its standard practice, helping to provide safe gaming environments for customers. The T&Cs can be looked at in a positive light because they explain what players can expect from the operator. It’s when those terms are breached that challenges can arise.
What Are Site Terms and Conditions?
When registering for a betting account, the site’s terms and conditions have to be accepted, or the account won’t be created. T&Cs are long and boring and stacked with often confusing small print that very few people read.
But both the customer has to work within that specific framework set out by them, and the T&Cs can always be found on the site, usually via a link in the footer area. They are far too much to take in at once, but if queries arise, the T&Cs can be pulled up at any time and the information relevant for the situation can be looked at.
Do Betting Sites Have to Pay Out?
All online betting sites in the UK operate under the rules of the 2005 Gambling Act, where the definition of a bet is a transaction between the customer and operator that ‘relates to the outcome of a race, competition or other event or process’.
Essentially, as long as the customer has stuck to the terms and conditions, then the bookmaker legally has to pay out. But confusingly, the bookmaker can legitimately refuse to award a payout, if it believes that the contract between the customer and themselves has been breached.
The following are three such circumstances where bookmakers may refuse to pay out, based on their terms and conditions.
More Than One Account
A common and legitimate reason why a bookmaker may refuse to pay out on a winning bet is because they discover that the customer has more than one account, which is a clear violation of the terms and conditions of a betting site.
Bookmakers fear that someone with more than one account could potentially be involved in fraudulent acts of money laundering, and therefore naturally see it as a threat. It’s why online bookmakers typically only allow one account at a single address to help combat this.
So if a customer has placed a winning bet, but a second account has been revealed, the bookie can withhold the payout.
Voided Bets
Sometimes genuine mistakes crop up, and this is another legitimate area where the bookmaker may not pay out. A genuine mistake in posting odds, or where there has been a palpable error in a market being posted when it shouldn’t have been available, are examples.
This has to be a clear error, maybe something like posting 18.0 odds instead of 1.80 on a match favourite. Under these situations, bets may be voided and obviously not paid out even if the particular outcome won. Things like this can happen with software glitches, an unexpected delay in the odds being updated and even manual entry error.
Suspicious Betting Patterns
This is a big one for bookmakers who have to constantly monitor their systems and account activity. If they have the slightest suspicion over something like match-fixing or just suspicious betting patterns, then they will raise the red flag.
Sudden large bets on a specific outcome can put the bookmaker on alert, for example. There will be even greater suspicion if that’s happened on a relatively obscure market, as opposed to something like a top soccer or tennis match. Other suspicious patterns can be big late bets placed on an outcome and unusual betting volume.
Different Rules
Online bookmakers have differences in their terms and conditions, but they are part and parcel of the online gambling scene. Bookmakers provide a service to customers, so there is a legal contract between the two parties that has to be met.
If a customer believes that their winnings have been unfairly withheld, then approaching the regulatory body (the Gambling Commission), an independent adjudicator like IBAS or contacting a lawyer are avenues that can be explored.