British man ends up in intensive care over a voided casino jackpot — BBC
In the UK, a 76-year-old pensioner suffered a heart attack after an online casino refused to pay him his winnings of 285,000 pounds.
The BBC reported this.
William Hill attributed the disappearance of the large sum from the gaming account to a technical glitch in the system.
The incident involved John Riding, a resident of Lancashire, who was playing on a mobile app on March 16.
Upon seeing the notification that he had hit the jackpot, the man attempted to withdraw part of the funds to his bank card, but the system was immediately blocked.
“I pressed the button, and they blocked me. They didn’t even let me re-enter my password or anything else. They just blocked access to my account. It hasn’t been restored since,” the affected Englishman said in a comment to the BBC.
The next day, the bookmaker sent an email announcing a “correction” to the balance.
Instead of the thousands he had won, John was left with only £15.40, which outraged the pensioner’s family due to the illogicality of such compensation.
The victim’s son, Adam, tried to find out the reasons behind the incident, but the support line kept disconnecting.
Company representatives claimed that the issue could be resolved through the personal account, access to which had been unavailable to the client for an extended period.
The stress of losing his hard-earned money and being ignored by the company led to the elderly man’s hospitalization.
“After several days of being unable to speak with anyone and resolve the issue, I went to bed and felt very unwell. This led to my hospitalization by ambulance due to a heart attack,” John Riding admitted.
The pensioner spent 18 hours in intensive care, and his hospital treatment lasted nearly a week in total.
William Hill expressed regret over the client’s health condition but insists that the win was the result of a software glitch discovered during a routine check.
As a reminder, a refugee from Ukraine won €500,000 in a lottery in Belgium.
Also, the UK recorded one of the largest jackpots in the country’s history.
