A gardener, who was told she had scooped more than £1m on a Paddy Power game but was only paid £20,000, has won a High Court case against the betting company.
Corrine Durber, from Gloucestershire, was playing one of the firm’s online games in October 2020.
It was described as a combination of a fruit machine and a wheel of fortune-style game with two different parts.
During the second section, spinning the jackpot wheel, Mrs Durber received a message saying she had won the “Monster Jackpot” – which was said to be £1,097,132.71.
However, she was only paid £20,265.14 and instead told she had actually won the much smaller “Daily Jackpot”.
The company said there had been an error with the game’s display as it had been mal-programmed and directed her to the wrong prize.
However, Mrs Durber sued PPB Entertainment Limited, which trades as Paddy Power and Betfair, for breach of contract and for the rest of her winnings.
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Judge’s remarks
In a judgment on Wednesday, Mr Justice Ritchie granted summary judgment in her favour – meaning she won without a trial.
In a 62-page ruling, the judge said the idea of “what you see is what you get” was “central” to the online game.
He went on: “Objectively, customers would want and expect that what was to be shown to them on screen to be accurate and correct.
“The same expectation probably applies when customers go into a physical casino and play roulette.
“They expect the house to pay out on the roulette wheel if they bet on number 13 and the ball lands on number 13.”
PPB said the outcome was determined by a random number generator, which said she won the daily jackpot, but an error affected the animations, showing the wrong result.
‘Legal torment’
Speaking after the decision, Mrs Durber said: “As you can imagine, I’m so relieved and happy that the judge has confirmed I fairly and squarely won £1m from Paddy Power.
“But why couldn’t Paddy Power pay up straight away instead of putting me through this legal torment?
“I will never bet with them ever again.”
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She added that Paddy Power had “tried their very best to deny me my rightful winnings”.
“What’s the point in betting if betting companies like Paddy Power won’t pay-up when someone wins a big jackpot?”
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Following the ruling, a spokesperson for Flutter UKI, which owns Paddy Power, told Sky News: “Every week, tens of thousands of customers win with Paddy Power, including an individual who received a £5.7m jackpot just one year ago.
“We always strive to provide the best customer experience possible and pride ourselves on fairness.
“We deeply regret this unfortunate case and are reviewing the judgment.”
