Gambing losses after brain tumour - terminally ill

[rsbmw]

This is a bit niche and I haven't been able to find anything relevant via Google.

My father has been a long time customer of Bet365, nothing major just placing small bets to make sporting events interesting. I don't think he's ever had a 'losing week'.

Following a brain tumour operation in July his capacity was severely limited, severe aphasia and coordination issues mean he was unable to send text messages email etc, and he has been in hospital most of that time. Now that he is at home, bedridden and unable to communicate - essentially living his few remaining days, we are picking up on some 'getting affairs in order' type of stuff. It has become clear that he was still using his bet365 app, but transactions are very different, repeating characters mean odd bets like £666, £999 etc. Ultimately he has lost approximately £5k which now my soon to be widowed mother will have to go without. His coordination and cognition problems mean he wouldn't have known he made these essentially typos.

My question is whether there is an avenue to get this back, other than simply the good will of the company? It can't be right that people in this position can be taken advantage of in that way?

Thanks

[Countdown]

Would Bet365 know that he was mentally impaired? Given the plethora of warnings we see on gambling websites I'm not sure how they could be held responsible tbh.

[PorkyBlinders]

Given that you have already said you knew he gambled on said betting site, maybe you/the family should have kept an eye on it? Don't mean to sound harsh, and sympathise with your situation, however, the blame game is easy to play these days.

[peterperkins]

Presumably if you tell them (BET365) they will close his account..

PR disaster for them if they allow it to continue once informed, perhaps with Doctors letter etc.

[rsbmw]

Apparently my mother did notice the transactions on the bank account and wrote to the company, but has received no reply.

No one is playing the blame game, I'm asking if there are rules/regulations around this. Thanks for the attack though, most helpful.

[okgo]

Was what he was betting on the same sort of thing as it was prior to operation? I'd say if so, you've no hope of being seen as anything other than a chancer, tbh.

You could drop Denise an email though, 5k not much to her, you never know.

[okgo]

peterperkins said:

Presumably if you tell them (BET365) they will close his account..

PR disaster for them if they allow it to continue once informed, perhaps with Doctors letter etc.

With respect, brands like that give precisely zero fks about that. She pays herself 300million a year, and it gets more press than anything else about the company ever, yet each year she still does it.

[superlightr]

what if he had won?

After the years of gambling for "fun" which was known about why did the family continue to allow him to continue if he was not capable?

Whats the total estate worth? - perhaps he did have fun and thought why not lets splash out a bit and see if my lucky numbers come big?


As others have said how is the on line company to know? when did you tell them?

[peterperkins]

okgo said:

With respect, brands like that give precisely zero fks about that. She pays herself 300million a year, and it gets more press than anything else about the company ever, yet each year she still does it.

What a crap world we live in then..

[Canon_Fodder]

superlightr said:

what if he had won?

My sympathies to you OP in this delicate matter but the above question can't be ignored...

It's possible that, knowing his own condition was terminal, he tried a few 'haymaker' bets, perhaps in a
misguided attempt to leave his wife better provided for.

That said, Bet365 should not have ignored the letter that was sent to them (contents unknown at this point)

[rsbmw]

superlightr said:

what if he had won?

After the years of gambling for "fun" which was known about why did the family continue to allow him to continue if he was not capable?

Whats the total estate worth? - perhaps he did have fun and thought why not lets splash out a bit and see if my lucky numbers come big?


As others have said how is the on line company to know? when did you tell them?

Completely irrelevant bks unrelated to the original question, however I will address it.

Given he was barely capable of using his phone at all, and in a hospital where no one could visit 'because covid', we would have no idea he was doing it until my mother noticed the transactions and wrote to the company. Besides, she clearly had other things to worry about such as her husbands brain cancer.

Given you clearly have no input on the question of avenues of recourse or rules/regulations, keep your thoughts to yourself.

[rsbmw]

Canon_Fodder said:

My sympathies to you OP in this delicate matter but the above question can't be ignored...

It's possible that, knowing his own condition was terminal, he tried a few 'haymaker' bets, perhaps in a
misguided attempt to leave his wife better provided for.

That said, Bet365 should not have ignored the letter that was sent to them (contents unknown at this point)

You're right in that I doubt my mother would be writing to them to return it, however it doesn't mean they don't have a duty of care of some description which is what I'm enquiring about.

[Countdown]

Has your mum deleted the app from his phone?

[rsbmw]

He can no longer use his phone or otherwise do anything except lie there. From the responses it seems I haven't been clear, I'm not hear to ask for hindsight on the ways in which we have failed and expert advice on how we can stop failing in future, I am simply asking what are the rules/regs around this and is there any recourse - ideally from people who actually have some knowledge about it. Opinions on whether or not we should have acted differently are irrelevant at this point.

[Canon_Fodder]

https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/contact-us

Ask these guys

[superlightr]

Canon_Fodder said:

superlightr said:

what if he had won?

My sympathies to you OP in this delicate matter but the above question can't be ignored...

It's possible that, knowing his own condition was terminal, he tried a few 'haymaker' bets, perhaps in a
misguided attempt to leave his wife better provided for.

That said, Bet365 should not have ignored the letter that was sent to them (contents unknown at this point)

I didnt see the post saying that that your Mother had written to them. Whats the time duration from writing + posting? or emailing todate? It may take a few weeks to action letters. I would hoped then they would suspend the account pending some checks but as others have said they may not.

Im sorry your Father is very ill. Apologies i that my post came over as insensitive.

Edited by superlightr on Thursday 4th November 15:33

Edited by superlightr on Thursday 4th November 15:34

[Countdown]

rsbmw said:

I am simply asking what are the rules/regs around this and is there any recourse - ideally from people who actually have some knowledge about it. .

I don't think there's any formal legal recourse (afaics no laws have been broken). Your best bet would be to try the bet365 complaints process

https://help.bet365.com/en/complaints-procedure

and if that doesnt work then try the Independent Betting Adjudication Service

https://www.ibas-uk.com/

[rsbmw]

Thanks, I'll ask the question of those formal bodies and in the mean time write to Ms Coates.

[joropug]

Changes in betting volume may trigger alerts to the user/emails etc to check that they are ok but the only person that can answer this is the user themselves.

I can't see any way that the betting company could identify activity as being consistent with illness/loss of faculties with any accuracy.

I placed a few bets on behalf of a friend, all from my account/bank account etc - I got email alerts saying they noticed I am spending more than usual (£10 --> £1000 lol) and gave me links to their policies/tools. Easy to ignore though.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

rsbmw said:

It can't be right that people in this position can be taken advantage of in that way?

I'm no fan of Bet365 but surely you must know this isn't a reasonable accusation. They had no idea.

And as someone else pointed out, what if his £699 bet had won? Would you be contacting them to hand back the winnings, because the bet was made in error?