Case 1 uses an account timeline. J4P has found this to be extremely useful when assessing any subject access request data. A timeline provides a framework for matching financial and gambling data with customer interaction data. This often provides a logical in-depth look at what actually happened, what was done by a gambling company and just as importantly what wasn’t.
Account Timeline
22nd March (year 1) opened ******* Account:
20th January following year (year 2): Made a ******* VIP customer. Losses at this point were over 50K. No income checks had or were made before the account upgrade.
March: 20 card reverse withdrawals for a total of 32K. No interactions by *******.
December: Personal data notes: Customer appeared on deposits over 300% report (17 Dec pm) but has since withdrawn funds so haven’t called. Xxxx Losses between March-December were £92,762. ******* social responsibility trigger not acted on despite these huge losses. No contact, interactions or questions asked. No proof of income requested.
22nd January (year 3), one of many periods asking for free bet tokens and rebate of losses. Notes made by ******* on personal data files. No questions, proof of income or interactions made. ***** asked for free bet tokens as hasn’t had any in a while and wanted a decent bet on football and horseracing tomorrow so I gave him two. Further asking for free bets to try to win money back. No questions or interactions concerning well being asked. Tokens given.
15th February, ******* request bank statement by phone call and email in order to withdraw funds. No request for proof of income. Pay out 15.5K on same day. ***** re-deposited the whole amount within 7 days and lost it all showing gambling disorder traits. No interactions, concerns or questions asked if ***** was ok with levels of spend.
22nd February, further complaints by ***** seeking lost funds due to no cash out available. Complaints on transcripts related to this showing signs of gambling disorder needing further money. ******* give free bets as a one off again to keep me placing rather than look into my financials and check my well being.
14th March, ***** is asking where he is on rebate. Account checked and no concerns raised after winning 15.5K and losing it all in a week.
May 1st, ***** attended VIP event Premier League game on expressed gambling activity concerns to VIP relations manager, no action taken. Notes on VIP interactions data state “***** and his brother came to PL game. They didn’t spend too long in the box as ***** didn’t want his brother to be aware of how much he gambled. We spoke about cars. He’d welcome ** box any time as it’s a short distance from him and he loves to attend it.” ***** spoke to *** on the phone prior to coming to the event asking for her to please not let my brother know my levels of gambling. ***** was clearly showing signs he had a secret problem and not to let anyone know. No interactions or further questions asked.
20th May, ***** complaining over rebate amount. Shows conversation on data of 13K loss in 4 weeks and that rebate amount wasn’t paid correctly when I questioned over it. No concerns or interactions made. ***** texting asking where he is on rebate. “Customer seems to think he’s lost a hell of a lot recently” and asking for rebates. No interactions or questions asked if comfortable with level of gambling.
23rd August, ***** asked for the second credit card within a week to be removed from account after losses (first credit card removed on 17th August). I was trying to prevent myself from spending on them and getting in more debt but I just added credit cards back on at a later date chasing losses and lost more. No interactions or questions asked.
13th September, ******* rang ***** to tell him he was getting a £7k rebate payment after excessive losses. No interactions or questions asked, just a phone call, like it was good news I had £7000 in free bets. Minimum lost in this period £46,000 based on 15% rebate with 30 bets on 30 events.
22nd September, email sent by ******* about larger than usual deposit of £6000. ***** said if my account had been further looked into it would have shown bigger gambling problems from 5 days before were I had deposited £21,000 in one day and lost it all. If I had been contacted just once asking for income proof it would have shown I was gambling way past my means and it was a problem taking over my day to day life.
Fourteen months later on 20th November (year 4): Email received in order to add charges on to my account. Concern of costs to ******* and not about my gambling problem. Showing ******* monitored my deposit and withdrawal activity but rather than raising concerns over a gambling disorder and asking for proof of income or asking if I was comfortable with my level of gambling, they emailed me to try to make more money out of me by adding a charge on the way I deposited and withdrew, e.g. through Paypal.
20th February ((year 5) withdrew 30K on 20th. Lost 29.7K of winnings by 24th February.
22nd May won and withdrew a total of 22K. Re deposited and lost it all. No interactions made. Continued to take debt out chasing losses and totalled a loss of 85K between May 22nd and 19th June. Showed signs of stress in this period via whatsapp (I still have the conversations from 21st May to 21st June.) No concerns shown at all or interactions. Still no proof of income requested.
Wednesday 20th, self-excluded.
This is an example of what ******* regards as an intervention for this type of betting activity
Hi *****
I am contacting you as I noticed a larger than usual deposit on your account yesterday.
From time to time we may get in touch to discuss your account activity and make you aware of ways in which you can manage your betting, such as deposit limits, loss limits and time outs.
No need to e-mail back unless you’d like to have a chat about our player protection tools.
You can also get all of the relevant information on the dedicated site: –
********************************
Alternatively, you can get in touch with a member of our customer service team on ************** or by using Live Chat .
Thanks
**************
******* Customer Service
Outcome
Following long negotiations and the involvement of media a refund of over 50% of the losses was secured.
It is probably fair to say that no refund would have been secured without the involvement of major media.