The fallout from the mid-March William Hill Jackpot Drop glitch continues, this time as one player claims the resulting confusion put him in the hospital. 76-year-old John Riding told the BBC that after having £285,000 ($377,264) in winnings deposited in his account and then quickly taken back, he suffered a heart attack and spent a week in Royal Blackburn Hospital.
As was the case with many people, including a mailman who thought he won £330,906 ($436,444), Riding was riding high when he saw that he had won six figures on Jackpot Drop. Confirming the £285,000 with a local William Hill betting shop, Riding decided to withdraw some of it, but the system not only blocked him from doing so, but also locked him out of his account completely.
The next day, William Hill e-mailed John, saying it put £15.40 ($20.39) into the account “like some kind of refund,” according to his son, Adam. John tried to talk to people at William Hill, but either the line kept going dead or he was told to go online, which he couldn’t, since his account was locked.
I came up to bed and felt really unwell”
“After several days of not being able to talk to anybody – not being able to get anything resolved whatsoever – I came up to bed and felt really unwell, which resulted in an admission to hospital via ambulance with a heart attack,” John told the BBC.
Adam credited the hospital staff for saving his father’s life, as his family “genuinely thought he wasn’t going to pull through.”
William Hill, which previously explained that a glitch “temporarily resulted in incorrect sums being credited to players’ balances,” said that it was “very sorry to hear about Mr. Riding’s condition and wish him a very speedy recovery.”
Adam Riding didn’t care, saying: “Surely it should have been tested and gone through checks of having these apparent glitches before it’s put out into the public domain for people to play.”
John added that the company “should have some sort of moral compass and sort this thing out amicably and honor the win.”
