Credit: Pexels/ITV
Mom Who ‘Won $1.6 Million Jackpot’ Devastated After Being Told She Can’t Collect Money
Imagine the sheer joy and jubilation of being told you had won an eye-watering $1.6 million jackpot on a bet, only to have your dream shattered and told you can’t have it.
That’s exactly what has happened to one mom, who has been left absolutely devastated after being told she won’t get her hands on the seven-figure sum after all.
Claire Ainsley was just going about her day when she decided to check the William Hill betting app, only to be left absolutely stunned with what she found.
A life changing amount of money in her account
Upon checking her account, the UK-based mom-of-two discovered she had more than $1 million in credit in her account.
Unsurprisingly, she did what every single one of us would do, and started mentally spending her riches, imagining buying a big new house for her kids and taking them away on fancy holidays.
Claire then did the sensible thing and decided to contact William Hill via email to see what she needed to do to claim her prize. After sending screenshots to the betting company, they got back to her, confirming the winnings.
Appearing on UK breakfast show Good Morning Britain on April 21, she recalled: “They messaged back saying they’re going to send it over to my bank in 72 hours. They just wanted me to send my ID over, so I did. I sent that all over, and they said, ‘Yes, it will be in your bank’.”
With her cash ‘confirmed,’ Claire set about telling her family and friends about her win, and started making grand plans on how to spend it.
She told the ITV show: “I was so excited. I had planned out for my kids to go on holiday, to get a house for them.
“I couldn’t believe it. I got so emotional. I rang my family, I told everyone. I was over the moon.”
Claire’s dream came crashing down
The mom’s excitement turned to frustration when she attempted to withdraw the eye-watering sum of money from her William Hill account, only for it to get ‘declined at the last minute.’
“I got an email two days afterwards saying, ‘It was a glitch’,” Claire explained. “Me and my children aren’t going to get anything. I was gutted, really gutted.”
In just two days, she went from believing her and her kids had a bright new future, only to have her hopes and dreams ripped away from her over an ‘issue’ with the game.
What makes the situation even worse is the fact that Claire isn’t the only William Hill customer who has been left completely devastated by the alleged glitch on the app, as she’s part of a whole Facebook group filled with dozens of other people who have suffered the same fate.
One other member is Yorkshire-based resident Gemma Bradle, who was also playing the Jackpot Drop game, and was told she had won a pretty impressive $35,000 jackpot.
However, unlike Claire, Gemma was actually able to withdraw the cash, only to be told she then had to pay it all back.
Claire explained: “A lot of people have won, and some people have taken the money out, some people haven’t.
“So I’m quite lucky it didn’t go into my account, because I don’t have the money to pay it back.”
William Hill issues statement over ‘glitch’
Evoke, the parent company that owns William Hill, has issued a statement over the alleged glitch, stating that a number of accounts were ‘erroneously credited’ due to an error.
“During a routine review of platform activity, we identified an issue affecting the Jackpot Drop game which temporarily resulted in incorrect sums being credited to players’ balances and withdrawals being processed incorrectly,” they said, as per LADbible.
“Whilst we quickly identified and resolved this issue, for a short period of time funds were erroneously credited to some customer accounts that were not correctly generated through valid or properly functioning gameplay.
“We have contacted relevant customers to clarify the issue, and are in the process of retrieving the funds in line with our standard terms and conditions.
“We have been grateful for our customers’ understanding on this matter and apologise for the inconvenience caused.”
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