My Experience with Paddy Power

I want to share an experience I’ve recently had with a bookmaker to highlight the dangers of the gambling industry. A lot of effort is put into responsible gambling controls and knowing when to stop etc. and that’s brilliant because they’re important areas to address for obvious reasons. However, one aspect the bookies aren’t so big on making punters aware of is the grey area that is the betting industry. Essentially, the bookies are a law unto themselves as a lot of legal rules simply don’t apply, and the below experience is an example of such.

I appreciate my job is a tipster (although I really, really hate that word for no real reason) but as far as I am concerned, my role is to help bettors in whatever way I can. In this instance, I wanted to try out one of Bet365’s competitors to see whether my initial opinion regarding which bookmaker should be on the site as a recommendation for you all to use. So, I tried out Paddy Power!

Firstly, I thought that their markets were a little less appealing than those at Bet365 but it wasn’t big enough for me to lose sleep over. I had a free bet to utilise, which I did. Now, as you all know, betting has its ups and downs. At this particular time, however, it was a massive ‘up’ for me via in-play betting. It was a good time of the season to take such on because so many teams had to win games for relegation/promotion battles. For the briefest of times, I was King Midas! We’ve all been there, huh? I wish it lasted!

Anyway, I made what I class as a lot of money from Paddy Power. I hit the withdraw button and felt good about it all. There wasn’t any trouble with the withdrawals, to be fair to Paddy Power. However, the sulky attitude and actions of this company following my win was embarrassing. Firstly, I got an email the very next day, stating that I was no longer eligible for any promotions whatsoever. Secondly, I noticed that whenever I tried to place a new bet, my stakes were capped. One of them was capped at £0.12! I asked why it was on LiveChat and they said they couldn’t help me, that I would have to go through their traders, and even then they weren’t ‘obliged to tell’ me why. Nobody would tell me when it would be lifted, and that was despite me conversing with a manager. Below is the exact message I received;

Response By Email (******) (14/05/2019 03.01 PM)

Hi Ian,

Thank you for contacting Paddy Power Customer Support.

Due to ordinary business practice, your account has been limited for our Sportsbook product. I would like to reinforce that restricting fixed odds betting accounts is ‘industry standard’, and you may come across this practice with other bookmakers. These decisions are largely taken due to internal cost control on what is effectively a risk based product and any bookmaker will naturally be cautious about this.

I empathise with your frustration and assure you that as a valued client, we hope you can understand this decision.

If you have any further queries please visit our Help Centre

That’s right, everybody – for a weekend’s worth of unusually high winning percentiles, I was classified as a ‘risk’, a tag which seemingly would never be removed. I was left with no choice but to close the account. Paddy Power assured me that other bookies would adopt a similar approach but honestly, I’ve never encountered it first-hand. I thought their actions were utterly embarrassing, considering the magnitude of their response to a frankly brief period of success. This just goes to show the levels of petulance and paranoia that exist within the betting industry, which is why I am always skeptical when people try to say that they ‘make a living from betting’. I’m sure there are some backdoor routes out there but as soon as the bookies don’t get their own way, they sulk and effectively ban you.

Now, I’m not saying to not gamble. I’m also not saying that Paddy Power are the devils of the gambling industry; I’m sure they all have their faults/flaws but this experience was a handy example of something I’ve wanted to say to you all for a while, which is to be careful. Not just from yourself, but also from an industry that is barely monitored or restricted or held accountable in any capacity. Always try to have a backup option because if you’re doing something the bookies don’t like, they won’t hesitate in nailing you to the cross whereas if you breach their rules, they’re all over you like a rash. I appreciate it may be boring but always try to read the terms and conditions to know precisely what you’re letting yourself in for with a bookmaker.

My Experience with Paddy Power

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