Court Orders Repayment of $750,000 by Gamblers After Online Lottery Glitch

Background of the Case

In the Pietermaritzburg High Court of South Africa, Judge Robin George Mossop has ruled that over 100 players must return close to $750,000 they won through the “Instant Lucky 7” online lottery game. This game, developed by Betgames and hosted on Hollywood Sportsbook KwaZulu-Natal, was operational for only one week during the 2023 Christmas period before being halted due to irregularly large payouts traced to a system malfunction.

Judge’s Rationale for Requiring Repayment

Judge Mossop determined that the bets placed via the faulty game system were invalid since participants did not properly pay for their wagers. He explained that for a bet to be legally valid, it must involve both payment and risk — criteria unmet because the game’s error allowed gambling without actual payment. Consequently, winnings earned under these conditions were not rightfully theirs.

The court further upheld a prior directive from January 2024 that compelled the winners to return their earnings to the gambling operator. To secure these funds, the court also froze bank accounts associated with the respondents across several financial institutions including Capitec, FNB, and Nedbank.

However, the judge expressed concerns about the wide-ranging nature of these account freezes. He noted uncertainty regarding the exact balances in the affected accounts and warned that blocking all transactions risked unfairly restricting access to unrelated money. This broad action reportedly caused financial difficulties for many of the defendants, whose regular debit payments were declined due to the freezes.

Responses and Court Findings on Allegations

The players argued they had legitimately placed bets using their own money and contested the demand to return their prizes. According to Hollywoodbets, many of these individuals responded defiantly when informed of the technical issues, refusing to surrender their winnings.

Judge Mossop rejected their defenses, emphasizing that the main issue was not account balances but the fact that betting occurred without valid payment because of the game’s glitch.

Hollywoodbets also accused the players of conspiring to defraud them by exploiting the system error. The judge dismissed these claims, pointing out that the alleged gamblers were widely scattered geographically with no evidence indicating any coordination or collusion among them.