Harare | A betting company Bezbets has reportedly failed to pay a punter who placed a bet and won more than US$5 000 before blocking his account in a bid to destroy evidence.
Since last year, the complainant (name withheld) said he has been placing bets of more than US$50 and won some of the bets.
According to his account, he once won more than $5 000 in March and has been withdrawing the money, until today when Bezbets reportedly refused to pay him his money.
After a scuffle with the complainant, the betting company deleted his account leading to the complainant filing a police report under case number IR 101 683 and the matter is expected to appear in court this week.
The punter through his lawyer Tawanda Takaindisa has written a letter of demand to Bezbets to release the money within 24 hours.
“Our client informs us that he won USD$5400.00 on the 26′” of October 2023.
“On the 27′” of October 2023 our client demanded the release of the money upon which you Indicated that you could give him USD$1 800.00, contrary to the amount won.
“This therefore serves as 24hrs notice to make the full payment of USD$5400.00 to our client. Failure of which, we will be forced to take litigation against you,” Takaindisa demanded.
“Your conduct is unprofessional and unethical as you have no legal basis to refuse to make the said payment.”
Before Bezbets thought of blocking the punter’s account he had taken more than 80 screenshots of his betting transactions with the company as proof.
Efforts to get a comment from Mr Bernard Zieve from the betting company were fruitless as he refused to talk to the media.
Bezbets general manager Mr Robson Chinamasa refused to comment saying the matter was before the courts.
“I have nothing to say because the case is now being handled by lawyers so we will start from there,” he said.
One of the punters who said he won US$5 400 today, said Bezbets have offered to pay out US$1 800 only, which is equivalent to US$50 per stake.
“They have been paying me my money all along using the same bets which I used to place similar bets.
Today, because I have won more than US$5 000, they are now refusing to pay out. They now insist that that rules and regulations do not permit betting stakes that exceed US$50 per stake and yet all along I have been exceeding their so called limit.
And they have been paying out.
“This is total fraud because they have not put a maximum stake on their terms and conditions policy. My worry is, why is it that they do not want to give my today after they have been giving me all my stakes before?” said the complaint.
The complainant also said of Bezbets was failing to pay him his money they should refund him all his money exceeding the US$50 bets he has been placing since last year.
“I have been losing larger amounts of money to Bezbets while playing more than US$50 and thery never raised that issue until when u won US$5 400,” he said.
According to the Bezbets terms, the minimum stake per transaction is pegged at $2 000 and it does not mention any USD stakes.
On Bezbets payout limits, a single bet is US$15 000.
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