This story was published more than 6 years ago.
A British Colombian man who lost $500,000 in disability payments at an online lottery site is suing The British Colombia Lottery Corporation for not intervening on his behalf.
Tyler Hatch says that he enrolled in a BCLC program to help problem gamblers. He then used a large $550,000 disability payment related to a depressive disorder as well as bipolar disorder that was diagnosed in 2010. By the time he got the payout, he had racked up a huge debt with the BCLC's PlayNow website, and had negotiated a payment to repay that debt by using the disability payments.
After paying the debt, the problem gambler went back to the PlayNow website, racking up about $50,000 in additional debt. Hatch claims that since he was enrolled in the problem betting program three different times, officials at BCLC should have stepped in and stopped him from gambling.
In his lawsuit Hatch's lawyers claim, "As a result of his compulsive gambling addiction and the failure of the BCLC to take any steps to prevent him from gambling away the entirety of his future income, the plaintiff suffered disastrous financial ruin."
Hatch is seeking restitution for the losses as well as breach of contract and special damages.
The BCLC is planning a defense statement and said that they will issue no further comment at this time.
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Comments
I don't know about, what's your own responsibility as a player and as a person then if you will?!
I understand the guy having problems and he'd lost a huge amount of money but doesn't we all have a problems and when le ended up loosing we not suing the bookies and casinos, aren't we!?!
Although I could agree that BCLC should probably done something about this player earlier and maybe prevent him of further play, definitely would be interested what the court would decide in that matter.
The issue I see is that the BCLC is a government-owned entity. They have the utmost responsibility to the player. How can a guy on disability, that has a known gambling problem, be allowed to gamble on a government-owned website? It's a very bad look that this was allowed to happen on their watch.
Non-government groups in other countries are penalized for this sort of thing, and it seems like the BCLC should share some liability on this case as well. I mean the guy was in the problem gambling program three times. What more should he have done? Why didn't they catch him and self-exclude him permanently?
sharpe
Yeah I see your point Dustin, you're quite right, they should of prevent him of playing.