The High Court has dismissed an appeal by a gambler seeking Sh99.9 million from a game run by betting company Betika.
In dismissing the case, Justice Alfred Mabia said Claire Nyabeo had failed to prove that the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) was wrong in relying on the terms and conditions applied by Petika to pay her Sh1 million after winning a game known as “Magic Numbers”.
Ms Nyabayo alleged that the betting company cheated her by setting the winnings at Sh1 million, when in fact the total amount she won was Sh99.9 million, which was the total winnings.
The player had filed a complaint with BCLB, but the board rejected her demands saying the terms and conditions stipulated that the maximum amount was Sh1 million.
“The result of this was that while there was no evidence to show that the terms and conditions were in place to bind the appellant to the maximum payment of Sh1 million, the evidence on record suggested that a problem in the system may have led to unusually high payments,” the judge said.
The court said seeking Sh99.9 million due to a flawed system amounted to unjust enrichment.
The burden of proof lies with the person who alleges the existence of the set of circumstances that he or she wishes the court to believe.
“In the present case, the appellant’s case is that the board erred in relying on terms and conditions that did not exist at the time she placed her bet,” the court said, adding that Ms Nyabayo failed to provide the terms and conditions that set the amount at Sh99.9 million.
In the petition, Ms Nyabayo said the Sh1 million figure was not mentioned anywhere and that the game had identified and confirmed a system problem which it described as an internal glitch.
BCLB also accused her of failing to hold Petika accountable for withholding her earnings for nearly two years.
The player said that freezing her account and withholding her winnings violated her right to fair administrative action under Article 47 of the Constitution.
She also questioned the integrity of the game’s developers, Split the Pot AB, regarding their claims of a serious bug, noting that there was no evidence of when the bug occurred.
Ms. Nyabayo also said that BCLB incorrectly relied on the terms and conditions relating to the maximum winnings that were not in effect when she played on January 2 and 3, 2022, suggesting that the terms were introduced when she challenged her winnings.
The betting company confirmed that any winnings exceeding the maximum limit of one million shillings are considered null and void, and that Petica is not obligated to pay any amount exceeding the permitted limit.
According to the BCLB website, a report from the manufacturer of the game “Magic Numbers” revealed that the multiplier was calculated incorrectly due to a glitch in the game’s logic, which led to an unusually high multiplier.
The Commission added that the bets followed similar patterns and settings, with betting amounts increasing significantly over a short period of time, even though the initial account balances were relatively low.
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