12/03/2025

WYSIWYG: Paddy Power ordered to pay ‘Monster Jackpot’

On 5 March 2025, Mr Justice Ritchie granted summary judgment on a claim made by Mrs Durber for payment of almost £1.1 million from gambling giant Paddy Power: Durber v PPB Entertainment Ltd [2025] EWHC 498 (KB) (05 March 2025).

Playing the game ‘The Wild Hatter’ on her iPad on 18 October 2020, Mrs Durber was shown that she had won the ‘Monster Jackpot’ but was paid only the ‘Daily Jackpot’ by Paddy Power, a difference of over £1 million. Paddy Power attempted to rely on their terms and conditions to avoid liability, saying that the result on screen had been generated by a mapping error affecting the game’s animations.

In granting summary judgment, Ritchie J said that the game rules determined she had won the Monster Jackpot. To the extent that Paddy Power said that their terms excluded liability for “errors”, those terms were not apt to do so as a matter of construction, not incorporated at common law, or unfair under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

The case is likely to have wider significance in the gambling industry as regards the application of complex terms and conditions for online games. It also serves a salutary reminder of the need to achieve clarity and coherence in contractual documentation.

The judgment has attracted much attention in the media.

Mark Baldock acted for the successful claimant, Mrs Durber, instructed by David Sheahan of Coyle White Devine.