Friend of Gambling Addict Takes Paddy Power to Court to Recoup Losses

The friend of a gambling addict has taken gambling operators Flutter Entertainment who own Paddy Power, to court, in a bid to claim back the money he lent his friend which was subsequently gambled away.  Mr Amarjeet Dhir took Paddy Power to court claiming they should have done more to stop he friend’s gambling and as a result, are liable for the money lost which was lent to him.

£2million in bets

Mr Dhir’s friend, businessman Tony Parente, opened a Paddy Power online account in September 2016 and straight away started gambling heavily. In internal correspondence within Paddy Power, Mr Parente was described as a ‘wild man’ as he placed 5,323 individual bets just in the month of September. These bets amounted to around £2,368,025 in total, with losses of £77,846. Despite this desperate and erratic behaviour, Paddy Power classed his spending as normal.

After incurring such huge losses, Mr Parente closed his account the following month and self-excluded himself from the site. He has since gone on to overcome his gambling addiction.

Criticisms of Paddy Power

It is believed that Mr Dhir loaned Mr Parente around £1million in 2015, believing it was going to be invested in property. Some or all of this money was then allegedly used to fund Mr Parente’s gambling addiction, with Mr Dhir being unaware of his gambling habit.

When making his ruling, Mr Justice Griffiths was highly critical of Paddy Power, claiming they should have been aware that Parente could not afford the losses he’d accrued if they had carried out in-depth checks on his income and assets. He also said he felt that the gambling operator simply ‘did not care’ about Parente’s gambling and instead, provided more bonuses, perks and invitations to hospitality events.

Case Dismissed

Despite heavy criticism from the judge, he dismissed Mr Dhir’s case and ruled in favour of Paddy Power, stating that he had failed to trace the money loaned to Mr Parente and sufficiently prove it was his money that was used for gambling purposes.

In 2017, Mr Parente was found guilty of defrauding 20 people, including his sister, to fund his gambling addition. As well as Paddy Power, he also gambled excessively as Bet365, Ladbrokes and William Hill. He was given a suspended jail sentence for his crimes.