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French player le-requin34 thought he won one of the room's promotions to receive the huge sum. He withdrew almost €9,000 and started spending it, now the room wants him to pay the money back.
Winamax, the biggest poker room on the segregated French market made the headlines after they mistakenly transferred €1,546,522 to a player instead of crediting him with a €1,82 bonus.
The ''victim'', a French player called le-requin34 shared his story with ClubPoker:
''On February 1 something amazing happened to me. When I logged in on the Winamax website, a message popped up saying that my account has been credited €1,546,522. I couldn't believe it...I logged out, went to work and after I came back the money was still in the account. I was very happy, I thought I won one of the room's promotions.''
The player decided to withdraw €8,900, which he received without a problem, then decided to play some high stakes games. He wanted to be careful with the money and re-set his Sharkscope account so he can track his results.
Le-requin34 lost a couple thousand Euros and also spent a little on sportsbetting.
When he tried to log in to his account on February 8, he was notified that the account has been locked. After contacting support, he received the answer that the bonus was mistakenly credited to the account and that he owes €8,900 to the room.
''I told them I didn't do anything wrong, I didn't hack the room, I thought I won the money in a promotion. It's the room's fault, not mine, and how can such a huge mistake even be made?''
The room told him that the transaction happened due to a technical mistake and told the player that if he repays the €8,900, he will be credited with a €1,000 bonus.
Le-requin34 didn't find the answer sufficient: ''I wasn't satisfied by their explanation and the answer raised a lot of questions. Is it possible that Winamax sends players these huge sums for high-stakes poker games? Is the room laundering money and trying to hide the funds in players' accounts?''
Winamax then told the player that the funds were credited to his account by mistake, not because he won in a promotion and not because the room wanted to send it to someone else. According to their explanation, an employee wanted to credit the account with a €1,82 bonus but instead put in the identification number of the player.
The room told the player that they are willing to let go the money that le-requin34 lost at the high stakes tables and with sports bets and they only want the cashed out money (€8,900 back).
Le-requin34 is not willing to back down, he said he is not willing to pay back the €8,900 and is ready to go to court if it comes to that. It's certainly possible that he has already spent a part (or the whole) of the funds.
What do you think? Should the room just take the €8,900 loss or should they go to court and risk a lot of bad publicity instead? Tell us in the comments section!