Paddy Power is a very popular betting company, largely because of the countless different advertising campaigns that it has launched over the years that have caught the attention. Unfortunately, as has become standard practice for many bookmakers, they will often choose to close or limit accounts of customers for reasons that seem very difficult to grasp.
There are some reasons that can be explained by the terms and conditions of your betting account that you agree to when you open it, even if you didn’t realise because you haven’t read the small print of the company.
Other times, the reasons can be confusing if you aren’t too sure what it is that you’ve done wrong. It might seem entirely wrong, as an example, but if you win too much then bookies will move to limit your account or even close it altogether.
That is because bookmakers are companies that operate for profit and if you’re a threat to that profit then they’ll do what they can do stop you, often turning to obscure sections of their terms and conditions in order to do so. If your account has been closed, hopefully this page will help you to understand why.
Betfred - Better Odds & Offers, Rarely Limit
The biggest attraction of Paddy Power is their offers, they have a hell of a lot of them, although if you look closely you will notice their odds value is usually terrible compared to competitors. With Betfred you can access many similar offers, especially for football and racing, and they actually much stronger for promotions for other sports like rugby, darts and snooker. Betfred have best odds guarantee for all UK & Irish racing, for example, whereas PP only have it at select courses. Most importantly, though, their raw odds are much better.
Logically you will be reading this page because you’ve had your Paddy account limited or closed. This is far less of an issue with Betfred who have a much higher threshold, they appreciate that some people can win and they don’t limit you as soon as you’ve won a few bets.
Reasons Why Paddy Power Can Close An Account
The second you open a betting account, you agree to the terms and conditions of the company that the account is with. On that front, Paddy Power is no different to any other bookmaker. The truth is that most of us don’t bother to read the small print that we’re asked to agree to when we open our account. Instead, we click on through in a hurry so that we can place our wagers, but in doing so we put ourselves in a position whereby the company that we’ve joined can make all sorts of decisions about our account that we don’t know about.
Generally speaking, closing an account will be a last resort for a bookmaker. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen, though. Sometimes the bookie will get in touch with you and let you know that your account has been closed, whilst other times you’ll only know about it when you login to place a bet and aren’t allowed to. If that has happened to you, there is a definite chance that you’ll at least have a sense as to why. If you’ve been doing anything illegal, for example, then your account will get shutdown the second that Paddy Power finds out.
Companies that offer gambling can close accounts for many different reasons, but legal ones will always be top of the list. Some people might try to use their Paddy Power account in order to launder money, for example, so if there’s any suspicion that that is what you have been up to then your account will be closed down quick style. The same sort of thing is true for the likes of match fixing, which is illegal and if you’re involved in it and using a Paddy Power account to place bets on an outcome that you already know about then you’ll be in trouble.
It isn’t just illegal activities that can result in an account being closed, though. Many people will engage in ‘arbing’, which is against the terms and conditions of many bookies and therefore sees accounts being closed if a suspicion of it is flagged up. Paddy Power is owned by the same company as SkyBet and Betfair, meaning that if you’re using an account with either of them in order to place bets that are seen to be abusing offers with Paddy Power, or vice-versa, then they will close your account so as to stop you from doing so.
For most betting companies, the biggest fear is that they might be caught up on money laundering. It would be a major breach of their licence from the United Kingdom Gambling Commission, so they are hot on stopping people from engaging in such an activity. The companies run Know Your Customer schemes, requiring numerous different forms of identification in order to confirm you are who you say you are. Any suspicion that you might not be will result in comeuppance for you, so make sure you’ve filled in the the forms as best you can.
Winners Might Be Punished
Paddy Power might have a happy-go-lucky attitude when it comes to the company’s television adverts, but the reality is that the company is no different to any other betting site. Ultimately, Paddy Power is aimed at making as much money as possible, which comes about thanks to the margin that is built-in to the various bets that you place.
Even if you mainly use the online casino, for example, then there is the House Edge that you have to contend with. Even with this in mind, Paddy Power will still move to close accounts of serial winners.
We can all argue about the validity of this sort of practice, but the reality is that it happens with pretty much all bookmakers.
With that in mind, Paddy Power aren’t going to make themselves the exception, even if the advertising companies that work with them try their best to make you laugh and smile when you watch their adverts. It might seem stupid that winning, which is the entire reason most people will have opened an account in the first place, is a reason to close an account, but it is also what happens on a regular basis.
Examples
If you have a look on social media or gambling forums, you can find any number of examples of people complaining about Paddy Power closing their account.
One customer posted about having their own account closed with the following notice: “We are sorry to inform you that your account with Paddy Power has been closed. This decision has been made by our Security Department, based on business grounds and in line with our terms and conditions.” The statement then pointed them to the company’s Ts and Cs.
Not only did Paddy Power close the customer’s account, but they also kept their funds. All of that happened without any explanation of why it was that the customer’s account was closed. It is not a story that is on its own when you look into it.
Another forum user spoke of how they had won £750, only for their account to be closed without being paid out, with only their deposit returned to them. Paddy Power pointed to it being a ‘business decision’, which is as vague as you might imagine from a company that didn’t seem to want to let its former customers know what has happened.