If a bet is made from a country where online betting is illegal, does it count? A "test case" is under way to make a decision that could have far-reaching effects internationally.
A man is suing Ladbrokes to get back £3.3m by claiming that the bookmaker permitted him to bet illegally while he was at his second home in Spain.
Terry Allan, a recruitment company chief, has filed a claim at the High Court in London, claiming that he made bets so repeatedly that he was given his own dedicated telephone line into a bookmakers’ shop in Aberdeen.
He claims that between 2014 and 2018 he made about £400,000 worth of bets each week through the shop. Allan claims that many of those bets were made while he was at his holiday home in southern Spain. At the time, it was illegal under Spanish law and therefore Ladbrokes should not have accepted the bets.
Allan is claiming back all of his money, less his winnings - £3,368,531.61 - claiming that Ladbrokes "turned a blind eye" to the bets knowing that many of them were made from Spain where it was illegal to bet. He says he told staff at the time not to ask where he was so that they would not be forced to decline his bets.
Lawyer Richard Howlett is reported to have told The Daily Telegraph newspaper that if Allan wins his case it would "open up floodgates to thousands of claims from anyone who has placed a bet from abroad."
Allan, in his claim, says that under Spanish law, since 2011 betting companies had required to hold a licence to operate in Spain, even if the bets were placed by phone from Spain to a different country - and that Ladbrokes did not have a licence at the time.
In a statement, Ladbrokes said: “We are aware that proceedings have been issued on unfounded grounds that certain historic bets were accepted illegally pursuant to Spanish law. We believe that the claim is entirely without merit.”
