By GRACE CHAILE LESOETSA
A GEORGE Compound bettor, Isaac Chipulu has sued Bolabet Zambia in the Lusaka High Court seeking an order that the company pays the K780, 000 being outstanding balance owed to him.
But Bolabet Zambia has counter claimed that Chipulu never owned the K800, 000 he was claiming and should in fact pay back the K20, 000 illegally withdrawn from its account.
The company claims the bets placed by Chipulu were erroneously designated as winning bets when in fact not.
Chipulu, a resident of the densely populated George Compound in Matero Constituency, Lusaka, claims that on August 13, 2022, he participated in the online sports betting and immediately after the games were played, he received a confirmation on his phone with the notification that he had won K800, 000.
He stated that the said no sooner had he received the confirmation than his account was credited with K800, 000, evidence which he says he will adduce at trial.
He said on August 24, 2022, he proceeded to withdrew K20, 000 leaving K780, 000 into his account.
“Surprisingly when the plaintiff intended to further withdraw the balance of K780, 000.00 from the account it was discovered that the defendant had blocked the plaintiff’s account to the extent where the defendant withdrew all the money from the plaintiff’s account amounting to K780, 000 without his consent or notification,” he stated.
Chipulu said he approached Bolabet over the issue, but the company failed to justify their action of tempering with his account.
He was instead referred from one station of place to another without considering that he was incurring costs.
But Bolabet in its defence and counterclaim stated that the contract, which is the subject matter of the lawsuit is wagering contract and subject to the laws of such wagering contracts.
The company contended that article 14 of its rules defines a winning combination as the one combination where all outcomes of sport events that the player chose are correctly guessed.
“ The defendant will aver that owing to an error when entering the results of the matches on which the plaintiff placed his bets, the bets placed by the plaintiff were erroneously designated as winning bets when in fact not,”
Bolabet claimed that Chipulu placed bets on its online betting website on four mixed martial arts fights with a stake of K1 and a potential pay out of K1,000,000 before deduction of withholding tax. It stated that Chipulu predicted that all four matches would result in draws.
“Owing to an error in entering the results the defendant’s computer system the plaintiff’s bets were wrongly designated as winning bets giving him net winnings of K800,000 after deduction of withholding tax.
Bolabet is claiming the refund of K20,000 and damages for breach of contract.
