Corrine Peal Durber v PPB Entertainment Limited
| Judge | Mr Justice Ritchie |
| Neutral Citation | [2025] EWHC 498 (KB) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Court | King's Bench Division |
| Counsel | Mark Baldock Of Counsel,Philip Hinks Of Counsel |
| Date | 05 March 2025 |
Neutral Citation Number : [2025] EWHC 498 (KB)
Case Number: QB-2022-000760
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
KING'S BENCH DIVISION
THE ROYAL COURTS OF JUSTICE
Date: 5th
March 2025
Before:
MR JUSTICE RITCHIE
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BETWEEN
CORRINE PEARL DURBER
Claimant
- and –
PPB ENTERTAINMENT LIMITED
Defendant
Mark Baldock of counsel (instructed byCoyle White Devine solicitors) for the Claimant
Philip Hinks of counsel (instructed by Knights solicitors) for theDefendant
Hearing date: 4.2.2025
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APPROVED JUDGMENT
This judgment was handed down remotely at 14.00pm on Wednesday 5th March 2025 by
circulation to the parties or their representatives by e-mail and by release to the National
Archives.
Approved Judgment:Durber v PPB Entertainment Ltd.
Mr Justice Ritchie:
1. The Claimant placed a bet on the Defendant’s online gambling website called
PaddyPower (the Site) on 18.10.2020 using her iPad computer in a game provided by
the Defendant called the Wild Hatter (the Game). The rules of the Game (the Rules)
provided that it had two stages based on a combination of the old fruit machine reels
(stage 1) and the old spin the wheel of fortune game (stage 2). In stage one of the
Game she was informed on her computer screen that she had won a jackpot prize and
was moved to stage 2. She was asked to spin the jackpot wheel shown on her screen.
This wheel is reproduced in colour below.
2. As can be seen, this circular wheel imitates the old fairground wheel of fortune game
of chance. In the old days punters were invited to place their bets, then manually to
spin a circular wooden wheel upon which were set out various pizza slices showing
the prizes. A pointer was fixed in position to indicate which prize would be won
when the wheel stopped turning. For the online Game, instead of manually spinning a
wooden wheel, the Claimant clicked the spin button and this made the displayed
wheel spin on screen. It stopped, as shown in the Defendant’s reconstruction above,
determining that the Claimant had won the Monster Jackpot. The Monster Jackpot
segment of the digital wheel lit up. The Monster jackpot was stated on the left-hand
side of screen as £1,097,132.71. This figure is visible on the reconstruction above,
albeit darkened in the photo, so I have put a red arrow pointing at it. It was the
Claimant’s lucky day.
3. The Defendant did not pay her the Monster Jackpot, instead it only paid her
£20,265.14, which was the sum due had the Claimant won the much smaller Daily
Jackpot. Two pizza slices for the Daily Jackpot are shown in the photo above, one to
the left of the Monster Jackpot and one further to the right. Neither was lit up. The
pointer was not pointing to them. No explanation for the change of the sum which
she had won was provided on screen. The Claimant’s lucky day had turned sour. She
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Approved Judgment:Durber v PPB Entertainment Ltd.
clearly relied on what she was shown on screen when she won. She complained to the
Defendant that very evening. In correspondence, the Defendant explained that the
computer system which ran the game on the Site had made an error over the display
which she saw. It should have pointed to the Daily Jackpot but, because it had been
mal-programmed, it did not. The Defendant relied on its written terms and
conditions, which it published online and asserted that those entitled it to refuse to pay
the Monster Jackpot. The Claimant sued for her Monster Jackpot winnings relying on
what she was shown on her screen.
The applications
4. The parties pleaded out their cases and the pleadings closed after a part 18 request and
answer in around March 2024. In June 2024 Master Gidden gave directions up to trial
which was to be listed for 2 days in a window between 3 rd February and 16th April
2025. Disclosure was totake place by 4.9.2024 and witness evidence was to be
exchanged by 13.11.2024.
5. On 27.9.2024 the Claimant applied for the Court to strike out the defence or for
summary judgment on the claim. A witness statement was served in support, not from
the Claimant herself, but from her solicitor (David Sheahan). In response the
Defendant served evidence from Richard Coleman, a lead product manager (statement
dated 17.1.2025); Rhodri Smith, the head of legal (statement dated 17.1.2025) and
Ashley Padgett, the director of compliance(two statements, dated 20.1.2025 and
21.1.2025). The Claimant served a further witness statement from Mr Sheahan in
reply (dated 24.1.2025).
6. Thus, instead of having a trial on evidence between February and April 2025, the
Claimant chose this course and the applications before me are for strike out and
summary judgment. I raised with both counsel the question of whether I could decide
all the issues raised in submissions in these applications without further evidence, for
instance about what is and what is not “usual” in the online gambling field by way of
terms and conditions and what players generally expect of such games. Both parties
submitted that I should deal with the applications and that all the evidence which they
wished to put before me was before me.
Terminology
7. I use the following terminology in this judgment:
“WYSIWYG”: what you see (on screen) is what you get.
“WCT”: written contract terms.
“The Rules”: the rules of the Wild Hatter game.
“The Game”: the Wild Hatter game.
“RNGS”: random number generator software.
“Part A”: Part A of the Terms of Use of the WCT.
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