Online Bingo Site pulls fast one on player

[clevfan]

Under the B for balled up

By JOE WARMINGTON
TORONTO SUN
Last Updated: 4th October 2008, 2:31am

SHELBURNE -- There's no better feeling than seeing on your computer screen that you have just won a $100,000 bingo jackpot.

There's no worse feeling of finding out they are saying it should have been $10.

Susan Tweedy knows both. All of it happened to her Wednesday in a span of seven hours.

And as of last night, she still had no reconciliation, which should certainly scare the daylights out of the millions of online gamblers. "I haven't slept in two nights," she said. "It's upsetting."

It all started Wednesday morning when she thought she won the jackpot and even her account of $804.78 was boosted to $100,804.78. Later the account was frozen and it has remained since.

When she finally got through to a person in Cyprus, she was told there "was a computer error" and that she won on a bingo of 52 numbers when it should have been one of 45. "I could not believe it," she said. "I have won before and never had trouble with them sending out a cheque."

Her biggest ever win was $2,500 but she has a number of photocopied cheques of wins totalling $11,000. She would love to see that one for $100,000 and feels she is entitled to it.

It's unclear what happens next. Her computer screen, which she has not shut off since, clearly shows she is a "recent winner" and that the money is in the account. She says she has been offered $5,000 to settle -- a figure she has refused. "I told them I might settle for $50,000," she said, adding she has also contacted a lawyer.

Calls and e-mails by the Sun to the site were not answered and I am certainly willing to listen to their side of the story. A gentleman over the phone last night told me he was "offshore" and had not heard of the names of people Tweedy has been dealing with.

If they feel they don't owe her $100,000, they certainly owe her a detailed explanation why on her screen it says she is a winner and there is more than $100,000 in her account.

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