Gambling contract law: a difficult (re)birth?

In 2009, Cliff Bryant wagered £10 on two accumulator bets on snowfall on Christmas Day across 24 named British towns and cities. He expected to win over £7 million, but Ladbrokes refused to pay, stating that the bet was in contravention of its established betting rules, and accepted in error by its staff.1 It offered instead £31, calculated by treating the accumulators as a series of single bets. Prior to September 2007, the gambler’s rights would have been decided outside the private legal regime, but the entry into force of the Gambling Act 2005 returned gambling contracts to the jurisdiction of the courts for the first time since 1845. This rebirth is likely to be painful, as wagering moves from the public law sphere of regulation by licensing to include the unfamiliar realm of consumer contract law.