Australian online sports betting operator Sportsbet has been ordered to refund AU$93k (US$64,630) to a customer who was allowed to bet despite having signed up to exclude himself from accessing the site.

The Northern Territory Racing Commission (NTRC), the regulator of choice for Australia’s online sportsbooks, recently issued a ruling regarding a punter identified only as Mr XXXX, a self-described problem gambler who tried to protect himself from further harm by adding his name to gambling self-exclusion lists for a number of sites, including Sportsbet.

However, when XXXX tried to open a Sportsbet account several months later, the company’s systems failed to detect the man’s presence on the self-exclusion list, in part because he’d never dealt with Sportsbet before. XXXX went on to bet nearly AU$150k with Sportsbet, losing around three-fifths of that sum.

Mr. XXXX told ABC News that he filed a complaint with the NTRC because he’d lost “a hugely significant amount of money and that has had a financial impact and on my mental health” and so he “just wanted to make [Sportsbet] accountable.”