MUCH has been written in the last week or so about the failure of four internet betting firms to pay winnings to customers who signed up for Cheltenham Festival concessions and bonuses. While it appears that most punters affected will eventually be paid, the subject of bookmaker terms and conditions (which were allegedly broken in this case) has again been thrown into the spotlight.

Most complaints from bettors are about the difficulty of getting a decent bet on, with manifold tales of being knocked back to stakes of less than a pound along with the resulting account closures, often for accounts with very little betting activity, but the murky area of `bonus abuse’ is a far bigger scandal in my mind. Too many firms are looking for ways of avoiding paying their winning customers by using obscure terms, which can change overnight, and they have been able to do so with impunity.