Thanks to just how old the company is, William Hill is one of the top global betting sites. In 1934, William Hill was a massive bookmaker, betting site, and gambling platform, taking in over £1.3 billion in revenue during 2020. While many love the platform for its long-standing betting services, casino games, bingo, poker, and generous promotions, many are less than happy with William Hill.
Unfortunately, those people are the ones that woke up one day, logged into their account, and found it locked, restricted, or even closed. Although William Hill is usually pretty relaxed when using its services, more than a few scenarios might have ended with an error code or account lock. We don’t know whether it’s thanks to Caesars’ ownership of the company and the States’ much stricter legislation.
However, we know that your William Hill account is locked, and we’re ready to try to help.
USA players accepted | No Verification required
30 times playthrough requirement.
USA players accepted | No Verification required
30 times playthrough requirement.
Why Would William Hill Lock My Account?
While thousands of accounts are locked by William Hill every year, they’re all for a different reason. Whether you did something you shouldn’t have or the company mistook your account for another, William Hill locked accounts happen for quite a few reasons.
Nonetheless, there are a few significant issues that most people with locked accounts might have found themselves having done:
Account Self-Exclusion
The biggest reason why your account is likely locked is if you live in the United Kingdom and have enabled GamStop. This is because the service run by the UK Government, GamStop, closes your account for a certain period. So if you’re asking yourself, “why my William Hill account is locked,” it’s most likely GamStop. That’s account self-exclusion, meaning that William Hill is legally obligated to keep your account locked until your self-excluded time expires.
While that might not seem like that big deal, GamStop exclusion periods are long. The shortest one lasts six months, with the middle and most significant running for one and five years. William Hill supports GamStop and then keeps your account locked for as long as your self-exclusion period lasts.
And, if you think you can escape the lock, you can’t. While in a GamStop exclusion, there’s nothing you can do. Suppose you’re locked out of William Hill account, and William Hill has permission through GamStop. You’re required to wait out the rest of your exclusion period, with no amount of resetting, changing, calling, messaging, or contacting changing anything.
Arbitrage
Another common reason is using arbitrage strategies. After all, the company isn’t just a betting platform – it’s also the bookmaker that provides the bets and odds behind the platform they provide.
That means that taking advantage of slight differences between odds on their platform might directly lose money. While other platforms might not have an in-house bookmaker, they also don’t have restrictions against arbitrage. After all, most of their money comes from small fees or commissions per bet. Without the opportunity to lose money from arbitrage, these platforms allow you to find arbitrage spots.
On the other hand, William Hill is its biggest bookmaker, meaning that they’re trying to shut down any arbitrage attempts. Plus, it’s straightforward to find arbers when looking for them, so it won’t be hard to shut down your account if you’re caught, at all, while using arbitrage strategies and communicating them out.
Multiple Accounts
William Hill only allows one account – that’s it. If you make two accounts, then ta-da! They’re both banned. While it might make sense to only allow one account just for data and security sake, one account per customer means that William Hill only has to give out one account’s worth of bonuses. So, for example, if you have two accounts, that means twice the rewards.
Plus, if you’ve created a second account, then that means that your first account might have been banned too. That means you’re likely to try whatever you did again, meaning this account should be banned.
If you’re on your second or third account while reading this, then know that there’s nothing you can do. The systems use AI and algorithms to find comparable data between accounts and the like. So if you’re asking yourself “how to unlock my William Hill account,” there’s not too much you can do.
Calling customer service will likely lead to them telling you to stop. However, suppose you haven’t intentionally created multiple accounts (like if someone stole your identity or information). In that case, that’s worth talking to a rep about.
Technical Errors
This one’s pretty simple. Suppose William Hill suspects your account of doing anything illegal or against their rules. In that case, their computer systems will immediately shut down your account. However, even if you haven’t done anything wrong, their systems might trigger a “flag,” which turns out to be nothing more than an accidental find.
In these situations, there’s nothing that you’ve done wrong. Of course, there’s a chance you found outstanding bets or odds, and the systems accused you of arbitrage, but that’s all I can think of other than a complete accident. Fortunately, however, the solution is as easy as calling customer support. That’s it.
Inactivity
If you’ve left your account alone for a year, it’s likely considered “inactive” by William Hill. While the solution is as easy as checking your email, attempting to log into your account, or contacting customer service, inactivity can quickly turn sour. Therefore, you are leaving your Will Hill account locked.
According to some Twitter users, if you’ve stayed inactive for a year, then have your account reinstated. If you don’t place a bet by midnight, it’ll be considered inactive again. So, if you had your account paused or restricted thanks to inactivity and then found it idle again the next day, you likely didn’t place a bet early enough.
Without this extra bet (for some reason), William Hill believes that your account is inactive, leading them to close your account for inactivity temporarily. It’s a weird situation, but if you haven’t touched your account in a while and find your account locked, this is the most likely option.
Underage Betting
If you’re under 18 (or 21 in some territories) and William Hill finds out you are, your account will be permanently closed. It won’t be deleted as you could easily create another one, but it will be locked forever. Others say you might be reinstated once you’ve hit the age you’re required to be to bet, although it’s not confirmed.
William Hill isn’t among the betting sites without verification, so there are quite a few reasons why being underage and betting would lead William Hill to ban your account. First, you would have lied about your age and provided false verification information and details. Still, you’d have broken laws about underage betting, which are incredibly dangerous for you and William Hill.
So, being underage is breaking terms and conditions, plus a form of fraud. Still, it’s also against the law and regulations that you and William Hill must follow, and if done, it is likely the reason behind you asking why William Hill blocked my account. It’s a lot, and there’s no chance you’re getting your account back until you’re at least of age. You might not even get it back afterward.
Abusing Bonuses
This issue is most common if you create more than one account to get more than one bonus. If you haven’t caught on yet, William Hill offers betting deposit bonuses and promotions to get more users and people to sign up. In addition, you’ll get a cash bonus when you deposit money into a new account.
Suppose you create another account or find a way to glitch the system into giving you another bonus. In that case, you’re breaking William Hill’s terms and conditions, on top of literally getting free money. In these situations, William Hill is losing more money than otherwise. Still, they’re also finding you going directly against their terms and conditions.
Additionally, abusing bonuses could mean getting the bonus money as cash instead of being forced to use it as betting material. Most bonuses have a rollover requirement that requires you to bet at least that value of money to get the bonus. If William Hill finds you getting the reward without the rollover requirement, they’ll likely close your account, with no reason to ask yourself why William Hill closed my account.
Fraud
The last reason is pretty self-explanatory. If you commit fraud, it’s not only against William Hill’s terms and conditions, but it’s also a federal offense. So stealing someone’s identity to create an account or providing false information to get bonuses, bet money or anything else is illegal and not allowed.
Moreso, any payment methods used that don’t belong to you or information about someone that’s not you also count as fraud and can lead to your account being closed quite quickly. At even the slightest notion of fraud or identity fraud, William Hill will at least temporarily lock your account before launching a review into the account and coming up with a decision.
What Does Suspended Mean on William Hill?
A suspension and an account closure on William Hill aren’t the same. We have a Will Hill account restricted or suspended means it’s just restricted, while closed accounts are just gone.
When it comes to access, suspended is a lot better. You’ll be able to access the website and most features of your account as you would typically do so. Still, there will be one of a few restrictions on your account, including restrictions on:
- Deposits;
- Bet size;
- Bet quantity;
- Claiming bets;
- Specific pages of the website;
- Specific games or services;
- Or more.
There’s a lot that William Hill can suspend, and it’s usually individually related to whatever your account issue is. For example, let’s say you’re suspected of abusing arbitrage to make money. In William Hill’s eyes, you might not be guaranteed to have used arbitrage, or they might have thought it wasn’t too big of a problem to close your account.
In this situation, they’d likely leave your William Hill account restricted to the number of bookmakers you’re allowed to access. Whether limiting you to just one or removing the two or so that you’ve used depends. What would happen, guaranteed, is that you’d lose access to something relating to the issue of arbitrage on your account.
If the issue was abusing deposit bonuses, they might lock deposits or bonuses. They might mess with your deposit settings if you’re accused of laundering money. So there’s a pattern of restricting or suspending specific parts of your account depending on what you’ve done or have been suspected of doing.
However, if your account is closed, then there’s nothing you can do. You likely won’t be able to reaccess your account. However, there’s a chance that William Hill will be able (or willing) to reinstate your budget and your access. Like with the restrictions, it all depends on what you’ve done or what the company suspects you have done.
What Do William Hill Error Codes Mean and How Do I Unblock My William Hill Account?
There are four principal William Hill error codes: error ACC01, ACC02, ACC03, and ACC04. While you’re not necessarily going to know which code you have, they pop up most of the time through something like “William Hill account suspended ACC02.” Fortunately, however, it’s usually pretty simple to respond to each error code specifically. So, let’s start:
ACC01
Unfortunately, the first code is the worst – ACC01 means that your account has been closed.
Usually, there’s not much you can do. At best, you can call, message, or contact William Hill customer service and request that they reinstate your account. However, there’s not too much to hope for the past, as account closures are usually a last resort put out by William Hill.
ACC02
ACC02 means that your account has been suspended. We’ve covered why your account might have been suspended above. Fortunately, there’s usually still a chance you can access and go through your account without too many issues.
As with ACC01, the best option is to contact customer service. Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do outside of that, but fortunately, you likely still have access to your account and the customer service/tools inside.
However, the only way to hear what you’re suspected of doing is to contact William Hill customer support and get some help working through the individual suspensions and issues attached to your account.
ACC03
This code is a little strange – it means that you’re trying to access a “prohibited” part of the company’s website. While that might mean simply that you’ve clicked on a link that’s not connected or typed in the wrong URL, it might worsen. Nonetheless, a linking issue can most likely be fixed by simply going to the site’s homepage or logging out and then back in.
In other cases, however, where you can’t access a specific service, the William Hill homepage, or any of the portals or other primary links attached to the website, then it might mean you’ll need to contact customer service. These situations mean that you’ve likely requested a restriction on your account or have been excluded.
This scenario most likely connects to GamStop restrictions, which would prohibit the site for you. That is the most likely cause, but it’s also the simplest. All you need to do is wait out the rest of your GamStop restriction period, and then you’ll be able to log back into your website. However, that could be a few years before you can reaccess your account.
Additionally, this restriction could be a result of a specific exclusion. For example, this might not be GamStop, but instead not agreeing or approving a part of the company’s terms of services that connect to a specific product. In this case, you likely won’t be able to access the content on the website without contacting customer service, agreeing to terms and conditions again, following instructions in an email, or reviewing the agreements you’ve already signed.
ACC04
Lastly, we have ACC04, which is the dormancy restriction. You’ve likely been dormant for six months or a year in this situation. William Hill closed or restricted your account to save data, and information, protect your account, or prevent your account from being logged into by another person.
As you’ve been gone for a while, there’s a higher chance for someone else to log into the account, plus keeping the account would strain William Hill’s services. Fortunately, however, you’ll need to contact William Hill customer service through any of their contact methods or Twitter. Afterward, you might have to place a small bet before midnight, although it depends on what’s required.
Other Errors
Additionally, the ACC codes aren’t the only ones that people encounter. You might end up finding yourself facing a three-digit code without any letters. These would include Error 102, 103, 104, 105, 109, or 122. These are still associated with a William Hill suspended account, although to a lesser extent.
Error 102 means that your account has been locked or has an invalid password. William Hill says to contact customer service and asks them about it.
Error 103 means you’ve accessed betting/wagering services from an unauthorized location. This means that you’re either betting from a place that doesn’t allow sports betting or outside of William Hill’s area. The company says to restart your device or change GPS/disable VPN.
Error 104 means your location can’t be verified. That means that you’re connecting to a weak signal or near the border of a verified area.
Error 105 means that your location services are inaccurate or insufficient. It’s pretty much the same as Error 104, although focusing more on accuracy.
Error 109 means that the location just isn’t working. You can’t even provide a signal that proves that you are where you should be in this situation. All you need to do is ensure that you’ve got a call and that location services are working correctly.
Lastly, there’s Error 122. This is usually thanks to a change in phone numbers or email that requires you to verify your location. For example, suppose it’s due to a new phone number. It may think that your number might be from another area while your current location is in another place.
How Can I Contact William Hill Customer Service?
There are many ways to contact William Hill customer service, and it all depends on who you are and what issue you have. For customer service, you have four services and five options:
- Online customer | connect through email or live chat;
- Verification/document issues | email verification@willhill.com;
- Shop customers | connect through shop contact in the store;
- Monday through Friday, 9:30 to 21:30;
- Saturday, 8:30 to 21:30;
- Sunday, 11:00 to 18:00;
- Horse racing commentary | 08712 444 666 (10p per minute from a BT landline).
As for others (i.e., investors, press, and more), there are even more options:
- Press Team | pressteam@williamhill.co.uk;
- Historical shareholders | contact through investorcentre.co.uk/contactus;
- Public and industry shareholders | 44 (0)20 7612 3233;
- HR | 0345 600 2900 or GO2HR@williamhill.co.uk;
- Procurement | globalprocurement@williamhill.co.uk;
- Other Inquiries | 1 Bedrock Avenue, London, WC1B 3AU, +44 (0)20 7612 3000.
The top options are almost certainly the best if you’re interested in account services. Live chat, phone calls, emails, and the like are the best ways to get in touch with William Hill customer service without going through other steps.
Importantly, however, as you can see from the listing above, there’s no concrete phone number or email for customer inquiries. Live chat is the big one, and if you want to contact via email or phone number, you’ll have to find the regional contact for William Hill. As the company is international, there are dozens of lines and emails for regional connections.
As for verification, there aren’t any phone numbers to call, meaning that you’ll have to use the associated email. Importantly, though, it’s worth finding which contact measure is the best for you, as login problems with William Hill are separate from William Hill deposit limits, having a William Hill account limited, and more. In addition, there are four major customer options and six major “other” options, meaning that the unique errors may have individual lines.
What Should I Contact?
You should be fine using “online customer” contacts for all the ACC codes. These would include the live chat, the email services, and phone numbers. Every ACC issue is almost directly tied to something other than verification, meaning that the best option is an excellent one-for-all contact.
The three-digit errors are likely verification errors. You should probably visit the verification or document issues line through email. Almost everything is password or location verification. So that or the first line should be the best option. ACC02 might be another verification issue hotline problem as well, as that is an issue that might be the result of information or verification problems.
Most importantly, if you’re not convinced about what you can do and have tried what we’ve mentioned in this article, it’s worth contacting a customer support agent through the live chat on William Hill’s site. They’re an excellent option for any problem, mainly as you’ll likely be led to a solution that you can use to regain access to your account.
On the other end of things, if you find yourself unable to remove restrictions or problems with your account, you’ll likely have to move stuff to another provider. Most issues that can’t be solved are severe term infractions or legal issues. Unfortunately, there’s not much that the representatives at William Hill can do.
Unfortunately, too, that could mean you’re unable to move too. Suppose there’s a problem you’ve encountered or have been a part of. In that case, William Hill might pass on the information to other sportsbooks and service providers, meaning that you might not be able to access their services either. This whole example is a very slippery slope, meaning that one small problem could lead down the road to progressively more significant issues.
However, as an end-all-be-all, you might move to close William Hill accounts. If you’re asking yourself how to close William Hill accounts, then know the easiest way is to call customer service, as they find themselves closing William Hill accounts quite often.
