A quick google search states that the average UK household spend on gaming is £166 a year. Let's call it £200. Betfair (BF) will confirm that I easily spend £400 a month, a round figure, as one City contract is £800 a day, so half a day's work. In essence, I spend some 25 times the average. £400 is conservative, it can be of a different order of magnitude.
I think most in my social/professional circle are the same. If I can convince them to leave BF - and convince just 10 - that's a loss of revenue equaling 250 people spending the average.
BF lost the minute they gave me BS excuses, which I maintain, was tinged with racial prejudice.
It is now clear to me. Only online sportsbook is OK.
Even this isn't all that much. The average is heavily skewed because of all the non gamblers and those who might only bet on the Grand national or buy the odd lottery ticket or scratchcard are included. It may not be enough to get yourself a dedicated VIP host, who unlike the regular CS are usually better trained, and also trained to care far more about causing a VIP high rolling customer to be lost to the competition.
Places like Betfair are primarily aimed at the sports bettor, and the casino is something of a sideline. If you want a better casino experience, it's best to sign up somewhere that is primarily a casino, perhaps with a sideline in sports betting.
For example, a Microgaming casino version of this game would NEVER have folded such a hand just because there was a disconnection, it would have been stored half played until you next logged in. The length of time such an incomplete bet is stored with Microgaming is pretty much until it is resolved, or the account is closed and wiped from the servers. I have sometimes found long stored bets from months ago who's incomplete state has been down to a disconnection after I had sent the bet, but before the client told me it had even been accepted - making me think I didn't manage to make it.
If anything, the disconnection argument may simply be their way of backing down from their initial assumption that you had deliberately folded, something merely said to humour you even though they still believe you did fold, hence why the disconnection excuse is just as bizarre as the "you folded" one from earlier.
Unfortunately, being Betfair they probably won't come along to respond to the allegation that it's standard for their software to fold such hands simply because there is a disconnection, but this claim itself is yet another reason to avoid their casino - it folds winning but incomplete bets whenever the internet has a wobble.
If you played this bet from the UK, you would be covered by their UK licence, and could even force them to explain this sorry tale in court.