The Tricky Issue Of Problem Gambling

31 August 2017
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Dearbail JordanBusiness press reporter


For David Bradford, his gambling dependency had actually got as bad as it perhaps could.


The 57 year-old was in jail for fraud after taking ₤ 50,000. His practice had cost his household their home and left them buried under ₤ 500,000 of financial obligation.


For 888. com, however, there was more to be had out of David Bradford.


While he sat in prison, his child Adam saw that the online gambling business was sending adverts to his father's smart phone, at an expense of ₤ 5 a time.


Adam Bradford states: "After calling them 6 times and pleading with them, they turned off the text after almost ₤ 100 worth of charges."


Dr Carolyn Downs, senior speaker at Lancaster University who is a specialist on the betting market, approximates that there are around 500,000 individuals in the UK with a "extreme" addition.


"And for each of those individuals with severe issues, you're looking at four or 5 other member of the family being severely affected. Who possibly don't understand that their household member is an issue gambler up until they lose the house," she Radio 4's Today programme.


Theft


On Thursday, 888 Holdings, which owns 888. com, was fined a record ₤ 7.8 m by the Gambling Commission for failing to secure countless vulnerable customers who had tried to "self-exclude" themselves from their websites.


The regulator also penalised 888 for failing to identify problem behaviour that resulted in someone stealing ₤ 55,000 from their employer.


Sarah Harrison, president of the regulator, said: "Messages like this send out a strong signal to business like 888 and every betting operator that the Gambling Commission will take tough action versus business who don't fulfill the guidelines."


However, the Gambling Commission would not have actually understood about any of these issues had 888 Holdings not advance in the first location.


In the regulator's public declaration on the matter, it states that it was 888 Holdings who informed the commission about the technical issue on 28 February 2017.


Asked how it guarantees that betting companies are following a code of practice which needs them to put self-exclusion treatments in location along with determining at danger customers, the regulator, stated: "The commission brings out routine compliance activity in a variety of ways.


"In addition, we in some cases act upon information from customers or operators themselves that triggers us to carry out an investigation, as in this case."


Self-exclusion or misconception?


In 888's case, the fault lay with a technical concern.


Customers with acknowledged issues had successfully obstructed themselves from betting on the poker, gambling establishment and sports sites.


But they still had access to the bingo sites.


However, even with this loophole now closed, there remains a wider market issue with self-exclusion, says Dr Downs.


She said: "It was hard to do with online gaming, even to discover a put on a website to really go to tell them you wish to self-exclude ... it on a regular basis needs a horrible great deal of clicks with a mouse around the website to discover a place."


And simply because an individual is left out from one means of gambling, it doesn't provide any protection against other techniques.


In some circumstances, self-exclusion is merely farcical.


Tony Franklin, a recuperating gambling addict and an advocate, states: "Self-exclusion from betting stores is paper-based so they are reliant on you offering a photograph of yourself. Then, it may just be distributed to a small number of betting stores in the area."


It is very easy to go to another town to bet, he says, and it is really difficult for individuals operating in bookmakers to police their clients.


Dr Downs proposed a national register for self-exclusion: "The Gambling Commission might run this," she says: "If you wished to self-exclude you would send your information off on a basic type to the Gambling Commission and they would let everyone understand your e-mail address."


But she includes: "I do not believe there's any sort of will for that action. Problem gamblers offer most of the earnings for the betting market and that's actually rather well understood."


The Gambling Commission says the market is working on a nationwide "online multi-operator self-exclusion scheme" which it is intends to have in location by 2018.


At the minute, consumers must to each individual site to ask the company not to enable them to gamble. The commission says: "The new scheme will make it possible for consumers to self-exclude from all online licensed wagering operators via one web website."


GAMSTOP, as it is called, will be run by the Remote Gambling Association (RGA), a group whose members are online gaming companies.


Adam Bradford questions the wisdom of this. "It resembles asking a police officer to apprehend himself for a criminal offense."


Clive Hawkswood, primary executive of the RGA, rejects that there is a conflict of interest. "On the contrary it is quite in our interests and our objective is to make it as great as any system on the planet," he states.


The Gambling Commission states: "We think about an industry-led and managed option is finest put to provide an efficient and efficient plan by structure, in specific, on the core experience and knowledge in the industry of developing and managing large IT services, as well as administering existing self-exclusion schemes."


Mr Franklin thinks betting companies require to take more powerful action before permitting individuals to wager, such as performing a price look at possible clients.


This, he believes, must be contracted out to a 3rd party such as credit examining company Experian.


Liberalising issues


At the minute, nevertheless, Mr Franklin says individuals will stay vulnerable to an industry whose primary aim is to earn money.


Dr Downs states: "I believe legislation is absolutely the only answer. I think when we liberalised the gambling industry - as was predicted by a variety of people at the time - we liberalised numerous more problem gamblers."


For Mr Franklin, he states: "Never again. Not ever will I provide one more pound to these individuals."


888 Holdings declined to talk about specific cases. Its reaction to the action taken by the Gambling Commission can be accessed here.