GAGGED BY THE GAMBLING VULTURES
In the victims’ own despairing words, how they are relentlessly targeted by rapacious betting firms, wined and dined, fleeced – then silenced by lawyers. Could there be more cynical greed?
Shortly after becoming a VIP, he and a guest were wined and dined, courtesy of Betfair, in a hospitality suite at the Premier League club he supported. In the lounge, there were computers logged on to the Betfair website so wagers could be placed during the afternoon.
By then, John was showing clear signs of addiction. This is apparent from the note left on his confidential file after the game. ‘Didn’t spend too much time in the box because he didn’t want his friend to think we knew him well,’ wrote the Betfair executive assigned to look after him.
Nevertheless, despite the danger signs, he was inundated with special deals interspersed with invitations to the races and dinners attended by sports stars.
Often, John was handed back money, then encouraged to fritter it away again, a familiar tactic.
This is a typical example: ‘Hope you are well. I have an offer today of a £100 free treble [picking three winners] ... if you do not make a profit, I will refund £100 in your account tomorrow.’
And here is another: ‘ I just wanted to let you know that you have been selected to take part in our VIP leaderboard where you can win cash prizes.’ And another: ‘Place a £100 treble on tennis markets today. If your bet loses, I will refund your account with a £100 tomorrow. Best of luck.’
In fact, John’s inbox rarely stopped ‘ pinging’ with emails from Betfair.
The final ‘ balance sheet’ is terrifying. Bets placed: in excess of £ 2 million. Free bets received: around £50,000. Losses sustained: in excess of £220,000.
Not surprisingly, John’s life unravelled during this process. He had to remortgage his home and suffered mental health issues. Betfair eventually agreed to substantially refund him.
The contract, containing the gagging clause, was emailed to him by Betfair’s social responsibility team, a job description which is almost beyond parody. ‘I was not offered legal advice,’ said John, who is now on the road to recovery. ‘I was on medication at the time and desperate, so I signed. I was grateful for the settlement.’
Flutter Entertainment issued a statement responding to the criticisms. ‘We take our responsibility to protect our customers very seriously and are always working hard to innovate effectively in this area,’ the company said.
‘This is true of all our customers, including VIP customers, and staff who interact regularly with this group of customers are trained to identify behavioural changes and know how to intervene when appropriate.
‘A huge amount has been done in recent years to strengthen our processes and ensure that when rewarding loyalty we are maintaining customers’ wellbeing as a priority and ensuring at-risk gamblers are not harmed in any way.’
HOWEVER MPs on the cross-party parliamentary group for gambling say the betting industry in general is ‘paying lip service’ to the code of practice, especially in relation to VIPs, a view shared by the Gambling Commission, which told us that it has had ‘concerns about the poor practice around the treatment of VIP customers for some time’.
Terry White was a VIP with numerous bookmakers. He blew £250,000 a few years ago and ended up relying on food banks.
‘I was frequently offered all sorts of inducements to tempt me into parting with even more money,’ said Mr White, 55, from Barry, South Wales.
‘They’d email me all the time with offers of hospitality days at prestigious horse racing events, Six Nations rugby matches and world snooker finals. This is even after I had contacted them to tell them I was a gambling addict and under no circumstances were they to contact me because it might set me back.
‘Even now I have friends through my campaigning work who are still offered these incentives long after they’ve pleaded with betting firms to leave them alone.’
Online forums are full of such testimonies. One in particular sums up the current predicament: ‘Gambling firms think winners steal all the money. But losers make them the money.’
The £19.7 million in fines imposed on the gambling industry last year represents just 0.13 per cent of the £14.5 billion of profits made by bookmakers. Paddy Power Betfair alone, as it was then, had annual revenues of £1.5 billion.
Which is why the odds on anything fundamentally changing in the foreseeable future seem very long indeed.