Gambling watchdog only investigated the suicides of 9 addicts
Betting firms ‘failing to learn’ from tragedies
THE betting industry was yesterday accused of failing to learn lessons from dozens of gambling-linked suicides.
The Gambling Commission has looked into just nine deaths since 2016 – a tiny proportion of the total number.
Yet there are thought to be 409 gambling suicides a year in England alone, according to research by Public Health England, formerly an agency of the Department of Health.
Campaigners said it was a ‘national scandal’ that the betting industry, which nets £14billion in customer losses every year, had failed to learn lessons from the deaths. They blamed ‘inadequate reporting and investigation’ and questioned why the commission had not been notified of more suicides.
A Daily Mail investigation published yesterday revealed up to 115 suicides in which problem gambling was a significant factor.
Bereaved families said the devastating roll- call of names showed ‘the stark reality’ of the harm caused by ‘greedy and amoral’ companies. Despite this, just three fines totalling £5million have been issued over suicides.
Aspers Casino was fined after businessman Huseyin Yaman took his own life in 2018, hours after losing £25,000 on ‘crack cocaine’ slot machines in its casino in London.
Witnesses said he was spoken to twice to see if he had a problem but was not removed from the casino. Playtech was fined £3.5million after the death of engineer Chris Bruney in 2017, who took his own life hours after he was handed a £400 cash bonus.
The case was investigated only after the family reported his death to the regulator and provided data collected by Mr Bruney’s bereaved partner from his betting account.
Gamesys, the owner of Jackpotjoy and Virgin Games, has also been fined, while William Hill was handed an ‘advice notice’ in 2017.
Three investigations are ongoing. Liz Ritchie, co-founder of the charity Gambling with Lives, whose son Jack took his own life in 2017, said: ‘The failure to learn lessons from gambling-related deaths has been a national scandal.
‘Gambling deaths have not been reported or investigated adequately. Bereaved families want to stop this devastating trauma happening to others and want to help the Gambling Commission learn lessons from every single death.’
The Betting and Gaming Council, an industry lobby group, said the PHE study was unreliable due to its small sample size and flawed methodology. A spokesman added: ‘We are encouraged by the latest figures from the Gambling Commission that showed the rate of problem gambling was 0.2 per cent – down from 0.4 the year previous.’
The Gambling Commission said it took regulatory action in cases of suicide where operators had ‘failed to act appropriately’.
The row comes amid fears that moves to tighten gambling rules are being ditched because of resistance from No 10 advisers and Cabinet Office minister Jacob Rees-Mogg. He is said to oppose restrictions on private lives.