Bet firm helped addict hide habit

Staff agreed not to mention father of two’s £100k-a-year losses to wife

A LEADING betting firm helped a gambling addict lie to his wife about his problem as he hid losses of £100,000 a year.

Betfair allowed the former City trader to have VIP status on the site, which provided him with cashback on his losses as well as tickets to sporting events such as the Ascot races.

The father- of-two, who has asked to remain anonymous, was told by a VIP account manager in an email that she had helped ‘loads of customers’ cover up their gambling, The Sun reported.

The customer was concerned that he had spent a crippling amount of money betting on races but did not want his wife to know how much.

He was told: ‘Don’t worry about that. I have told my colleagues who are hosting [at Ascot] tomorrow so they are aware. The [corporate] box is branded though and does say Betfair in large letters on the wall, but I’ve hosted loads of customers who say they have won tickets through work or TV competition etc and never had a problem.’

According to the Gambling Commission, lying about gambling and hiding the problem from others is one of the first signs of addiction.

The customer said he was also offered a 10 per cent refund on any losses he made which could be spent in Betfair credit. Campaigners say this keeps addicts locked into a cycle of betting from which they cannot escape.

The customer said: ‘It has been a disaster which has ruined my life. I’m still recovering from it now. Earning £100,000 a year would put me in the top 1 per cent of earners and would still mean me gambling my entire salary away. But I was sent one cursory email in two years asking if I was “comfortable” with my betting. I replied “yes” and that was it.’

During that time, rival betting company William Hill prevented him from betting because of the large losses, and asked him for proof of income. He therefore thinks Betfair should have done something more to help.

He added: ‘The fact I was asking them to hide my gambling from my wife should surely have been a sign that something was wrong. But not only did they not intervene, they actively helped me carry on the lie.’

His case has been reported to the Gambling Commission.

Betfair said: ‘For lots of reasons, we don’t comment on individual customer accounts or their betting activity, but we take our responsibilities to prevent harmful betting very seriously. We have a range of tools available for customers on our sites [and] are constantly evolving our processes.’

‘It has been a disaster’