Patrick Christys: We need to see much bigger fines for betting companies who break the rules

Britain’s got a gambling problem. It is not the gambling addicts; it is the betting companies.

In my opinion, they are the lowest of the low. They knowingly target the most vulnerable and clean them out financially, destroying lives and families, driving people to suicide, while they take their money away in wheelbarrows.

Sky Vegas has just been fined a poultry £1.2m for sending free casino spins to recovering addicts. It set a promotional offer to “Bet £5, get 100 free spins” - to 41,395 customers who had voluntarily self-excluded from gambling to stop. A further 249,159 customers who had unsubscribed from the operator’s marketing emails also received the promotion.

So, potentially, upwards of a quarter of a million problem gamblers. People who were trying to break the devastating cycle of addiction were having temptation dangled in front of their eyes by a betting company.

The promotional message even featured graphics of slot machines and the slogan: “Entertainment like no other.”

I tell you what they could do as their advertising campaign instead – a picture of a man crying on his living room floor while his wife and kids leave him, and the bailiffs repossess his house.

Look, I have many vices, I am sure that is obvious. And most people who gamble are not addicts, like most people who drink are not alcoholics. People enjoy it and they should be allowed to do whatever they want in a free country.

YouGov estimated that up to 2.7% of adults in Great Britain, or nearly 1.4 million people, were problem gamblers.

But it is not just the gamblers – it is their families. The report also found that as many as 7% of adults, or 3.6 million people, report having been negatively affected by someone else’s gambling problem.

So, when gambling firms target addicts, they are also targeting those who are even more vulnerable – disgruntled partners and their young children, or maybe their elderly parents who have to bail them out.

It is not just Sky Vegas. Far from it. 888 Casino was fined by the regulator for not properly identifying customers who were at risk of harm because it did not carry out financial checks until they had deposited £40,000.

In one case, the company did no checks on a customer until they had lost £37,000 in just six weeks during 2020.

In another case, 888 placed a deposit cap of £1,300 a month on the account of an NHS worker whom it knew earned £1,400 a month.

It is not the first time 888 has been in hot water. In 2017, the online betting firm was fined a record £7.8m for “outrageous” failings, after more than 7,000 people who had voluntarily banned themselves from gambling were still able to access their accounts.

One customer was allowed to make 850,000 bets worth £1.3 million in one year, using money stolen from their employer.

Meanwhile, the big bosses at gambling firms are some of the wealthiest people in Britain.

Bet365 boss Denise Coates took home about £300 million during its last financial year which is, remarkably, £170 million down on the previous year.

The billionaire founder of the online gambling firm received £250 million in salary and a share of the company's pay-out of £97.5 million in dividends.

The company also owns Stoke City Football club, and this opens another problem.

The relationship between gambling and sports is astonishing. Studies showed that gambling logos can appear 700 times during a football match. The adverts during the breaks usually involve a picture of Ray Winston’s face shouting “gamble, gamble, when is the next corner, number of yellow cards, gamble.”

I feel like we need to do more for our gambling addicts. They are human beings, not cash cows for heartless and soulless multi-billion-pound corporations. If they will not do it for them, then please do it for the partners and children who are also having their lives ruined.

When gambling companies are fined just a couple of million pounds, it does not affect them. Their bosses make that every day. When gambling firms target recovering addicts, people die and lives are shattered. That is the difference.

We need to see much bigger fines for companies who break the rules.