Football's Gambling Addiction: Expert on betting sponsorship

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

The UK regulator has written to numerous licenced operators – bookmakers and online casinos – asking for their help in “identifying more information” in relation to 10 individuals who took their own lives.

Commission chiefs are seeking information on whether gambling firms had accounts open with the victims at the time.

The list of those who died is understood to include the former footballer Joey Beauchamp. The 50-year-old ex-West Ham and Oxford United star was found by his brother in Kidlington on 19 February. 

Oxford Coroner’s Court later heard Mr Beauchamp had endured a “difficult couple of years”, in which he was sectioned and his mother died. 

Despite relatives’ concerns, he had declined help from mental health services in the weeks before his death, but had also struggled with gambling. 

According to the Earnings and More newsletter https://earningsandmore.substack.com/, the Commission letter – believed to have been sent to the owners of well-known bookmakers including the likes of PaddyPower and Betfair – lists Mr Beauchamp among 10 names of suicide victims where the deaths may have also had a link to gambling.

And the watchdog tells bookmakers that “at this stage we simply ask (that) you review your customer database and advise whether you have any records of a customer relationship with any of these individuals”.

“Given the limited nature of the information we have provided,” the letter adds, “you may want to conduct open-source or other checks to cross-reference what you find.”

The Commission then warns that if an operator were to find evidence of a customer relationship with any of the 10, it wants more information regarding how much the individual may have lost.

It further asks for “Clarification if you were aware of any concerns about Gambling related harm” and “Clarification as to whether you were aware that an individual had taken their own life.”

The issue of gambling and suicide has long been a contentious one.

A Public Health England (PHE) study published almost a year ago suggested that gambling can “increase the likelihood of some people thinking about, attempting or dying from suicide”. 

A key statistic from that report suggesting that people with a gambling disorder were 19 times more at risk from dying from suicide – though this has been disputed.

After a recent Freedom of Information request to the Department of Health, the government admitted the report mistakenly ascribed the calculation from a Swedish study of pathological gamblers.

Last night, the Gambling Commission did not respond to a request for a comment about the letter.

But a spokesman for the Betting and Gaming Council, the single industry body for UK betting and gaming, said: “Any suicide is a terrible tragedy and we are not in any position, nor would it be right, for us to comment on any tragic individual case.

“As the mental health charity MIND and others acknowledge the reasons behind any suicide are “complex and can have lots of different causes”.

“Some 22.5 million adults enjoy a flutter each month, whether that’s on racing, buying a lottery ticket, playing bingo and casino games, or having bet on the football and other sports. The latest statistics from the Gambling Commission showed the rate of problem gambling in the year to June 2022 was 0.2 per cent of the population.

“Our largest members pledged an additional £100m of funding between 2019 and 2023 for research, education and treatment services to tackle problem gambling to be administered by the independent charity GambleAware.”

Source: Read Full Article