A teacher from South Wales has spoken of how he nearly lost his family after gambling away tens of thousands of pounds.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Desperate Calls, Matthew, not his real name, said he still owes at least £70,000 after regularly staking his salary, while lying to his family and feeling too ashamed to even look at his children.
Now a recovering gambling addict, he used the records of his phone calls to William Hill to expose the lack of gambling regulation, especially online.
Family
‘Matthew’ explained that during his seven years betting with William Hill, he handed over almost £210,000. Approximately 20 bets were over £5,000, including one for £10,000.
During one phone call to the betting company, he can be heard ignoring his child’s calls for “Daddy”.
Matthew said: “You feel you’ve missed out, that you were there, but my mind probably wasn’t there, it was worried about where I’m getting money”, but he later realised “the gambling had to stop or I would lose my family”.
the greater prize
He added: “I think the strength was obviously the children, for a long time I could barely look at my children, particularly when the losses were monthly but with that focus of them it was the greater prize really”.
Record fine
During his time gambling with William Hill, he said he was only contacted once to see if he could afford his betting but was never asked to provide evidence. He explained how he could set up an online account in a couple of minutes and was never given a deposit limit.
The betting company has been forced to pay a record fine of £19.2 million, after the Gambling Commission found it had allowed several gamblers to spend tens of thousands of pounds without checks.
One gambler was able to bet £23,000 in the first 20 minutes of opening their account, while another lost £14,902 in just over an hour.
The Gambling Commission’s Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Rhodes, said the failures were “so widespread and alarming” the watchdog “opted for largest enforcement payment in our history”.
widespread and alarming failures
Debt
Last month, another man from Wales revealed how compulsive gambling resulted in him losing half a million pounds and left him with crippling debt.
Jordan Lea first got involved with betting through online video games in his mid-teens, and said by the time he reached adulthood, he was “primed for quite a severe gambling addiction”.
He even turned to crime to fund his gambling habit.
Scotland must tackle gambling industry ‘immediately’