Father whose son died after gambling addiction says companies are 'grooming' next generation

Video report by Granada Reports' journalist, Tim Scott

A man whose son took his own life after racking up gambling debts says the normalisation of gambling is akin to "grooming".

John Myers' son, Ryan, died in May 2014 because of a gambling addiction.

“I would like to see a ban on gambling adverts, just like we did with cigarettes and alcohol, if not I want to see them curtail as much as possible," the dad from Merseyside said.

"I want adverts to be out there that show the downside of it, not all of these adverts that we have now where everybody’s happy and everyone wins, nobody ever loses.

"Everybody goes home in a good mood and the adverts that they have to help gamblers... the latest one is tap out, they’ve got a fella being wrestled to the ground, smiling and grinning, tap out.

"They’re just useless, they don’t do anything."

Mr Myers has been working with Gambling With Lives, which helped him see that there were other parents who had been in the same situation as him.

Their data shows that there are more than 400 suicides from gambling addiction per year, with 86% of the profits from gambling from the 5% of customers who are already addicted or who have a serious risk of addiction.

In particular, Mr Myers says the gambling adverts in sport are problematic.

“The kids see that as a normal part of going to a football match and that’s grooming," he said.

"Grooming the next generation of addicts... something like 80% of online profits are made from problem gamblers, so they need problem gamblers.

"That is the way they’re making the money, and that is why they like to be in football and that is why they are normalising gambling.”

After his son died, Mr Myers also looked through his social media accounts and has been using his past conversations to try and navigate the changes he believes need to be made.

He said: “They definitely should be more accountable to people, at the moment, all there is is that it’s the addicts fault.

"You, you, you - you change. It’s not about them changing or doing anything different, not about them stopping getting in touch with gamblers who they know have lost a lot of money.

"Let’s be honest, they know when people are losing money and what they do when people are losing money, they make them VIPs and offer them more free bets.

"Another thing my son said, if he did stop, as soon as he did stop, the texts would start coming and they’d start texting him, giving him free bets.

"The free bets would start at £5 and go up to £10, £15 and this is another thing they do, they know the people can’t afford to lose the money, they can see that the people have spent a lot of money, but they still allow them to carry on spending money and then they send them free bets which is totally wrong."

After the White Paper published on Thursday 27 April, gambling companies will now be forced to step up checks on punters "to better protect even those unable to afford small losses".

These plans aim to tackle addiction in the biggest shake-up of the industry's regulations in 15 years.

Plans also include maximum stakes for online slot machines of between £2 and £15 for all customers subject to consultation and a new statutory levy which will see gambling companies required to fund more groundbreaking research, education and treatment, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said.

Ms Frazer said in a statement to the Commons: "We need a new approach that reflects that a flutter is one thing, unchecked addiction is another.

"So today we are bringing our pre-smartphone regulations into the present day with a gambling White Paper for the digital age."

Survivors of gambling addiction have welcomed the government's plans, and say they are a step in the right direction.

David Quinti, who has not gambled for eight years, said: “It’s a step in the right direction.”

Mr Quinti, 48, from Stockport in Greater Manchester, had struggled with gambling for a decade and lost around £30,000.

He started by placing bets on football matches but the problem intensified when he started gambling online.

But after his son, then aged eight, saw him gambling on an iPad at home one day and asked him to stop he sought help and is now a member of GambleAware’s lived experience council and an ambassador for GamCare.

He said he hoped that in future, gambling advertising could be tackled in terms of making people aware of whether they are gambling safely or are in need of help.

He said: “Advertising draws people in with the colours and the opportunities and the excitement.

“I don’t think there needs to be a total ban but the ads need to be targeted more towards being safe. At the minute it feels like it’s a tick box.”

Ministers are undertaking the most comprehensive review of gambling laws in 15 years to ensure they are fit for the digital age.

Mr Myers says checks should include "affordability".

"They would have to have affordability checks," he said.

To turn around and say affordability checks aren’t feasible, well banks do it, credit card companies do it - there’s no reason why the gambling companies can’t do it."

But Lucy Frazer said the new gambling white paper would cover "six key areas" of reform.

She told MPs: "Firstly, we want to tackle some of the challenges unique to online gambling. Campaigners have expressed to me the one thing that differentiates problem gambling from so many other forms of addiction is that it can often take place in secret.

"So, we are going to force companies to step up their checks on when losses are likely to be unaffordable or harmful for punters.

"Companies already have to intervene when they know a customer is spending vast sums, but this change will better-protect those least able to afford even small losses.

"On top of the checks, we plan to bring in online slot games more in line with bricks and mortar equivalents, with a stake limit on online slots of between #2 and #15, subject to consultation."

For people like John, who have lost their children to gambling, they feel the change needs to be more stringent.

“The problem we’ve got is that we are just ordinary people and we are fighting and trying our best to get some changes, we’re not against people spending money how they want, we're not against people gambling, what we’re against is the predatory gambling companies.

"The problem we’ve got is that they’ve got all the lobbyists, they’ve got all the money, they can get MPS and give them free bets, they can take them to games, they can do everything they want to try to get it changed."

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