Most people talk about how the gambling companies do not do what they were supposed to, and do not intervene to stop them when they are gambling dangerously. Rather, gambling companies reward them to get them to gamble more.
People say it was obvious to the gambling companies that their gambling was out of control – the companies can see the vast amount or patterns of gambling, and the amount of time or money they are spending. But gambling companies do nothing to stop them. They use the information they have about customers to target them with offers and bonuses instead.
People say gambling companies do not care what harm is being done to their consumers. Because companies make more money from consumers who are gambling in harmful ways.
If this person’s betting 30, 40 times a day, and this where it can go to another authority for an authority to contact them and to say, “Are you in a good place? Is this affecting you?” I know the industry’s doing as much as it can, and I know the Gambling Commission do fine these big bookmakers, casinos, and what have you, millions of pounds due to actually exploiting people really. They don’t know the story behind any gambler, whether it’s a woman or a man. They don’t know whether they’ve got a family, whether they’ve got a good job, a bad job, whether they’re in thousands in debt, it’s all about taking the money.
I took out a 25 grand loan that night because I lost all the money for the builders. Fortunately, we’d paid a lot of it before, but there was still thousands and thousands to be paid to the builders. And then I took out a 25 grand loan and I put £22,000 into that Casumo account in two hours and 11 minutes. And nobody stopped it. I lost. I lost everything. And I stopped. I was like thank God it’s gone, and something hit me at that point it was, you’re going to kill yourself? Because if you kill yourself, you’ve left them with nothing.
I remember one stage, peak of gambling, I had £95,000, in my Bet365 account. I did not get one call from that company. What’s in your account? You should stop, you should take this out, you should invest it, you should do this. Instead, they gave me more free bets, to keep me going. It was like a like a drug. They were like the pushers as an addict, keeping you going, keeping you going, keeping you spending.
People say when they had slowed or stopped gambling in an account, they are sent bonuses to get them gambling again. As they gamble more, they get bigger bonuses. Bonuses do not actually benefit consumers or cost gambling companies anything, because these just lead people to lose the bonus and then even more of their own money. People are made VIPs because of what they spent, even if they are funding their gambling on credit or money taken from other people.
When I was online, I approached people and spoke about my gambling issues in terms of the providers. They then sent me £500 free credit to have a go, “see if you still like it”. That was one of the gambling providers. Rather than actually taking part in the safer gambling campaigns and things that they are meant to do it’s more encouraging [you] back in. Which was awful, a terrible, terrible time.
People mention how they are given rewards, like days out, and are made to feel special and important. VIP managers would seem to be their friend, and they would share personal information. The VIP managers then use this to send them messages or offers when they are vulnerable or have money available.
And the emails, the phone calls from my VIP manager, if I wasn’t on, “Is there anything wrong?”. The day my dad died, they phoned me. And they knew my dad was ill because I told them all. I told them I sold my house, told them I’d moved in with my dad. So, you know, they knew I was a cash pot and really, for a good probably eight months, they’d been grooming me anyway. They were my best friends.
But, you know, they were good to me. They talked to me and chatted to me and gave me presents, bonuses. They made me feel as though I was the only person in the world that was important. And at the time, no one else was doing that.
Using data to exploit people
People point out that gambling companies have a great deal of data on them. This is especially online, but also on the high street. Gambling companies are supposed to use this to protect consumers from being harmed. Instead they use people’s data to more effectively target them and get them to gamble, with offers and promotions tailored just for them. People say personalised marketing is not a benefit to consumers when it is about gambling. Because it is influencing them in sophisticated ways to do something that could harm them.
This myth that they don’t have the data. I mean, they’ve got plenty of data on the winning gamblers… I remember reading a story, somebody who used to work for [gambling company] saying that they would attach a value to players to say this person over this period of time is going to be worth this much money to us because this space on their pattern of play, this is how much they’re going to lose over time. And I 100 percent believe that… I mean, the sophistication of the data they have on people they can spot straight away within hours of somebody opening an account… The thing is a lot of these companies are interlinked now… they would be sharing all that information across all of those providers. So they would all know exactly how to get to you.
You know, when are you going to land based casinos for me, a lot of them have your membership cards. I was going in every day, every night, consecutively, for months. That should have been red, red flag warning signs coming off to have a phone conversation, pulled to one side, Is everything okay, but nothing. Nothing really so.