William Hill: Gambling addict says bookmaker didn’t help him stop

A gambling addict said bookmaker William Hill should have done more to help him stop betting when he was betting thousands of dollars on a single bet.

Matthew, not his real name and originally from South Wales, owed William Hill over £70,000 between 2012 and 2019.

The phone calls showed him angry and upset, and gambling rules said bookmakers were required to intervene at signs of distress.

William Hill said he found no flaws in the procedure.

A teacher and father of three, Matthew had a salary of around £35,000 a year when he started betting small on big events such as the Grand National.

In time, he opened an online account and took advantage of free betting.

He said this escalated as stakes increased from a few pounds to £10,000 at a time, “chasing” small losses.

William Hill made him a Gold Customer (VIP scheme).

In a Radio 4 documentary called Desperate Calls, Matthew listened back to 89 phone conversations with William Hill.

Most of these were able to withdraw money directly to bookmakers without waiting for the money to be deposited in their bank accounts by using a service called “QuickCash”.

William Hill’s service is now called CashDirect.

Sometimes he left the store with £5,000 in cash.

Dozens of these phones were made from a dilapidated phone booth just outside the store.

He had spent so much money gambling that he couldn’t afford to pay his cell phone bill.

William Hill said Matthew won many times and withdrew thousands of dollars from his account, but Matthew said he would re-gamble those winnings immediately.

He said: “The dynamics changed rapidly and life revolved around gambling.

“Looking back, my life has been a blur. I have trouble remembering most of the last decade, but apart from a few very dark thoughts, severe depressions and unusual elation, my family We weren’t focused on our friends or people close to us.”

He still owes £70,000 to family and friends.

Many of the calls he made to William Hill indicated he was angry and upset.

The Gambling Commission has rules stating that operators must find problem gamblers and intervene if they show signs of distress.

Matthew said William Hill did not confirm these points with him and allowed the bet to continue.

A staff member of William Hill’s due diligence team called Matthew after he said in an email that he wanted to “self-exclude” because he was upset about the lack of free bets.

This meant closing his account outright and banning him from other better sites online as well.

However, during the conversation, staff members discussed self-exclusion and other processes to curb Matthew’s gambling, but ultimately allowed Matthew to continue gambling. Liability issues.

Matthew didn’t say there was a problem because “stopping at that point isn’t the desired result.”

“The bottom line is that I just want to win. [the money] return”.

It reached a point when Matthew learned he had to stop gambling. His family took him to a GP and he has been receiving counseling to treat his gambling disorder ever since.

But Matthew wanted to know what had happened: “After the gambling cycle was broken, I analyzed the pile of data obtained in a certain way. Subject access requestI wrote a letter of complaint to William Hill. ”

William Hill said:

“Ensuring high standards of safer gambling and preventing gambling-related harm is central to the way William Hill operates and we take customer complaints in this area very seriously and will continue to do so in this area. We are committed to promoting continuous improvement.”

Bookmakers were fined £6.2m in 2018 for failing to protect consumers.

Many of the incidents noted by regulators are similar to Matthew’s and occurred around the same time.

A UK government white paper is due to be published soon, with rigorous affordability checks and new ombudsman recommendations for consumer complaints expected.

Currently, those who lodge social responsibility complaints can only write to the Gambling Commission. The Commission cannot comment on what action it is taking.

Matthew said: