Steep rise in gambling and gambling complaints

[Fambo Number Mive]

The number of gamblers complaining about British betting firms has risen almost 5,000% in the past five years.

There were a record 8,266 complaints last year, Gambling Commission figures obtained by BBC Panorama. That compares to just 169 in 2013.

Most of them were about firms refusing to pay out on winning bets or failing to operate in a socially responsible way.

The rise follows a sharp increase in UK gambling over the past decade.

industry has expanded rapidly since the government relaxed
restrictions on betting and advertising in 2007.

Gamblers are now losing almost twice as much to the betting companies as they were a decade ago. Last year, punters lost a record £14.5bn.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49284169

Wouldn't the country be better off with a much more regulated gambling industry? Centrists fail to mention the relaxation of gambling when they praise New Labour. I'm sure Corbyns Labour will do something about the lax gambling regulations when they come to power.

[BlodwynPig]

I see no long term worth of allowing gambling at all. Of course, it would be driven underground causing more problems if banned, but current gambling culture is taking the piss. Rooney 32

[Kalabi]

I've always thought the offering of free spins / bets is well dodgy, like handing out free cigarettes.

[Head Gardener]

I won a lucky dip on my Lotto ticket but like a fool asked for another lucky dip for Wednesday

[imitationleather]

Evens (2.0) on sponsorship from gambling companies for sports being banned within twenty years.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

You don't want a situation like in many Islamic countries where there is an enormous blackmarket in gambling, so regulation should really involve limiting stakes and making it more onerous to place large bets.

This is another issue where liberals really just open the door to exploitation, but it's fine because I* a white stable moneyed person enjoys a flutter on Derby day.

Not I personally, I would rather eat turd in Dachau.

[Huxleys Babkins]

You don't want a situation like in many Islamic countries where there is an enormous blackmarket in gambling, so regulation should really involve limiting stakes and making it more onerous to place large bets.

No need.

The Gambling Commission said it had no plans to introduce maximum stakes online because operators already have enough information to keep players safe and to ensure they are playing with money they can afford to lose.

*citation needed*

[marquis_de_sad]

Self-regulation has never not worked before, right?

[Goldentony]

gambling is a right laugh and there's nothing better than loasing the lot on the fruitys but we need to curb the amount of adverts and bring back mechanical fruitys with no electro chips as a mind because they have cameras in that film cunts faces and only pay out to absolute sods while uncle jimmy has to hold himself back from giving the Deal Or No Deal machine a fucking RENE HIGUITA

[José]

financial darwinism innit.

[idunnosomename]

better being underground than all over youtube and twitter etc. fuckin appalling state of affairs

[Paul Calf]

The Gambling Commission said it had no plans to introduce maximum stakes online because operators already have enough information to keep players safe and to ensure they are playing with money they can afford to lose, before returning to hoover another line of 888-funded crank from the buttocks of a PokerStars-sponsored hooker.

[Sebastian Cobb]

It needs more regulation especially around advertising and fixed odds betting (online/terminals) but I see no reason to ban it from a civil liberties standpoint, it would just go underground anyway.

[Fambo Number Mive]

As you say, I don't think an outright ban would work. Perhaps it should be treated a bit more like smoking with a ban on advertising and betting shops having pictures of the harm gambling can cause on the outside. The way smoking is seen has changed a lot in the past few decades, the same can be done with gambling (and to an extent some aspects of drinking).

[Huxleys Babkins]

As I mentioned in the thread in Picture Box about gambling ads, there's never any downside shown in the ads. Everyone's constantly having fun, always winning, partying. Even the more serious ads take on the tone that you're part of an exclusive club, building up your sporting knowledge.

The worst was the GambleAware ad. Even an ad designed to get people to recognise the signs of problem gambling starts with a bloke losing some money and then the rest of it is a lovely little singalong to Ram Jam.

The industry has proved it can't be trusted to be responsible with it's messaging, so it's long past time those ads were banned.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Just saw a gambling ad on the Guardian website. Surely they should take a stand against taking money from gambling companies?

[Blue Jam]

What about sponsorship of sporting events? The gambling industry has replaced the tobacco and alcohol industries there, how long has it got?

Pffffft, it'll be alright, every snooker tournament can just be sponsored by Regaine, and all other sports don't matter.

[pupshaw]

If people want to gamble then we should aim to return to some of the regulations of the 1968 Gaming Act.

No "Fun" gambling games.
No "themed" gambling machines.
All machines random, with transparent payout rules.
No celebrity come-on
No advertising, promotions, free bets or offers.

For the gambling industry it's not a bit of fun, whatever they might say. They only make gambling
entertaining so that you gamble, and therefore lose, more.

[Icehaven]

Perhaps it should be treated a bit more like smoking with a ban on advertising and betting shops having pictures of the harm gambling can cause on the outside.

That's not a bad shout actually, you could have huge posters of that hideously annoying ''areyougonnabingo'' woman crying her eyes out as her husband walks out of their home with the kids, 'REPOSSESSED'' signs stuck on the windows and a large pile of final demands addressed to 'areyougonnabingowoman' tumbling through the letterbox. Or any of the numerous celebs who've been in gambling ads hanging themselves in front of funfair lights spelling out DEBT.

[Head Gardener]

got a quid on Liverpool winning 4:0 tonight, I'm fuckin' mad me!

[Icehaven]

Sorry double post.

[greenman]

That's not a bad shout actually, you could have huge posters of that hideously annoying ''areyougonnabingo'' woman crying her eyes out as her husband walks out of their home with the kids, 'REPOSSESSED'' signs stuck on the windows and a large pile of final demands addressed to 'areyougonnabingowoman' tumbling through the letterbox. Or any of the numerous celebs who've been in gambling ads hanging themselves in front of funfair lights spelling out DEBT.

Winston remaking Get Carter but giving Chris Kamara the coal treatment for a gambling debt ?

[chveik]

That's not a bad shout actually, you could have huge posters of that hideously annoying ''areyougonnabingo'' woman crying her eyes out as her husband walks out of their home with the kids, 'REPOSSESSED'' signs stuck on the windows and a large pile of final demands addressed to 'areyougonnabingowoman' tumbling through the letterbox. Or any of the numerous celebs who've been in gambling ads hanging themselves in front of funfair lights spelling out DEBT.

I laughed

[Rizla]

That's not a bad shout actually, you could have huge posters of that hideously annoying ''areyougonnabingo'' woman crying her eyes out as her husband walks out of their home with the kids, 'REPOSSESSED'' signs stuck on the windows and a large pile of final demands addressed to 'areyougonnabingowoman' tumbling through the letterbox. Or any of the numerous celebs who've been in gambling ads hanging themselves in front of funfair lights spelling out DEBT.

One of my compositions was used on a shit TV ad for online bingo a few years ago; at the time I was swithering about letting them use it and eventually decided to withhold my permission despite being skint, partly because I disagree with the principle but also, I'll admit, because the money they were offering was crap. Anyhoo, some wires got crossed and the ad company went ahead with it, and as a result the owners of the recording rights to the tune (big, household name label with had a hella scary legal dept) took em to the cleaners. Basically they had to pay what the label asked or they'd have got they asses sued, and thanks to the favoured nations clause and the fact I own my own publishing co, ol' Rizla ended up a sizeable (5-figures) sum to the good. They also only got to use it for a week, instead of the usual 6 months they tried for. I have a suspicion the advertising agency went under not long after. Which was nice.

tl;dr i won money from gambling!

[Sorry Monkeys]

I've not been majorly stiffed by a bookie myself, but I've heard some horror stories. People getting their accounts locked with thousands in.

Justice for Punters on Twitter has a lot of info. One thing bookies do- they might post overly favourable odds on a bet by mistake- fair enough, it happens. If the bet wins, they palp it- palpable error- refund the customer. However, if the bet loses, they keep the money- no palp, no refund. Sneaky behaviour.

edit- there's also a certain amount of grey area about what constitutes a palp. With certain bookies, a palp sometimes means "a bet we don't feel like paying out on".

Worst bookies in my opinion- Coral/ladbrokes. Recently fined £5.9 million for failing to protect problem gamblers.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I worked for one of them over 10 years ago when I was a student. There was one particular shop a local businessman frequented and they totally let him credit bet and put bets on over the phone. The safe once said there was 70 grand in there, they'd have been lucky if there was 2.

Of course all the more senior staff knew, but gave themselves enough plausible deniability that the buck would've (perhaps did, I heard something went down and saw them in a different non-bookie job a few years later) stopped with the shop managers.

[Ferris]

The availability of gambling (and booze for that matter) is something that always seems jarring whenever I'm in the UK. Bookies in every high street or small clump of shops.

To bet in Canada, you have to go to horrible off-track betting facilities populated by unhappy chain-smoking Chinese fellas in flat caps and the whole place looks like a slaughter house. Boarded up windows and that. I've never gambled here obvs because it looks terrifying.

In the UK, I can get an app and be gambling at any time. That seems a bit excessive, like having downloadable booze through my phone or cigs that come out the tap. Make it more available, it's more of a problem. I don't buy Villa jerseys when they're sponsored by gambling companies, but that's nearly every year at this point.

A bit more legislation wouldn't go awry in my opinion.

[Paul Calf]

Aston Villa?

I don't know why but I'm both comforted and amused by that.

[Ferris]

Aston Villa?

I don't know why but I'm both comforted and amused by that.

I know - fancy not supporting the Top Six Hegemony as their total financial domination over English soccer strangles all competition and permanently hobbles the sport!

What am I like, eh?

[bgmnts]

I know - fancy not supporting the Top Six Hegemony as their total financial domination over English soccer strangles all competition and permanently hobbles the sport!

What am I like, eh?

Aston Villa has won the sixth-most elite honours (25) among English football clubs