The gambling industry is a parasite that is taking over its host - and the highest prevalence of gambling is in Britain’s poorest communities. I believe the relationship is much more deadly than that. The logos were on hoardings, on screens, on kit, even on the tracksuits worn by the physios.Įveryone sees these adverts, including children who may grow up assuming that football and gambling are natural partners going hand in hand. These were not subliminal glimpses: Ireland discounted any branding that did not remain on screen for at least two seconds. I spoke to one academic, Robin Ireland at the University of Glasgow, who found that in one televised match between Newcastle United and Wolverhampton Wanderers, viewers were shown 716 - yes, 716! - gambling logos. In the Premier League, 85 per cent of clubs have a betting partner. The industry sponsors everything from shirts to stadiums to entire leagues. I know people on their third divorce who still support the club they fell for in their schooldays.īut football and gambling are now completely enmeshed. In fact, the longest love affair of your life might not be with another human being. Mine was Dunfermline Athletic and that will never change. If you are like me, you lost your heart in childhood to a football club.
It shouldn’t be possible for under-18s to bet - but it happens all the time, and I’m sure the promotion of gambling through football is one way children are sucked in. One of the most frightening facts I discovered while making a documentary for Channel 4 was that about 55,000 children in the UK have a gambling problem. It is still possible to lose substantial sums of money - but that risk is dwarfed by the losses possible when playing online. In a betting shop, fixed-odds terminals operate with a limited maximum stake and a delay between each game.
Gambling sites offer ways to bet far beyond what is possible in a physical setting. Today, we each have a potential supercasino in our pocket in the shape of a smartphone. When the 2005 Act was passed by the Labour government, much of the concern centred on so-called super-casinos - betting emporia in the Las Vegas style. With Westminster drawing up new legislation - the first major gambling Bill to be discussed by Parliament since the Gambling Act of 2005 - the need to highlight the problem is urgent. It’s not only offshore companies that are reluctant to act, he says: ‘In some ways, governments have got addicted to the tax gambling generates.’īut football led James into an addiction that began with £5 bets on games when he was just 16 years old, then spiralled until he was a university student playing night and day at casinos and online. Today, via his charity The Big Step, he campaigns against the insidious links between football clubs and the gambling industry He stepped down in 2016, frustrated that his concerns about problem gambling were not being taken seriously. My conclusions are echoed by Stewart Kenny, the businessman who co-founded one of the most successful betting websites, Paddy Power. In the UK, between 250 and 600 people a year kill themselves because they see no escape from gambling. We can no longer hope the industry will act effectively to protect the tens of thousands being destroyed by their gambling addiction. The level of harm inflicted by online betting is so high, I believe the Government must intervene. As I peeled back the layers of this complex multibillion-pound economy, more and more damaged lives were revealed. What I found in my own investigation into gambling and football horrified me. Today, via his charity The Big Step, he campaigns against the insidious links between football clubs and the gambling industry. ‘I lost two jobs, I lost friendships, I lost relationships and trust with my family.’ He was left with £100,000 of debt - ‘but it’s the thing I look back on with the least amount of regret,’ he says of the money. That’s certainly how James Grimes (pictured) felt about it The game delivers a thrill like no other. Britain is a nation of football fanatics and our excitement is building for the Euro championships that start on Friday.
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