Euro 2020 is becoming Gambling 2021 and a real tragedy for those whose lives are decimated by it. The real losers at Wembley this week weren’t Croatia, but the millions dragooned into betting and losing money they can’t afford, triggered by online advertising which should be banned, and boosted by sports stars who should be ashamed of themselves.
Sky Bet’s social media is jam-packed with Euro 2020. All the tricks of the trade are on display on Facebook and Twitter, including memes and jokes to encourage likes, shares and retweets and promote the brand. “I want to take Spain seriously, I really do,” reads the first Paddy Power Facebook post on my iPhone. “But Álvaro Morata is their first-choice striker, so I’m afraid it’s a no from me.”
Once hooked, the aim is to reel the punters in and skin them for all they’re worth. “Place ANY bet on #ENGCRO & get a FREE £5 bet,” SkyBet declared with a matey thumbs up. Followed by “Don’t forget to opt-in” with an image of a mobile phone ensuring they were in perpetual contact.
According to a University of Glasgow study, problem sports gambling is now highest among young people, particularly the most digitally active. One respondent said: “a lot of children or teenagers are active watchers of football… you’re effectively advertising to children.
“If a child supports a team… and some gambling company has been sponsoring that team, that’s really getting in psychologically. I support Team X, that means I support the betting company.”
An astonishing £14bn is spent on gambling in the UK each year, with an estimated 60 per cent of profits coming solely from the addicted. Sports betting, which spiked in lockdown, is by far the biggest single slice of gambling, once lotteries and scratch-cards are put to one side. The monetary cost alone to society is estimated at £1.2bn per annum, impacting every institution from the NHS to the criminal justice system—but individuals and their families are the main casualties.
Late last year the government announced a review of the Gambling Act 2005. In my view the last Labour government made a mistake in dismantling regulation on gambling to the degree it did, although thankfully the Super Casinos never happened. However, online gambling brought a wholly new and more dangerous dimension to problem gambling, particularly among the young.
A reform plan is not hard to discern. Just copy what was done to tobacco advertising and sponsorship a generation ago. The EU banned tobacco advertising and sponsorship in 2001 and outlawed tobacco sports sponsorship in 2003. Michael Schumacher as a consequence ceased promoting Marlboro cigarettes, and quite rightly too.
But, alas, many sports made a beeline from tobacco to gambling, which is no better for those who develop a habit. Sixty per cent of problem gamblers suffer with depression, 13 per cent have attempted suicide, 46 per cent have stolen to finance their addiction and one in two have sold their possessions. For the millionaire protagonists of Euro 2020 to be encouraging those who can’t afford it down a path of ruin is simply obscene.
Denise Coates, the head of Bet365, was paid £421m last year, and with £48m dividends on top. She has certainly hit the jackpot, at more than a million pounds for each of the 365 days a year her industry deals in human misery. Precious few of the punters have similar luck. They need protection from today’s voracious online gambling firms, in a sector where the winner takes it all—and the winner is rarely them.
