Online Gambling Addiction - Make it illegal to accept credit cards for online gambling transactions.

In the summer of 2008 I lost more than 50,000 EUR in a period of just two months playing online roulette and slots via my notebook and mobile phone. 

At one point I was actually 16,000 EUR in profit but the casino concerned kept enticing me back with promotions to keep me playing. Of course as a gambling addict I couldn’t resist and it wasn’t long before I was into the red.

Now into the zone of chasing losses the casino had me completely hooked and they would refund me quite large percentages of my losses as free credit to keep me going and to ensure that over time they took all of my money. 

I was gambling max bets on a single number which for this particular casino was £100 per number. Neither my bank nor the online casino saw anything strange in my making multiple £1000 + deposits from my credit cards with sometimes minutes in between.

When I flagged up to the casino that I had a problem they offered a responsible gambling limit of £25,000 monthly! and even more promotions to keep me gambling. 

I played at all times of day and night until the money ran out and I had spent more than £50,000 on credit cards. 

With the UK online gambling now a £2 billion business gambling addiction has become a serious problem.

It is time to regulate the online gambling industry to protect against gambling addiction and make it illegal to accept credit cards / overdrafts for online gambling transactions. 

As an argument for balance between safeguarding vulnerable people like myself and freedom of choice it makes sense.

Tweets by @GamblingHurts

My name is Anthony Franklin and this why I support the @stopthefobts campaign.

I started gambling on 'slots' when I was 11 years of age, I was completely hooked by 13 years. So I was still a child. I progressed with my gambling addiction through my teens and into my adulthood playing the slots in the pubs, arcades, railway stations and working mans’ clubs.

Through this time I undoubtedly lost a lot of money but there were limits restricted by the stakes, and the knowledge that jackpots came around infrequently. I was not able to stay off the machines per se but I was able to come off playing one machine and move to another with breaks in-between.

When the FOBTs started to appear in the betting shops I was very quickly completely hooked on them. I would only ever play the roulette and I would always play the same numbers – 3, 15, 26, 28, 29, and 32.
With roulette it was possible to hit one of your numbers in concurrent plays (obviously not a probability) and win a substantial amount of money in a short space of time. For the addict mind this was absolutely disastrous as it reinforced irrational thinking that you could beat the system and win money. This, the high stakes, and the speed of play is why FOBTs are so dangerous.

In addition the industry has in my view circumvented the ‘spirit’ of the Gambling Act 2005 by opening multiple betting shops in close proximity to get around the 4 FOBTs per shop rule. It would be wrong not to also mention internet gambling and online casinos where it is also possible to lose vast sums of money around the clock. And indeed I did.

Playing FOBTs, EGMs and online casinos I have lost £100,000s. This was money I could not afford to lose and included in small part my earnings but also huge amounts of debt that I could never pay back.

For most addicts there are no ‘sane’ limits to the amount of cash that you can feed into FOBTs, I have lost on many occasions a months earnings (several thousand pounds) in one session. I knew that I had a problem but couldn’t admit it to others, so the pain and devastation of losing this amount of money and the feelings of stupidity and subsequent depression I cannot describe.

I want to talk about my loved ones a little too, what did my children do to deserve going without food or clothes as a result of living with my ‘crack cocaine’ gambling addiction. My wife had no idea of my gambling addiction when she met me and even when she knew about my problem, it took her a very long time to grasp the scale of the issue and not before she had also accrued huge debts to try and bail me out. She didn’t really understand the issues either and I was very good at hiding the problem and its scale as well as feeling ashamed.

These machines have input from psychologists in the design process, they are designed to hook people into play, and they are extremely dangerous for some people. It is right and proper for the government to legislate appropriate restrictions for dangerous products, as we regulate drugs, guns etc.

For reference there is a good piece of research by Dr Luke Clarke (Cambridge University) – ‘Near Misses’ that provides some insight into what goes on in the addict brain.

I have had many periods of heavy losses but the last time I had a huge period of losing was in the summer of 2008 when I lost approx. £100,000 playing on FOBTs, EGMs, and online casinos over a two month period.
I lost my home and as a result I now live separately from my wife and son for practical reasons although we are still a family. Nearly five years on I am still penniless, in debt, and for eighteen months unemployed. This is what gambling addiction does to people, it causes pain, misery and it splits families up.

If you are reading this I do hope it convinces you to support the Stop the FOBTs campaign.

You can follow me on twitter @ www.twitter.com/gamblinghurts
You can follow me on facebook @ www.facebook.com/gamblinghurts

I campaign for the following:
1. Lower FOBT maximum stake from £100 to £2.
2. Increase minimum age for Category D machines to 18.
3. Remove FOBTs from betting shops.
4. Tax online casinos at point of access.
5. Ban the use of credit cards for gambling transactions.

Food or Betting Terminals (FOBTs)

Removing high stakes casino style betting terminals from the high street is something I'm really passionate about and is something I can speak about from personal experience having lost £100,000s in these betting terminals both in the UK and across Europe. 

The reality for hundreds of thousands of kids in the UK, and millions around the world is that they are going without food and other living essentials because they live with a parent who is addicted to high stake casino style electronic gambling terminals.

In the UK these machines are known as Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs). They were introduced into British betting shops in 2001 after the then Chancellor Gordon Brown abolished duty on individual bets in favour of a tax on bookmakers gross profits. 

 







2012 FOBT statistics

• UK install base 34,000 FOBT (2012)
• Generate £3.68 billion profits. (Source Daily Mail)
• Estimated £46 billion staked. (Source William Hill/Ladbrokes)

Data from the 2010 gambling prevalance survey shows that only 4% of adults who gamble play these FOBT machines. (1.46 million)

Recent research shows that 23% of FOBT players are addicted. That is more than 300,000 people addicted to these betting terminals alone.

The UK Gambling industry as a whole are contributing a miserly £5 million to combating gambling addiction whilst they cash in to the tune of £850 million a year from FOBT misery and depriving kids and families from having food on the table.

These machines are dangerous, yet the vast majority of the UK population, more than 96% don't play them and most don't even know what they are or care about their existence.

Our government continues to allow a product that is harmful for nearly a quarter of its users to be available and marketed.

Its time to take action and to join the campaign to STOP THE FOBTs. 

High stakes casino style betting terminals have different names in different regions. 
- UK (FOBTs), Australia (pokies), - Mainland Europe & Canada (VLT, Novamatic), - USA (slots)

You can follow/connect me on facebook, twitter, Linkedin. Thanks for your interest.

www.facebook.com/gamblinghurts
www.twitter.com/gamblinghurts
www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyfranklin2