In sport, first it was the alcohol and tobacco industries affected by sponsorship bans, and it certainly could get no lower than the likes of Blackpool doing a deal with Wonga before their demise, now it appears that censorship eye is firmly on the gambling advertising and sponsorships... https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/b542778d-871f-4716-abfb-0afb91fa7770 I certainly do feel that Prem clubs, the FA and FIFA are open to corruption, especially with gambling being a big part of accepted life on the Asian Continent. What's your thoughts and is it time to pull the plug on sponsorship deals with the gambling companies?
On a serious note I don’t think it’s football that has a particular issue with gambling, I think it’s a societal issue. The smart phone opened up gambling in a spectacular way. Before smart phones you either had to visit a bookie or have a phone account. I couldn’t be arsed, so apart from a handful of times betting on things like the Grand National, or filling in a coupon at the match, I never bothered. Once on line betting arrived I loved it, made it much easier to have a bet on the match or an acca at the weekend, happy days. But I’m a middle aged half sensible bloke and I’d only ever bet with what I could afford to lose and it’s always been largely for entertainment. However, I look at my lads generation (he’s in his early 20’s) and they’re betting in a way that I never did at their age, and the dangers of chasing and it getting out of hand are massive and for me it needs the offshore bookies to take much greater responsibility for ensuring that their customers aren’t getting into trouble with it. Deposits on credit cards should be illegal, self exclusion should be easier and these companies should be much more proactive in monitoring potential problem gamblers. This Pandora’s box is well and truly open, and it ain’t going anywhere, but it needs regulation and education.
Absolutely agree with everything you said there. I also mentioned Wonga, because it was companies like them that were feeding gambling addiction with roll over loans, so the debt became greater with them, than it did with the gambling companies themselves. I hasten to add I'm a non gambler, always have been, probably because of my fear of getting addicted and i hate losing money!
The buzz of gambling is definitely addictive and I’ve seen first hand people getting themselves into a whole world of pain with it. I’d never made the correlation between pay day loans and gambling before tbh, but it makes sense that they were feeding off the back of the expansion of it. No different to people chucking it on credit cards I suppose. Never right.
Yeah. I think (not sure) there is some restrictions on CC, so they get round it by going to payday loan companies. Get one with Wonga for example, then the next month another payday loan company to pay off that debt (at extortionate rates), just continually rolling it over, the government were not controlling it in the same way they did with banks. I'm not saying my explanation is completely accurate but it's my best understanding how addicts were getting around legislation.
Just something i found and had a quick glance from 2013... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/24648539
I think I probably owe Wonga money, or did. Always liked a flutter but never been bad for it, know plenty who have though and it does ruin people like any addiction.
Basically everyone I know gambles, and like anything else some people will have issues with it where as others won't. I've been bad for it in the past, lost and won in the thousands on a daily basis, mostly out of boredom and how easy it is to just open an app on your phone and place a bet/visit a casino. I don't really have an addictive personality and lost a few grand in about 10 minutes so just stopped, only do football bets now which I am relatively successful at and only for small stakes. It is definitely a problem though and as Tobes said with the ease of doing it on your phone there will be loads of "hidden" problem gamblers who nobody knows about. Would be hard to regulate as losing £50 for one person could be worse than somebody else losing £5000, and if somebody really has a problem they will just lie about their financial situation to not get banned/restricte
Only thing I don't like about betting with sports is that companies like Sky (Sports) who massively influence people's betting patterns by what they report, such as transfer rumours, also having permission to run a betting arm of their business.
Was just about to write similar before seeing your comment. SkyBet is one of the most corrupt services out there. Literally a licence to print money, smart ****s though, gotta give 'em that. Although more fool the people who fall for it.
Yeah ****ing mugs. "SSN understands that Messi is about to sign for Man City, here are the Sky Bet odds on him joining" I have questioned how it is allowed before as well and some loser spent about 25 mins explaining how they are completely different and not related. What he said made sense but I can't remember the reason now as he was one of those really boring know it all types so I only half listened and forgot he existed til just now. Was probably just not related in terms of a legal point of view.
The smartest **** on the planet could explain to me how it's all legal and above board and I still wouldn't buy it. Media company owning a betting app... Shady as ****.
