The boss of one of the country\u2019s biggest online betting companies says the industry should consider funding a network of gambling treatment centres.<\/p>\n
Richard Flint, executive chairman of Sky Bet, told BBC News the industry \u201chadn\u2019t done enough to look after problem gamblers\u201d.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Gambling Commission estimates about 400,000 adults in Great Britain have a gambling problem.<\/p>\n
Charity Gambling With Lives described Flint\u2019s comments as \u201cinsulting\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n
Its founders said he had underplayed the damage gambling addiction could do to people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n
Sky Bet has been at the centre of the growth of the online betting industry and the company last year was valued at more than \u00a33 billion.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on his time at the company before he leaves his role next month, Flint said: \u201cIn the past, the industry has perhaps encouraged people to spend beyond their means.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Sky Bet is one of Leeds\u2019s biggest private employers, with 1,500 people based at its city HQ<\/p>\n
In 2018 Sky Bet had to pay a \u00a31m fine for \u201cfailing to protect vulnerable customers\u201d.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Speaking exclusively to BBC News, Flint acknowledged there had been failings.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThe industry hasn\u2019t done enough to look after problem gamblers. We need to do more to self-regulate, and if we don\u2019t do more there will be more regulation forced upon us.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Charles and Liz Ritchie from Sheffield founded the charity Gambling<\/p>\n
With Lives after their 24-year-old son Jack ended his life in 2017 after developing a gambling addiction.<\/p>\n
\u201cJack started gambling whilst he was at school,\u201d<\/em> said Ritchie.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he took his own life because he never thought he would be free from gambling.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Ritchie has described her son\u2019s gambling addiction as like being addicted to heroin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel insulted by what Flint has said, it minimises the damage the industry has done to people\u2019s lives,\u201d<\/em> she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have gambling companies saying they want to put money into treating gambling addiction, but they don\u2019t want to put money into gambling prevention.\u201d<\/em>\u2014BBC<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The boss of one of the country\u2019s biggest online betting companies says the industry should consider funding a network of gambling treatment centres. Richard Flint, executive chairman of Sky Bet, told BBC News the industry \u201chadn\u2019t done enough to look after problem gamblers\u201d. The Gambling Commission estimates about 400,000 adults in Great Britain have a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":78306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78307,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78301\/revisions\/78307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}