GAM0003

Written evidence submitted by Chris Gilham

Introduction to me

My name is Chris Gilham. I am a 38-year-old male and I am in recovery from gambling addiction. I attend Gamblers Anonymous and have not bet since 29th October 2017.

I am a Commercial Manager and am educated to Masters degree level having gained an MSc in Strategic Procurement Management.

Evidence and issues

My evidence and issues will focus on two of the gambling companies who I used at the very end of my gambling in 2017. During this time, I was suffering very badly with my mental health. I was signed off work suffering from depression twice between mid-2017 and late 2017. The two gambling companies were 32Red Plc (Kindred) and Casumo.

For information, my annual salary in 2017 was approximately £49,000

32Red

Withdrawal of winnings

I placed my first bet on 8th April 2017 and self excluded on 17th May 2017. In this time I deposited approximately £22,000. I withdrew £33,000.

Regardless of the fact I withdrew more than I deposited I believe 32Red acted irresponsibly.

On 10th April I was asked to provide the following, following a request to withdraw winnings.

• A screenshot of your PayPal account details page.

• A clear copy of a recent utility bill (within last 3 months) i.e. electricity or telephone bill.

• A clear copy of your photographic ID, i.e. passport, driving licence or National Identity Card.

32Red informed me that until they received what was requested, they would return my winnings to my account balance. For a compulsive gambler this is unacceptable. I needed to get my money out. If it is still in there, I will gamble it again. This is the addiction in action.

I was able to deposit on 8th April but unable to withdraw on 10th April. It is unacceptable that the gambling company can accept money for you to bet with before checking any information that they require to be able to verify you / pay you out.

VIP scheme

Following large losses, I was contacted by the Head of Key Account management on 12th April by email:

“My name is Phil and I'm the Head of Key Account management here at 32Red. I just wanted to drop you a message to advise I have a couple of fantastic bonuses I have available for you. Simply login to find £400-00 waiting for you and also, if you deposit before midnight on Thursday, you'll receive 100% in bonus (up to £500-00).”

The kind of erratic play and the amount I had deposited in such a short amount of times should have alerted 32Red that I was a problem gambler. Instead they deposited free money and gave me exclusive bonuses. They enticed me back to playing with free money and a bonus offer.

On 26th April I received another email this time an invitation to the exclusive VIP Programme. Although titled invitation there was nothing that I had to accept to become a VIP. Once again 32Red put funds into my account for me to gamble with and once again included a match bonus. Email as follows:

“It is a pleasure to announce your invitation to the exclusive VIP Programme at 32Red. As a warm welcome, we have credited your account with £400-00 bonus and enabled a 200% deposit match offer on your account, details below.

As a VIP player you will earn more Loyalty Points than standard players. Feel free to visit the Club Rouge for more information and view all your new exclusive VIP benefits:

Personal Support Service

Enhanced Deposit Bonuses

Birthday Treats - Membership Gifts

Exclusive Promotions

As a welcome gift we have credited your account with £400-00 bonus and added a special deposit match offer to your account. This offer is for a 200% match up to a maximum of £1,000-00 bonus.

Once again I believe this was very irresponsible given my erratic gambling.

32Red should have picked up upon my gambling addiction. I at times emailed them asking whether they had free money / offers for me. This was because I didn’t have money to gamble but because they had given me free money and reeled me back in I hoped they would give me more. I was desperate, suffering addiction and very mentally unwell. I needed protection from the gambling industry and 32Red failed me. My mental health was deteriorating fast.

Another issue was the ability for me to be able to reverse a withdrawal. I believe reverse withdrawals should not be allowed. For an addict to be able to reverse a withdrawal means not being able to withdraw money. As such when I tried to withdraw winnings, I usually reversed the withdrawal. This meant I didn’t receive the money in my bank. Instead it went straight back into my betting account balance and the mental torture would continue.

On one occasion my reverse withdrawal was approximately £100,000. More than two years wages.

Self-Exclusion

On 8th May 2017 I emailed 32Red asking to self-exclude for as long as possible ASAP. 32Red then sent me an email outlining self-exclusion and stated that I needed to complete the forms and send them back. I needed to be excluded straight away. The need to go away and fill in the forms stopped me from self-excluding at that time. I was in active addiction suffering from mental health issues. On the 9th May I informed them that I didn’t want to self-exclude because I had two other accounts elsewhere and decided that I only wanted one and as such I had closed the other two accounts. The sudden U-turn should have raised red flags. Instead they offered me a 50% match on my next deposit up to £500.

After further gambling I finally self-excluded on 17th May 2017.

Casumo

I opened an account with Casumo. I used this account for 8 days between 22/10/2017 and 29/10/2017.

In this time, I was able to deposit and lose £48,550 (which is nearly equal to my annual salary).

My gambling was erratic and only took place on 4 of the 8 days between 22/10//2017 and 29/10/2017.

The tables below show that I was depositing up to £2000 a time. I took a £25,000 loan to finance the gambling that took place on 20/10/2017. I deposited £22,000 of the £22,500 in the space of 2 hours and 11 minutes.

I do not understand how a gambling operator can allow these types of deposits, without first checking my wealth. In my opinion a responsible operator should be made to check this before any deposits. At the very least Casumo should have stepped in and froze my account and not allowed me to make any deposits after my first few deposits that were placed in a short period of time and increased in value. This should have been a trigger that the gambler my have a gambling problem.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to provide this evidence.

Chris Gilham

April 2020