BBC: Boy Gambled Away Thousands After Seeing Betting Advertisement

A boy in Swansea, Wales opened a wagering account using his father's name and managed to bet away thousands of dollars (pounds). 

Nick Phillips, who helps those struggling with gambling addiction in Swansea, made the disclosure this week.  The 16-year-old had opened the account after watching a football match with his dad.

He said: "This poor lad has gone home an hour after the match and opened an account in his dad's name after seeing the gambling ad."

Welsh MPs and anti-gambling charities are calling for the UK government to publish its gambling white paper, which had been expected before the summer.

A recent survey, published here at Gamlbing911.com, found 31% of young people said they had spent their own money gambling in the past year.

Carolyn Harris, MP for Swansea East, said legislation needed updating to keep up with technology.

She said: "If you think about the last Gambling Act in 2005, the first iPhone was invented in 2007, who could have foreseen how technology would come along in the way that it has.

"It's one of those hidden addictions that people don't want to talk about, and parents don't want to admit to."

Phillips also warned of the dangers of gambling loot boxes, although the UK government had opted against regulating them.

In 2020, the U.K.’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) launched an investigation into the concern over loot boxes. 

“Consumer products ranging from football stickers to trading cards, or even some subscription services such as ‘wine of the month’ clubs, rely on a mechanism whereby the real value or utility of the ‘prize’ is not necessarily known at the point of purchase,” a report found. “While careful legislative drafting could help single out loot boxes, they do not necessarily have well-defined boundaries which clearly demarcate them from comparable products.”

A gambling expert, Andy Robertson, believes there are protections in place that allow parents to prevent their small children from placing bets online.

He told the BBC: "Every video game console has a parental or family settings area. One of the things I really like is the ability to say 'can this account make transactions? can it spend money? Also, how much can it spend?'

"So a nice thing to do is to sit down with a child and say, 'let's give you some pocket money each week , how much should that be?'

"Once you've set that limit, and they've spent the money in that time period, the child then can't make any more purchases without a pin number."

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com