you just kind of want to keep going like that. they give punters the sensation that they're winning jackpotjoy says it had "frequent and personal engagement" with amanda and encouraged her to use " responsible gambling tools". these included the use of deposit limits, cooling—off periods now on bbc news: panorama. and alternative withdrawal methods. but experts say that these types of online games are designed to keep you playing. i definitely feel the betting business a bit of an urgency. is booming in britain. you just kind of want to keep going like that. it is as simple as tap, tap, boom. they give punters the sensation that they're winning even when they're not. but is it problem gamblers who are paying the price? they never questioned whether i could actually afford to, you know, spend 50 grand a night. we meet the punters this is bbc news — who've lost everything. welcome if you're watching i was insane, i was insane. here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm mike embley. but i couldn't stop. so this is a good example, our top stories: we've just won 10p there. so the spin cost us 20p, we've won the gamblers who don't after days of violent protests know when to quit. 10p, so overall we've lost 10p. and thousands of cancelled flights, um, an addiction, a compulsion calm descends upon hong kong but the same audio and the same like i've never seen in my life. visual feedback is given airport, but can it last? to you as if you'd won 50p. but more ominous warnings from this is a man with a problem. china, as chinese troops manoeuvre near the hong kong border.

high stakes betting machines have president trump delays a 10% tariff and we ask are the betting been banned from the high street. companies doing enough on some chinese imports to avoid to protect problem gamblers? but there are no christmas shopping price hikes. it's not about our dead boys. legal limits online. it's about the living ones now, stopping this if we're playing 20 lines, um, happening to other people. and we've gone up to, tony is addicted to gambling. to £10 per line, we're going to be officers on duty at the facility playing £200 per spin. where the accused sex trafficker jeffrey epstein was found dead, you have seen how quickly they go through. and if they're all losses when the, have been moved on. those spins take what, one second, one and a half seconds, and sailing to the summit, it's only a matter of seconds teenage climate change campaigner and you can lose hundreds of pounds. greta thunberg prepares to sail the regulator has recently across the atlantic to attend a un fined jackpotjoy £i.2 summit in new york. million for other cases. but it says there's no need for online stakes to be limited. after more than 20 years of betting, we've not yet reached a point where we would impose stakes he knows he can no longer or limit some prizes because the information that the operators have available walk into a bookies to them means that they ought to be without losing control. able to keep players safe, if i was to walk in, my heart to keep players playing with money they can afford to play with, would beat faster, i know it. and allow them to play in a way that is keeping them from becoming what do you think when you see shops like that? see a william hill shop like that? yeah. i spent half a million pounds in three months in cash, sometimes doing 50, 60 grand a day. a day tony? at risk of problem gambling. a shop like that.

tony has lost everything to his addiction. and encouraged her to use " responsible gambling tools". he gambled away the family these included the use of deposit home, leaving his wife limits, cooling—off periods and daughter homeless. and alternative withdrawal methods. but experts say that these types tony had stolen the cash of online games are designed he used to gamble. there was no feelings, thoughts, to keep you playing. 00:02:10,797 --> 2147483051:37:50,113 i definitely feel 2147483051:37:50,113 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 a bit of an urgency. as part of his recovery from addiction he had consideration, remorse, to tell his victims what he'd done. understanding of my actions. ijust wanted to continue i knew it wouldn't be good and i got and continue and continue. a train to go and face one of them and i thought of no one else... victims hoping that they would end all i wanted to do was gamble. it, hoping i'd get and that is why i'm a — a bullet in my head. a pathological gambler. praying for it to happen ‘cos in 2010 tony had tried to make i couldn't do it myself. a fresh start in dubai. you wanted them to put he set up a property business. a bullet in your head? yeah. but he started betting online, i wanted it over. that pain to just stop. gambling on everything from horses to roulette. he stole £3 million from clients ladbrokes has refunded some money. and lost it all to uk gambling companies. but tony wants the other companies to give the stolen cash what were you doing back to his victims. to get money to gamble? i'd committed fraud. the victims include i manipulated people.

borrowing — anything. friends like jake thomas, who lost around £100,000. anything and everything. tony's new addiction now so you'd been stealing millions? is to get his victims' money back, and from what, millions. from what i understand, the majority of tony's he is a dog with a bone and he's calling the gambling commission gambling was with ladbrokes. twice a day, emailing them. the company should have been checking where he's relentless with them. the money was coming from. but ladbrokes didn't seem bothered. this is the first time that jake has seen tony's gambling history. i got a text saying, um, along the lines of they had on some days there are pages of transactions. a responsibility, to ask me and each page has dozens of bets. the provenance of my funds that i was gambling with. let's take 2nd november 2015. and then theyjust said, now that activity alone don't worry about it mate. is a lot of trades. don't worry about it, mate. that was it. and i presume there's more... sorry for the intrusion. wow. 12, 13, 14, even i'm getting dizzy. tony got help and managed to stop gambling two years ago. he's now trying to help others quit too. 20 and still the 2nd of november. so today we're going to go to prison as part of gamblers anonymous. sheet three... uh, we visit inmates in there who are struggling how does anyone have with gambling addiction. time to do this?

some of them may have i can see just you've become committed criminal offences very agitated, tony? i hate looking at it. to fund gambling addiction. i hate — i hate it. i do, i hate it. tony has admitted his i'm looking at, like, the balances. crimes to the regulator, an addiction, a compulsion like i've the gambling commission. never seen in my life. this is a man with a problem. he knows he's responsible, 28, 29, 30. just get to the end of it. but he thinks the betting companies should have done more just get to the end, to stop him too. just quickly whizz ‘em through. they took stolen cash i'm on page 40 now, without any serious checks. and it's wow, it's... it's not a cry for help from him, i don't really wanna go to jail, but it certainly should be a flag but i'll face that punishment. to someone on the other side of this these companies have faced zero, and i'm, you know, i haven't even zero so far, for any finished, but that was page of my activity with them. 40 on one day alone. it makes me feel sick zero. looking at that. sick. agitated. scary. ladbrokes says it has "not profited" because it has "fully divested any sums" which could be the proceeds of crime. and it has "co—operated and that was probably a normal day. just a normal day. with its regulator" in this regard. the government says problem gamblers for some, the addiction can like tony are a small minority. be too much to bear. daniel clinkscales was a highly

paid sales manager. around 0.7% of the population but he took on two more jobs just is thought to be addicted. to fund his gambling habit. that's approximately 430,000 people. daniel was a really bold, outgoing, but there could be many more. party animal, really extrovert. i think he found it so hard himself to really, really come to terms even the academics who came up with the fact that there he was, with the figure think it understates the problem. so i don't really think we know clever, intelligent, enough about problem gamblers in the uk, or about the level of gambling related largely successful at almost harms that are generated from gambling in the uk. everything he turned his hand to. in terms of the number of problem gamblers, we think that's a conservative estimate. 00:05:39,149 --> 2147483051:39:34,290 that also doesn't tell us how many 2147483051:39:34,290 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 new cases there are every year. and he'd got this, this one problem — gambling. daniel started gambling at 16. when he was 35, he took his own life here in bristol. we have to save other people going through this. and there are so many people out there, feeling hopeless and helpless.

and i don't mean they're all physically standing on the edge of a cliff like daniel was, but internally, mentally, emotionally, they are on the edge of a cliff. and i've got to s... i've got to save them. i've got to save some of them. jo believes that betting companies have a responsibility to spot gamblers who are developing an addiction. i think it's about switching the burden of responsibility. taking it away from the individual and not saying "you must stop when the fun stops". because we're talking about people here who don't have a stop mechanism. gambling has been normalized, it has been made to look like something that everybody does innocently. it's not. you can lose your house in an afternoon. how serious does it have to be before people will act?

the betting companies already have an obligation to protect problem gamblers. but the legislation is weak. it's up to the companies themselves to decide what action to take. it can be as little as ringing the gambler up. my challenge to the industry is how do you go beyond the minimum standards we've set and really achieve better outcomes for consumers by trying new measures, evaluating their effectiveness, building on what works, dropping what doesn't work in a way that really achieves reduction in problem gambling rates. betting companies have to provide information about problem gambling. they should also offer gambling tools which players can use to set limits or exclude themselves entirely. the companies say

they do intervene to protect gamblers. but the industry has a clear conflict of interest, as problem gamblers produce big profits. one study of online games found thatjust 4% of players contributed 78% of revenue. do you think it makes sense to leave regulation up to the betting agencies? i don't think it makes sense to leave regulation to the betting agencies because you need to have confidence that people are actually adhering to regulations. we need to have the government taking responsibility and the companies absolutely need to take responsibility for their actions. tony was making hundreds of bets a day and was spending thousands. it was clear he had a problem. but far from trying to stop him, ladbrokes laid out the red carpet to keep him gambling.

tony was made a vip customer. as well as weekly free cash, weekly free bonus chips in the casino, i'd get tickets to football matches, business class flights, hospitality at race meetings, hospitality at wembley stadium. they were really, sort of, treating you like a high roller, were they? really big money, big spender. yeah, vip, yeah. a vip client, i suppose. what do you think about it when you look at it now? when you think back to those days? it was just all fake, it wasn't real. it just wasn't real, and it wasn't good memories, looking back on it. ladbrokes also gave tony the five—star treatment at ascot. he tookjake, the friend he stole money from. i want to see what the

hospitality is like. so, today, jake is taking me to ladbrokes‘ vip box at ascot. do you remember attending ascot with tony? oh, yeah because he was obviously one of the favoured clients because of the amount of money he was losing. and for a guy like tony it wouldn't be about encouragement, it would be a reward, because they know he's gonna bet when he's in his bathroom, let alone when he's at ascot. most people are simply here to enjoy the racing. we don't have permission to film in the hospitality area. but inside i can see how ladbrokes looks after its vip customers. there's the finest of food and as much champagne as you can drink. there's no doubt about it, ascot is a fantastic day out. you're dressed in your best, you're enjoying the sunshine and you're watching the races.

people are queueing up to place bets. but there's a darker reality for a few people who don't know when to stop. problem gamblers are often joined by vip managers inside prestigious sporting events like this. it's the vip manager's job to keep them betting. one industry insider agreed to speak to us anonymously about how it works. the criteria is who's gonna lose money. and the more they meet the problem gambler type, the more money they're going to lose, so they're the guys we want. a vip manager's job is to milk the customers. it might seem like a friendship but it isn't. mug punters we called them, or idiots. that's exactly how 61—year—old amanda was treated by her vip managers.

when she lost a lot of money onjackpotjoy, they would offer her free cash bonuses. and then she'd start gambling again. if i hadn't gone online for a day, they were very quickly on the phone or sending me an email. i'd always get a bonus. they never questioned whether i could actually afford to, spend 50 grand a night. all they did was sort of pat me on the back, and give me another bonus, and send me another gift.

the calls kept coming, even when amanda's father was seriously ill. when herfather died, the vip manager offered her condolences and then immediately gave amanda cash to carry on gambling. my dad had passed away and they basically said, you know, she said "sorry to hear that and here's another bonus." and popped a bonus in my account. jackpotjoy says it's "deeply sympathetic" to the "unfortunate

personal circumstances" experienced by amanda. it has "always acted in accordance" with the "relevant regulatory requirements", which have "significantly evolved" since the time when amanda was playing regularly. some companies have gone even further. back in 2015, tony had managed to quit gambling for five months. but then his vip managers at ladbrokes put a total of £10,000 in his betting account. and tony cracked. i think i downed just close to 50 grand in 24 hours. i could have stopped maybe at the 50 and the 60, but then i always i'm going to get it back. tony the gambler thinks, i'm going to get that back. after being tempted back by ladbrokes, tony lost control. in that year, i caused more destruction to notjust myself, to others, than in any of the years

before that one year. ladbrokes says the "activity is historical" and there have been "corporate, operational and regulatory changes". its policies and procedures have "significa ntly improved" and these circumstances "would not arise today". two months ago, the big betting companies announced they would provide £60 million a year to help problem gamblers. they say they are also working on a plan to minimize gambling—related harm. but our evidence suggests punters are far from happy. we've obtained new figures from the gambling commission about the number of complaints. in 2013, there were 169. last year there were

more than 8,000. that's a rise of almost 5,000%. i can see that the number of complaints we get could suggest that the problem is increasing. i think it's more complicated than that. we are pushing the industry to know its customers, and part of this is actually, possibly, a good sign because it's suggesting that consumers are demanding more of the gambling operators. and i would encourage them to continue to do that. but those most affected by gambling say something has to change. jo holloway has come to westminster with the charity gambling with lives. the members are all parents whose sons have taken their own lives. the group says that hundreds of suicides a year could be linked to gambling.

one of the most astonishing things was, as we went round the room, and people telling the stories about their boys and what had happened to them, and it was like hearing your own child's story time and time again — that they were all bright, cheerful, normal... yes, they had their weakness which was gambling, but otherwise they were strong, popular, powerful young men. it was shocking just hearing the same story time and again. the families say lax regulation is resulting in serious harm. and that the government must do more to protect those at risk of gambling addiction. it's a sad, sad story and we're just working like mad to try and get the whole story out. it's notjust about...it's not about our dead boys. it's not about our dead boys. it's about the living ones now, stopping this happening to other people. daniel was my only child. i have, if you like,

no one to do this for. it'sjust i know i have to stop this happening to somebody else. around the country, hundreds of thousands of lives are being damaged by gambling. tony has pleaded guilty to fraud over some of the money he stole to fund his addiction. of course i'm nervous. i've never been to jail, which is potentially what i could face, a custodial sentence today. i'm gonna miss out potentially on days, months, years with my family but, you know, i've done something terrible, i've done a terrible crime so in some ways i know i should be punished. but whatever happens today, the line is drawn under this and i can actually move on. cos i need closure. and today is closure.

whatever happens, it's closure. tony was given a suspended prison sentence earlier today. he's free to continue helping other problem gamblers. he's determined to stop more people like him 00:19:18,401 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 from destroying their own lives.