Owe someone some money? Sue them!

[Kryten]

How retarded are people getting.

BBC NEWS | UK | How a gambling addict lost £2.1m

"You let me gamble all my money away and ultimately lost me all my money. It's your fault".

Regardless of any "self exclusions" put in place, he still got around them himself.

People need to take responsibility for their own actions and stop being fuckwitted retards like this chap. It's always someone elses fault and shouldn't be.

So, if we can't beat em, join em.

Too fat? Sue MacDonalds.
Can't get laid? Sue all women.
In debt? Sue the people you owe money to.
Fucking ugly? Sue God.

 

[mank!]

it's stupid admittedly and i hope he doesn't get a penny but it's a two-way street, tobacco and alcohol companies take responsibility for addictions why shouldn't bookmakers?

 

[Fweddy]

I guess it's because tobacco and alcohol are more than just psychological addictions. There's no chemical on a betting slip to make you need more of them.

The guy's a moron. He deserves to be poor.

 

[Ctuchik]

it's stupid admittedly and i hope he doesn't get a penny but it's a two-way street, tobacco and alcohol companies take responsibility for addictions

only because they are forced to.

and imo they shouldn't have to. anyone claming that they "didnt know" it was addicting is outright lying.

theres WAY to much information out there for anyone that bothers to actually look it up.

noone is forcing them to start smoking/drinking. atleast not the alcohol and tobacco industries. same with gambling. noone put a gun to their heads and said "start losing money!"

THEY started smoking/drinking/gambling by their own free will. THEY should suffer the consequences(sp?) for it 100%. trying to lay the blame on someone else for your own stupidity doesen't really help all that much.

because the drinker will quite possibly take the law suit cash he got and drink himself to death, the smoker will probably buy more ciggarettes unless he's got a hole in his throat from cancer. and the gambler will just try to double up his cash and ultimatly lose them ........ again.

very few ppl actually bothers to quit. because they just ARE that stupid.

and i'm almost willing to bet my right arm that if this dude actuall wins. he's gonna go STRAIGHT back to another bookie and lose them there.

 

[rynnor]

Good luck to him - I wont lose any sleep if a bookie gets a tiny bit poorer frankly - their like legal drug dealers.

 

[Kryten]

Siding with Fweddy on that one.
Addictions of all kinds are down to mental problems, these are problems which can be helped or fixed entirely. It doesn't mean there's no blame to be had - after all, an addiction can only start after doing something too much in the first place.

My main gripe is just with money grabbing twats who'll try anything to shift that blame.

 

[rynnor]

THEY started smoking/drinking/gambling by their own free will. THEY should suffer the consequences(sp?) for it 100%.

Nobody's perfect - everyone can make a stupid mistake - I think your compassion for your fellow man is heartwarming.

I hope you never make a mistake in your life or that you never have kids who do - they may find someone as 'understanding' as yourself...

 

[Sharma]

Why shouldn't someone suffer the reprecussions of being a complete twat?

 

[Kryten]

The art of making a mistake is realising you've done it, correcting it, and learning from it. Sometimes it's easy, other times it's not - you're never alone though, and believing that you are, or that a hole is too deep is ignorance in it's purest form. However hard you think life is, there's always someone to help make it bearable, that little bit easier.

This guy in this instance is a straight out and out twat, out to basically profit from it, and nothing more.

 

[Raven]

darwinism, he lost money, thought it was fun so did it again and again and again until he was broke, he deserves to live on the streets.

 

[rynnor]

This guy in this instance is a straight out and out twat, out to basically profit from it, and nothing more.

I dont know about you but it seems to me that a system that lets you exclude yourself but can be circumvented by opening another account with the same details is terribly flawed.

I guess this is a voluntary code the evil bookies have applied - I think perhaps its time to make it a statutory rule and make sure they get better systems to enforce it.

Their current system is laughable!

 

[DaGaffer]

Nobody's perfect - everyone can make a stupid mistake - I think your compassion for your fellow man is heartwarming.

I hope you never make a mistake in your life or that you never have kids who do - they may find someone as 'understanding' as yourself...

Oh boo hoo. The guy was earning £30K a month as a greyhound trainer; in other words, a fat living off all the other punters. So he should have known even more than the average punter that its a mug's game, and his stupidity bit him on the arse. Cry me a river.

 

[Kryten]

There are flaws in all systems, whether it's some little voluntary rule added by some small backstreet bookie up to procedure manuals in corporations and law's applied by countries governments. If you stick to those procedures, rules and laws to the letter, and everyone else does exactly the same,

** nothing will ever work **

There has to be a level of common sense and intelligence in it all for it to work.

In this instance, the exclusion rule was bypassed by the person who asked for it in the first place. The issues there are of security more than a simple rule being bypassed - how was he able to easily open another account with another name so easily - i.e. lack of evidence of address, ID etc.

Doesn't absolve him of 100% blame though, ever.

 

[rynnor]

There are flaws in all systems, whether it's some little voluntary rule added by some small backstreet bookie up to procedure manuals in corporations and law's applied by countries governments. If you stick to those procedures, rules and laws to the letter, and everyone else does exactly the same,

I dont like this particular guy and think your probably right that hes just a fuckwit that gambled his money away and now wants a second go - But...

The bookies must have a better system for those few who do go as far as to voluntarily ban themselves.

To those who say it would be easy to circumvent I dont think you appreciate how much tighter the UK financial system is. He would find it difficult to move the amounts described to another persons account without scrutiny (thanks to anti-terrorist legislation) and its also bloody difficult to open an account using fake id.

Im not saying its completely impossible but its probably beyond this guy or anyone he knows. Just a simple check to see if another account already exists with the same details is what we are talking about - its not rocket science!

 

[Ch3tan]

I have to say after reading the transcript that the beeb have, that william hill do look like they have fucked up here.

 

[Chilly]

will hill violated the the new uk gambling laws surrounding self exclusion. he registered a new account under his own name after he had his last account closed. a company like betfair tries *very* hard to prevent self excluded customers re-registering.

 

[rynnor]

will hill violated the the new uk gambling laws surrounding self exclusion. he registered a new account under his own name after he had his last account closed. a company like betfair tries *very* hard to prevent self excluded customers re-registering.

They ought to have a central register really - its silly a guy can ban himself from one then just register elsewhere when he has a change of heart.

 

[nath]

On the one hand I agree with the general sentiment that people should take responsibility for themselves. Plus I hate the "sue the fuckers" attitude that seems to be sweeping the nation (hurray for generalisations!).

However I got the impression from the transcript that he had acknowledged his addiction and tried to do something about it. When he relapsed they didn't fulfil their obligation to stop him. Of course we don't know if he made attempts to circumvent the system, all we know is he used the same name. I don't think this is quite as black and white as you make out Kryt.

 

[mank!]

i agree nath. ultimately, it's up to him to overcome his addiction - an addiction which is entirely his fault - but the bookies just wanted to carry on rinsing the poor **** for all he's worth. it's not as if they would be blissfully unaware of this individual placing loads of big bets, is it? it's a farce he's trying to get compensation though.

i didn't realise he was a greyhound trainer. i imagine it must be even harder to not gamble if you work with dogs.

 

[DaGaffer]

i didn't realise he was a greyhound trainer. i imagine it must be even harder to not gamble if you work with dogs.

Or even easier. I worked in online gambling for 2 years, believe me its not remotely difficult for me not to give gambling companies my money.

 

[Debaser]

We're talking about someone with a serious gambling problem here, betting hundreds of thousands and wrecking his life in the process.

This might not be the same as other addictions such as substance abuse, but depending how you define mental illness this is akin to a compulsive disorder. The redeeming feature of the case is that at some point he did try to stop himself, the question is how much at fault is the bookies?

The guy might sound like a dolt but that’s no reason to judge his case unfairly.

 

[Embattle]

it's stupid admittedly and i hope he doesn't get a penny but it's a two-way street, tobacco and alcohol companies take responsibility for addictions why shouldn't bookmakers?

My understanding of the Tobacco issue is that they failed to inform people of the risks and in fact originally pushed them as part of a healthy living even though they knew different at the time.

As for this to me I think we keep trying to blame others when we do stupid things, it wasn't as if he wouldn't of seen this sort of issue in his profession.

 

[nath]

As for this to me I think we keep trying to blame others when we do stupid things, it wasn't as if he wouldn't of seen this sort of issue in his profession.

All the common sense in the world won't necessarily help when it comes to addiction. As I said before I don't think it's black and white but if he made an attempt to block himself from making further bets and William Hill didn't fulfil that request to the extent to which they could be expected to, then perhaps something needs to be done.

 

[throdgrain]

Amazing the way the world has gone that we're even having the discussion.

Well, not we're. you're, but you know what I mean.

 

[nath]

Care to explain that? Sounds like you're saying personal responsibility and corporate responsibility are mutually exclusive - by all means correct me if interpreting what you said wrong.

 

[Tom]

For God's sake. How pathetic that anybody can even try and blame the bookies.

Everyone knows the bookie always wins. Always. Everyone knows the dangers of gambling.

This bloke is an intelligent grown adult. He knows he has a problem, its up to him to sort out. The bookie can take his house, savings, dogs, car, wife and model railway set as far as I'm concerned. He circumvented the little protection they offered because he has a problem.

People need to grow up and realise that they're responsible for their own actions. All this pandering to fools like this just makes the problem worse.

Heres another cunt:

Consumer News: Sub-Prime BMW Crisis?

 

[mank!]

Or even easier. I worked in online gambling for 2 years, believe me its not remotely difficult for me not to give gambling companies my money.

well yeah. but if you're addicted to gambling and you work with racing greyhounds, it's different. like an alcoholic working in an off-licence or something

 

[bob269]

Seems to me it's too easy to run up debts, get in to trouble etc and lay the blame somewhere else and even sue these days, hence all these people having 30 holidays a year on the credit card then claiming themselves bankrupt to wipe the debts and blaming the credit card companies for letting them spend money, they need to take responsibility, fuckers

I lost a few grand on poker the other year, i may sue Trem for sending me the invite

 

[Embattle]

All the common sense in the world won't necessarily help when it comes to addiction. As I said before I don't think it's black and white but if he made an attempt to block himself from making further bets and William Hill didn't fulfil that request to the extent to which they could be expected to, then perhaps something needs to be done.

The problem is for me the word addiction is just something that is often used as a brush off excuse for continuing to do what you want. I won't deny they might need to look at how there block system works but to expect a bookies to police there customers 100% effectively is never going to happen as it wouldn't be able to justify spending the extra money.

 

[Tilda]

I very much doubt he'll win.
He's claiming they were negligent. As long as they can show they used reasonable endeavours to make sure he wasn't on their "excluded" list then I doubt it'll stick. He tried to beat the system using a different name and suceeded. Its a betting shop, not a passport application, they shouldn't demand to see 20 different types of ID.