Teen’s death sparks Bet365 safety concerns

A teen’s gambling addiction contributed to his death, a coroner has ruled.

Arthur Soames, 19, from Fulham, west London, killed himself in 2022 just six months after developing a gambling addiction through Bet365.

His family did not find out about his addiction until after his death, and have criticised Bet365 for missing clear signs of high risk such as his young age, a dramatic shift in gambling habits, and betting for long periods during the night.

Grief

Arthur’s mum, Isabelle Soames, told The Times: “Arthur was a pure joy. I know parents always say that about their children but he was a real ray of sunshine.”

She continued: “Now he has gone I just see life completely differently and it will never be the same again. The grief is for ever. We do carry on. We have to. We have our daughter. But we can’t share a moment as a family. We haven’t been able to sit around the kitchen table since he died. You see things completely differently.”

She shared how she was “shocked” to discover his addiction by seeing bank statements with thousands of pounds going to Bet365: “I was just seeing one bet after another. I had no idea.”

Red flags

Sophie Boucher, Arthur’s aunt, said: “We knew Arthur was really struggling but he never told us about his gambling. Shame is a corrosive emotion and it usually accompanies gambling disorder. It can make people feel inadequate and hopeless, and prevent them sharing their difficulties with loved ones.”

She called Bet365’s response “extremely disappointing”, adding: “I believe he might still be alive today if they had done more.”

The gambling giant’s only action was an auto-generated email two months into his problem gambling to tell Arthur that he had been gambling for long periods of time and pointing him to self-help tools on its website. His aunt said the family “don’t even know if he opened it. Otherwise there was nothing.”

She stated: “His age and that very stark change in pattern of betting should have been an immediate red flag. They should have been in contact with him and not at the most basic level of interaction.”

Risk-detection

Boucher is now campaigning for the Gambling Commission to enforce a “tailored risk-detection system for this age group, focusing more on frequency of bets, length of sessions and time of day when gambling is taking place, with night-time gambling being a high risk indicator, as opposed to amounts of money lost.”

Dan Webster, the solicitor who represented the family, noted: “There is no independent scrutiny or oversight of operators’ algorithms and it is left entirely to their discretion to design appropriate systems to identify harm and intervene, in circumstances where they have a strong commercial interest in doing so in only a small proportion of cases.”

Tragic

The coroner, Ian Arrow, concluded that Arthur died because of “anxiety and depression exacerbated by gambling disorder,” and described how “his depression reinforced his gambling and his gambling reinforced his depression”.

The coroner indicated that he would issue a report to the Gambling Commission with recommendations to prevent similar deaths in the future.

In response to the inquest, Bet365 said: “This is an incredibly tragic and complex case and our thoughts and condolences remain with Arthur’s family and friends.

“We strive for the highest safer gambling standards and consistently review and update procedures, including during the last five years. We will now take time to consider the inquest’s findings.”