The Guardian News

Ladbrokes could face an investigation from the gambling regulator over an incident in which confidential information about betting addicts, including photos, names and addresses, was found in a bin bag on the street. The Gambling Commission said it was looking into the bookmaker’s compliance with data protection laws after a passer-by found...

Sitting on the toilet, Chris Stringman stared intently at the rows of flashing numbers on the computer screen in front of him. It was 6.30pm. Downstairs, his partner, Claudia, was cooking dinner after a long day at the primary school where they both worked as teachers. Now Chris had...

The online gambling industry is facing a clampdown after the UK competition watchdog accused companies of unfairly treating customers and potentially breaking consumer law. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said people were not getting the deal they expected from sign-up promotions and operators were unfairly holding on to customers’ money....

Decision comes after three-month review into betting sponsorship. FA’s current partnership with Ladbrokes to be terminated this month. The Football Association will no longer have a betting partner after terminating a contract with Ladbrokes worth around £4m a year following a string of high-profile gambling controversies in the sport....

If you had been away from the planet for the past quarter of a century, one of the few things you might find comfortingly familiar on your return is the world of sport. While the digital revolution has transformed the way we shop, chat, date, do politics and consume...

British gamblers lost a record £13.8bn in the year ending September 2016, including an all-time high of £1.82bn on controversial fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs). The figures, released by the industry regulator the Gambling Commission, come just weeks before a long-awaited government review of the industry is due to be published. The review has seen...

Online gambling company 888 is being investigated by the industry regulator, which has the power to strip betting firms of their licence to do business, amid concern over the tools it uses to help problem gamblers. The Gambling Commission is examining 888’s “self-exclusion” regime, a system betting firms use to allow...

An MPs’ report calling for a crackdown on fixed-odds betting terminals, published in the midst of a government review into the controversial machines, has been found to breach parliamentary standards. A cross-party group of politicians, backed by casinos, amusement arcades and pubs, was deemed to have broken the rules four times in...

Experts are warning that the UK must face up to the scale of its gambling problem with a lack of research, and industry influence, preventing proper scrutiny of a growing national habit. Joey Barton’s 18-month suspension from football on betting-related charges, and the player’s response in which he spoke of an...

Can you put a price on misery? When it comes to problem gambling the answer, apparently, is yes. A team of economists has calculated that if the UK’s hundreds of thousands of problem gamblers were to be cured of their addictions, the boost to the nation’s collective happiness would be equivalent...

When Toya Mitchell first learned MGM Resorts International had won a contract to build a new casino down the street from her house in Prince George’s County, Maryland, she was cautiously optimistic. Mitchell, the owner of Lord & Mitchell, a small, women-run business specializing in customized promotional and printed...

The Gambling Commission, which regulates all betting and gaming in the UK, has delivered a damning verdict on the gambling industry’s procedures for resolving complaints and disputes and warned that operators must act now to halt a sharp decline in the number of customers who believe gambling “is fair...

She paid a smuggler and was tucked into the hold of a ship for the overnight boat ride away from extreme poverty and a dead-end life in rural China. But on her way to a brighter future, Auyeung Lai-sung never made it past the kitchen of one of the...

Problem gambling costs the UK up to £1.2bn according to a report by charity GambleAware, with spending related to police intervention, mental health services and homelessness putting pressure on the system. The charity warned of the “narrow” focus on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs), known as the “crack cocaine of...

The man tipped to lead the UK’s second-biggest bookmaker has broken ranks with the industry by offering support for a curb on TV gambling adverts. Betting companies have largely rejected suggestions that their ads are seen by too many vulnerable people and children, but William Hill’s finance director said he understood people’s...