![\"Lee](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\/ca98a931-e4b5-4eaf-93d6-6b2ce2835c63.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA \u201cproblem gambler\u201d is suing one of the UK\u2019s biggest bookmakers over claims that it should have prevented him squandering nearly \u00a31.5 million betting on football.<\/p>\n
In what has been described as a potentially landmark claim for gambling companies, buy-to-let property tycoon Lee Gibson has told judges that Betfair bosses had a duty of care to protect him from himself. <\/p>\n
The 47-year-old millionaire \u2014 who claimed that Betfair afforded him \u201cVIP\u201d status \u2014 was said to have placed more than 30,000 individual wagers through the company\u2019s betting exchange over ten years until 2019.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gibson outside the Court of Appeal<\/p>\n
CHAMPION NEWS SERVICE<\/p>\n
Giving evidence in court, Gibson, from Leeds, acknowledged that he initially found the bets to be \u201centhralling and exciting\u201d.<\/p>\n
But his losses became \u201cunsustainable\u201d and by 2019 the bookmakers permanently suspended his account.<\/p>\n
Gibson launched a legal claim against Betfair over claims that senior staff should have known he was a \u201cproblem gambler\u201d and that therefore they were under a duty to stop him sooner than they did. <\/p>\n
Betfair was founded 25 years ago. In 2015 it merged with Paddy Power and is now based in Dublin, with annual revenues for last year reported to be nearly \u00a311 billion. <\/p>\n
Gibson\u2019s case was rejected last year in the High Court, but he has taken his bid for about \u00a31 million in damages to the Court of Appeal. <\/p>\n
Lawyers predict that if the claim is successful it will have significant ramifications for the online betting industry, because it will clarify companies\u2019 duties to the welfare of gamblers.<\/p>\n
Representing Gibson, Yash Kulkarni KC told the three-judge panel that his client\u2019s betting was focused on the \u201ccorrect score\u201d football markets, sometimes in \u201cobscure\u201d games and involved sums up to \u00a320,000.<\/p>\n
Kulkarni argued that the High Court should have found that Betfair \u201cknew or ought to have known\u201d that Gibson was a \u201cproblem gambler\u201d and that, because it treated him as a VIP with his own individual \u201crelationship manager\u201d, it had assumed a duty to look after him properly.<\/p>\n
He told the court that Betfair \u201cknew or had information available to them\u201d showing that Gibson was \u201cchasing his losses\u201d with a series of bets. <\/p>\n
The barrister also said that Gibson had borrowed money or sold possessions so that he could continue the gambling spree \u2014 and that he was at \u201ca level beyond that which he could afford from his income after tax and expenses\u201d.<\/p>\n
Betfair is fighting the appeal \u2014 which is being heard by Sir Julian Flaux and Lords Justice Popplewell and Birss \u2014 and its lawyer has argued that the original ruling was correct.<\/p>\n
That High Court found that there was insufficient evidence to support the argument that Betfair should have known about Gibson\u2019s gambling addiction because he had made efforts to hide it.<\/p>\n
In his ruling, the judge said that Gibson \u201cconsistently and often reassured Betfair that he was able to fund his gambling, including his losses\u201d.<\/p>\n
The judge added that Gibson could \u201cat least on the face of the information he gave to Betfair, afford to fund his gambling, he misled Betfair about his gambling and it is very difficult to identify a problem gambler who is not being honest\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, at the appeal hearing, Gibson\u2019s KC argued that the judge should have recognised that because Gibson was \u201cgranted a VIP relationship manager whose role was to interact with him to maintain or increase his betting, [Betfair] knew he was likely to be a problem gambler, and had exploited his betting habits to extend bonuses and offers likely to induce further betting\u201d.<\/p>\n
As a result, said the lawyer, \u201cBetfair assumed a responsibility to take reasonable care that its facilitation of his gambling did not cause him financial harm by reason of his being a problem gambler\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Court of Appeal judgment is expected to be reserved until a later date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u201cproblem gambler\u201d is suing one of the UK\u2019s biggest bookmakers over claims that it should have prevented…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394],"class_list":{"0":"post-197643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}