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An early family picture. Isabelle Soames said life would never be the same after her son\u2019s death <\/p>\nThe family of a 19-year-old who took his life after developing a gambling addiction say they believe he might still be alive if Bet365 had taken better care of him.<\/p>\n
Arthur Soames, of Fulham, west London, died within six months of his betting going from an occasional punt on his favourite football team to night-long sessions where he was staking thousands of pounds on casino games.<\/p>\n
His family believe Bet365 cross-promoted more addictive games, such as online blackjack and roulette, encouraging his betting to escalate.<\/p>\n
At an inquest at West London coroner\u2019s court this week the coroner, Ian Arrow, concluded that Soames\u2019s gambling disorder had contributed to his death, an allegation that Bet 365 had argued was \u201cspeculative\u201d.<\/p>\n
In the first 18 months that Soames had his Bet365 account he bet an average of only one or two times a month, usually just on the outcome of games being played by Chelsea Football Club. But in December 2021, while he was already struggling with depression and anxiety, the frequency of his betting skyrocketed. Over the next three months he placed more than 1,600 bets. In the January alone, he staked more than \u00a313,000. <\/p>\n
Over March and April his betting subsided. However, the following month, it escalated again. On the day he took his own life, in May 2022, he lost seven casino bets in a row, each time doubling his stake and losing.<\/p>\n
Speaking exclusively to The Times, his mother, Isabelle Soames, said her life had been \u201cchanged for ever\u201d by her son\u2019s death. \u201cArthur was a pure joy. I know parents always say that about their children but he was a real ray of sunshine. He brightened any room. He touched people with his kindness. He was so gentle and patient. People who only met him once or twice always remembered him for it.<\/p>\n
An early family picture. Isabelle Soames said life would never be the same after her son\u2019s death <\/p>\n
\u201cNow 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\u2019t share a moment as a family. We haven\u2019t been able to sit around the kitchen table since he died. You see things completely differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs Soames, 58, said she was aware her son was struggling with his mental health, partly as a result of the isolation of going to university during the pandemic. She said she was trying to support him by arranging therapy and engaging with mental health services. However, she only found out about her son\u2019s gambling after he died when she looked at his bank statements and saw thousands of pounds of deposits with Bet365.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so shocked,\u201d she said. \u201cI was just seeing one bet after another. I had no idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family, who have been supported by the charity Gambling with Lives since his death, later learnt that he had been in his room betting late into the night. Sophie Boucher, his aunt, said the escalation in gambling coincided with a downward spiral in his mental health.<\/p>\n
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Sophie Boucher, Arthur Soames\u2019s auntlucy young for the Times <\/p>\n
She describes Bet365\u2019s response at this time as \u201cextremely disappointing\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cI believe he might still be alive today if they had done more. They only sent one auto-generated email noting he had been gambling for long periods of time and pointing to self-help tools on the website. That was more than two months after his betting had escalated and we don\u2019t even know if he opened it. Otherwise there was nothing. You could say he may have turned to another operator if they had blocked him or whatever but it could have made a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family also said they were upset with the health services because they did nothing when Soames mentioned his gambling in a therapy session. Nor did they share information with the family about an escalation in his suicide risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir communication was not good,\u201d said his mother. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know how bad things were and we didn\u2019t know the level of risk. We loved him so much and wanted to support him, we wanted to be there, but we weren\u2019t given that information.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boucher added: \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The inquest heard that the evening before he died, Soames had told his father he had \u201cdone something bad\u201d. <\/p>\n
The coroner noted that on the day of his death, he had \u201cexhausted all viable funds and credit\u201d available to him. Arrow added: \u201cHe told his friends \u2018I have lost everything\u2019. In my view it was more than just funds he had lost. It was his familiar and social standing. I accept the evidence that his depression reinforced his gambling and his gambling reinforced his depression.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family wants Bet365 to review their processes to make sure young people in a similar situation are identified earlier and with stronger interventions.<\/p>\n
Boucher said: \u201cHis 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. An interaction is a two-way process and not just sending a standard email.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the inquest Bet365 opposed the suggestion that gambling contributed to Soames\u2019s death on the grounds that he was in a net winning position and that there were other factors causing him stress in the period leading up to his death. <\/p>\n
However, the coroner disagreed, giving a narrative verdict that he had died because of \u201canxiety and depression exacerbated by gambling disorder\u201d.<\/p>\n
The family said they were \u201chighly concerned\u201d about the position taken by Bet365 at the inquest, and believed it had failed to learn any lessons from the teenager\u2019s death. <\/p>\n
Dan Webster, a solicitor from Leigh Day, which represented the family, said: \u201cThere is no independent scrutiny or oversight of operators\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs Soames said: \u201cWe believe the Gambling Commission should require operators to have 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. \u201d<\/p>\n
The coroner indicated that he intended to issue a prevention of future deaths report to the Gambling Commission. <\/p>\n
Bet365 said: \u201cThis is an incredibly tragic and complex case and our thoughts and condolences remain with Arthur\u2019s 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\u2019s findings.\u201d<\/p>\n