The devastated family of a 19-year-old who killed himself in the midst of a runaway gambling addiction have said Bet 365 should have ‘done more’ to stop him spiralling.
Arthur Soames, of Fulham, west London, ended his life after he had staked £13,000 in one month and exhausted all his funds in May 2022.
A coroner ruled his gambling addiction had contributed to his death, but Bet 365 said that this allegation was ‘speculative’.
His heartbroken mother Isabelle Soames spoke about her son, a first-year university student, in a heartfelt tribute. She said: ‘Arthur was a ray of sunshine in the lives of our family, and he leaves behind an enormous and irreplaceable void in all our lives.
‘Arthur had a wonderful sense of humour, a playful spirit, and achieved an extraordinary amount in his short life. He filled our world with love, humour, warmth, charm, kindness, and his unforgettable smile for 19 precious years – and he will be forever in our hearts.’
The family is ‘highly concerned’ at Bet365’s ‘apparent lack of reflection’ following the inquest, their solicitor said.
Arthur’s betting streak had only begun six months before he died, starting out as the occasional punt on his favourite football team Chelsea a couple of times a month.
It eventually turned into night-long sessions in which he was staking thousands of pounds on online casino games without the knowledge of his grief-stricken family.
They only found out about it after his death when they discovered a bank statement of his with thousands of pounds of deposits with Bet365.
Mrs Soames said: ‘Very sadly, Arthur struggled with his mental health in the last six months of his life and, unbeknownst to us, was living with an undiagnosed gambling disorder.’
Arthur Soames, 19, took his own life after spiralling for months in a gambling addiction, during which he staked £13,000 in a single month
In December 2021, while he was already battling depression and anxiety, his betting skyrocketed. In just three months, he would place 1,600 bets. In January 2022 alone he staked more than £13,000.
In March and April, his betting decreased but then in May it ramped up again. On the day he took his own life that month, he lost seven casino bets in a row, each time doubling his stakes and losing.
He was completely out of any funding or credit. Coroner Ian Arrow at West London Coroner’s Court said: ‘He told his friends ‘I have lost everything’. 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.’
While she was not aware that her son was gambling, Mrs Soames knew her son was struggling with his mental health, partly because of feeling isolated at university during the pandemic.
She contacted mental health services for him in the months before he died. However, she said these services also failed to help save Arthur’s life and only found out they knew of his gambling during the inquest.
She said: ‘We were devastated to learn at the inquest that the mental health team in charge of Arthur’s care were aware that he was at such a high risk of suicide.
‘However, they failed to share this potentially life-saving information with us so we could take more steps to help and protect him.’
The family’s solicitor, Dan Webster from Leigh Day said that Arthur had gone to the GP himself for mental health support but the ‘inquest heard that no screening questions about gambling were asked at any stage.
‘When Arthur disclosed to mental health services, just days before he died, that he was spending large amounts of time and money gambling, no action was taken to update Arthur’s risk assessment or care plan or to consider referring Arthur for gambling-related treatment.’
While mental health services ‘failed’ Arthur on one front, Bet365 ‘failed’ on theirs, Mrs Soames said.
‘It is our firm belief that the serious harm caused by his gambling led to Arthur tragically ending his life.
‘We also believe that Bet365 failed to recognise the intensity of his gambling on online casino games and failed to take any meaningful action to intervene or regulate it.
An early family photo. Mother Isabelle Soames said: ‘Arthur was a ray of sunshine in the lives of our family, and he leaves behind an enormous and irreplaceable void in all our lives’
One of the complaints the family had was that the only evidence that Bet365 had tried to support was a single auto-generated email which noted that he had been gambling for a long period and directed him to self-help tools on their website.
This was sent two months after his betting had escalated, Arthur’s aunt Sophie Boucher said. It is not known whether he opened the message at all.
Mrs Soames is determined that her son’s death brings about a positive change and demands that the Gambling Commission update its rules to make sure cases like Arthur’s can never happen again, with better support available.
She said: ‘We are now calling on the Gambling Commission to introduce greater protection, particularly for young people and to prevent gambling operators from offering them free bets or cross-selling them highly addictive casino products.
‘We believe the Commission should require operators to have a tailored risk detection system for Arthur’s age group, focusing more on frequency of bets, length of sessions spent gambling 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.
‘We believe that only by introducing such protections can more young lives like Arthur’s be prevented from being tragically lost.’
Bet365 said that the coroner’s ruling that his gambling on their website had contributed to his death was ‘speculative’.
Following the inquest, Mr Webster said: ‘Arthur’s family are highly concerned, based on the position taken by Bet365 at the inquest, that it has failed to learn any lessons from Arthur’s case and that an individual who repeats Arthur’s gambling behaviour today would not receive any greater level of intervention.
‘The apparent lack of reflection and lesson learning by Bet365 has been facilitated by the Gambling Commission, given its failure to communicate its findings about failings in the handling of Arthur’s account to Bet365, to Arthur’s family or to anyone else.’
A Bet365 spokesperson told the Daily Mail: ‘This is an incredibly tragic and complex case and our thoughts and condolences remain with Arthur’s family and friends.
‘Bet365 strives for the highest safer gambling standards and consistently reviews and updates its player protection and safer gambling procedures, including during the last five years.
‘We will now take time to consider the inquest’s findings, and we once again extend our sincere condolences to Arthur’s family and friends.’
For confidential support, call Samaritans on 116 123, visit samaritans.org or visit https://www.thecalmzone.net/get-support
