for the past 20 years. free bets, they are not designed to give anyone anything, they are not designed to be free. they are enticing people to open accounts and, potentially, they cost lives. annie ashton. it is 9:25am. we have the weather coming up very shortly but before that scott. it s peak music festival season or it should be. over half of all the major festivals in the uk have been cancelled this year many because they couldn t afford the insurance to cover the risk of last minute cancellations. ben thompson visited one event in birmingham for us. good morning from birmingham. it really is the morning after the weekend before. we are at the birmingham soul, jazz and funk festival, one of the festivals that has got the go ahead after 18 months of the stoppage. organisers here
and then the panic set in. i rang the police and they came round and took a statement. around about four o clock on the 22nd of april, i looked out the window and two policemen got out the car and the way they walked in, i knew what they were going to say. annie s husband luke had taken his own life. she had no idea why until police handed back his telephone. gosh, i can t even describe the shock. i saw betting activity that must have consumed him from morning till night. it just escalated. it became uncontrollable. and i knew i knew why he d done it. the gambling commission estimate there are around 350,000 problem gamblers here in the uk.