BBC News
By Russell Hotten
image captionQueens Park Rangers has now removed Football Index sponsorship from its shirts.
A group of MPs has written to Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden calling for a public inquiry into the collapse of gambling website Football Index.
They say it is a scandal and shows the need to reform the gambling sector.
The firm has suspended operations and appointed administrators, sparking an outcry from punters whose money is still locked up in the business.
There are reports gamblers could lose more than £90m, with some now seeking legal advice about possible claims.
In their letter, the MPs on the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Gambling Related Harm estimate that Football Index punters have lost £3,000 each on average.
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Review of unlicensed online gambling in the UK’ report was published by the Betting and Gaming Council on 4 February. This was three weeks after the Chief Executive of the Gambling Commission had written to Carolyn Harris commenting: “We know that licensed operators and their trade bodies are concerned about the impact of the illegal market, but our own evidence suggests that the impact may be being exaggerated”.
That comment surely needs to be reconsidered in the context of survey findings in the PwC report that found the proportion of UK online gamblers using an unlicensed operator has more than doubled from 2.2% to 4.5% in the last 1-2 years, equating to an increase from about 210,000 players in 2018-19 to about 460,000 in 2020. It also found that the share of online stakes with unlicensed operators had almost doubled from 1.2% in 2018/19 to 2.3%, corresponding to a doubling of stakes with unlicensed online operators from £1.4 billion to £2.8 billion.
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A gambling support group set up by reforming addicts and ‘affected others’ is set to branch out into Cumbria. The volunteer-led Gambling Harms North West Alliance (GHNWA) is a ‘one-stop shop’ for compulsive gamblers which chairman Terry Kilgariff says provides speedy access to services. “That might be financial advice or support,” he said. “It might be counselling; in other words, mental health support. “It might be legal advice and support, because people might be just about to be thrown out of their houses.” And the group, which is currently primarily based in the Lancashire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester areas, is looking to expand and reach more people through a pilot scheme across the North West and the South West.