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UK betting giant's unlawful marketing kept suicidal gambler hooked

theguardian.com

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Re: UK betting giant's unlawful marketing kept suicidal gambler hooked

#31

Post by DrBazza »

GlacierFox wrote: post #5

I've never made a bet before, on an app or in a betting shop and have no inclination to ever do so. However, in the UK I'm bombarded with gambling (bingo and 'games') advertisements on daytime TV aimed at trying to convince me it's actually in some way fun to pittle away my money. Then if I watch anything after 10pm on a UK streaming service or live advertising funded TV, I'm absolutely battered with endless gambling…

I'm glad it's not just me that's noticed this. I thought it was targeted advertising because I also see lots of 'old people adverts' :)

It's horrific really. I change channels as soon as one of those adverts come on. Premier League football teams are sponsored by them, and I suppose F1 cars probably are as well. But not cigarettes. Then again, I've never seen cigarettes ruin an entire family and for them to end up in financial ruin and without a house.

Someone else called them parasites, and they're not wrong.

Re: UK betting giant's unlawful marketing kept suicidal gambler hooked

#32

Post by DrBazza »

stuaxo wrote: post #4

Blairs government deregulated gambling to a large extent, hoping for some tax back from large casinos in theory at least.

That was the government that was supposed to stand up 'for the poor', but allowing a predatory industry to thrive, whose main demographic are 'the poor'.

Re: UK betting giant's unlawful marketing kept suicidal gambler hooked

#33

Post by giantg2 »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #14

I'm in the UK and have been applying for dev jobs over the last six months. I've had at least five approaches from recruiters representing gambling companies. They seem to have a lot of money to spend on salaries, and promise experience of languages like Go, and also ML, data science, etc. I always give them the same answer: no. I don't work for parasites. I remember the time before the Blair government unwisely dere…

I hate them, but I'd probably work for them. There's a lot to hate about places like big tech, finance, energy, and basically every other sector. It would probably soul crushing, but so is my current job.

Re: UK betting giant's unlawful marketing kept suicidal gambler hooked

#34

Post by ChoHag »

giantg2 wrote: post #21
GlacierFox wrote: post #5

I've never made a bet before, on an app or in a betting shop and have no inclination to ever do so. However, in the UK I'm bombarded with gambling (bingo and 'games') advertisements on daytime TV aimed at trying to convince me it's actually in some way fun to pittle away my money. Then if I watch anything after 10pm on a UK streaming service or live advertising funded TV, I'm absolutely battered with endless gambling…

It's pretty rampant in the US too. I don't think a little gambling is bad, but the endless ads are a huge problem. They should really make all advertising of commonly addictive stuff banned - gambling, alcohol, etc. They should also do a better job of educating kids in school about the dangers and tricks. They were going you $100+ to open an account, or doing a deposit match up to $1k here. It's exactly what drug dea…

[dead]

Re: UK betting giant's unlawful marketing kept suicidal gambler hooked

#35

Post by giantg2 »

DrBazza wrote: post #32
stuaxo wrote: post #4

Blairs government deregulated gambling to a large extent, hoping for some tax back from large casinos in theory at least.

That was the government that was supposed to stand up 'for the poor', but allowing a predatory industry to thrive, whose main demographic are 'the poor'.

Have there been any governments in the developed world in the past 25 years that has actually stood up for the poor? I know some have said they would but it seems like their ideas are just expansion of benefits programs that don't actually help the problem or move the stats. Seems more like buying votes.

Re: UK betting giant's unlawful marketing kept suicidal gambler hooked

#36

Post by 9283409232 »

cm2012 wrote: post #3

I work in advertising and defend tracking, targeting, Meta, etc all the time as largely harmless. But I think one exception is when they promote products which are bad. Tobacco ads are already banned - gambling should 100% be a banned ad category. So should mobile apps that are basically gambling in disguise.

Funny, there is a story on the front page right now demonstrating how harmful ads can be.

https://timsh.org/tracking-myself-down-through-in-app-ads/

Re: UK betting giant's unlawful marketing kept suicidal gambler hooked

#37

Post by mvdtnz »

ninkendo wrote: post #16
cm2012 wrote: post #3

I work in advertising and defend tracking, targeting, Meta, etc all the time as largely harmless. But I think one exception is when they promote products which are bad. Tobacco ads are already banned - gambling should 100% be a banned ad category. So should mobile apps that are basically gambling in disguise.

I live in a Midwest state that allows gambling completely unrestricted, including apps where you just give a credit card and press a slot machine button and (inevitably) lose all your money. I also watch the local news each morning as part of my morning routine. It’s utterly ridiculous how many gambling ads are on tv now. Like outside of election season with political ads, it feels like 9 in 10 ads are for some gambl…

Is there anywhere I could watch a livestream of this kind of channel? I would like to get a feeling for just how bad it is. I live in a country where betting and advertising of betting is legal. I don't like it, but it doesn't seem to be nearly as bad here and what you're describing.

Re: UK betting giant's unlawful marketing kept suicidal gambler hooked

#38

Post by [deleted] »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #19
andyjohnson0 wrote: post #14

I'm in the UK and have been applying for dev jobs over the last six months. I've had at least five approaches from recruiters representing gambling companies. They seem to have a lot of money to spend on salaries, and promise experience of languages like Go, and also ML, data science, etc. I always give them the same answer: no. I don't work for parasites. I remember the time before the Blair government unwisely dere…

Are there any other parasites you wouldn't work for?

[deleted]

Re: UK betting giant's unlawful marketing kept suicidal gambler hooked

#39

Post by bbrks »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #14

I'm in the UK and have been applying for dev jobs over the last six months. I've had at least five approaches from recruiters representing gambling companies. They seem to have a lot of money to spend on salaries, and promise experience of languages like Go, and also ML, data science, etc. I always give them the same answer: no. I don't work for parasites. I remember the time before the Blair government unwisely dere…

UK tech job pay is very bimodal and unfortunately both modes suck in different ways...

In the major mode, it feels like 90% are gambling, crypto or traditional finance. The remaining 10% are US tech companies getting a bit more for their money over here. Not sure how much longer that last subcategory will last. Most of these jobs will leave you wanting a good scrub in a scalding shower. Even the US ones.

The minor mode are where you'll find roles at UK-based tech companies, non-tech companies requiring programmers, web developers, etc. etc. The scope is vast and the pay is meh... and maybe my sample size is far too small and time-biased here, but I find the people at these places are so much more down to Earth, operate in a wider spectrum of fields and life experiences, and are just way more interesting and varied day-to-day than endless tech hype drudgery.

You wouldn't have guessed, but for the last 7 years, I have not been in a job at a minor mode company... and maybe the greener grass is glistening rather brightly right now!

We have a pretty abysmal tech landscape really given our involvement in computing history. It has all been sold off and gradually moved offshore. Europe has a reasonably heathly and open tech industry, albiet at a smaller scale than US, but of course us British are not allowed to play with them any more!

Re: UK betting giant's unlawful marketing kept suicidal gambler hooked

#40

Post by spencerflem »

echoangle wrote: post #28
spencerflem wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That links not bad, though like beiju said, it does mention "Looking from a wider societal perspective, there are a range of costs that have not, or have only been partially quantified here (such as crime, education, cultural harms, impacts on relationships and wider impacts on the families of gamblers). For these reasons, we believe the figures of £412.9 million and £635 to £1,355.5 million to be an underestimate of…

Ok, but „we’re estimating about 1.5 billion but it’s likely more“ is far from „it’s absolutely more that 14 billion and that’s easy to find“. I’m not even saying I don’t believe that it’s more, it could be, but I don’t think there’s any proof of that.

you know what, fine. you win.

you caught me in a bad mood, and I was sure of something and i was wrong.

i still think it is perverse to argue in favor of gambling companies - an "industry" that is at best zero sum, simply reallocating money from one hand to an arguably less deserving hand. but in practice is dramatically negative sum when families are torn apart.

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