Does a major UK bookmaker have a case to answer?!?

[tired1986]

The story...

....I was 16 when I began to gamble slightly heavier than I should. This all started when I worked for a local Caravan park as a glass collector and would play cards with some of the older guys after work. Soon I had started gambling a lot. I signed up to a major UK bookmaker and was allowed to play online by using my Solo debit card (anyone older than 16 can have one). No age verification checks were done. I basically gambled (and lost) everything I earned. I gambled heavily all the way through School and University. This finally came to a head I was gambling so much that I had failed every exam I had taken and was booted out of Uni. (I once played poker for 26 hours straight the day before an exam)

My question is, legally, would the bookmaker be at fault for allowing me to Gamble in the first place (an idiotic 16 year old) and having a major hand in kicking off my gambling problem?? If I approached the bookmaker with this, what would their response be?

Thanks in advance!

[drunkenmonk]

Don't think you've got much of a case there mate.

If you'd contacted the online casino early on and exposed the fact you were underage they probably would have paid you your losses back to keep you quiet. (depending on how big they were). Although you probably clicked something to assert that you were over 18 during the signup process. I've seen online casinos pay back money to under 18s before but it's a bit of a lottery (no pun intended)

Claiming some sort of psychological damage that carried through to adulthood would likely be a very tenuous case indeed. Could be an interesting test case if you've got the money for expensive lawyers.

[Johnny's Amusements]

Is there a min. of posts?

thanks

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