Legal claim filed over bet probe after man's death

The widow of a man who took his own life has filed a legal claim to challenge the gambling watchdog's decision not to take regulatory action against a betting firm.

Luke Ashton, 40, from Leicester, died in 2021 with debts of £18,000, and in 2023 a coroner expressed concerns that Betfair missed opportunities to intervene after his gambling increased.

Annie Ashton said the Gambling Commission's decision to not take further action against Betfair "represents an unacceptable failure to fulfil its regulatory duties".

In response, the commission said: "We vigorously disagree with any claims we have failed to adequately regulate operators or protect people from harm."

Mrs Ashton, according to her lawyers, is arguing that the commission's refusal to act also "raises serious concerns about its ability to protect people from gambling-related harm".

She is seeking the permission of the High Court to challenge the commission's decision by judicial review.

An inquest into Mr Ashton's death - thought to be the first in the UK in which a gambling firm was named as an "interested party" - found that Betfair should have done more to help him.

Coroner Ivan Cartwright said he was concerned Betfair did not meaningfully interact or intervene when Mr Ashton's gambling activity spiked.

Of the legal claim, Mrs Ashton said: "The coroner's findings were stark - Betfair failed to identify Luke as being at risk, failed to intervene and missed opportunities to save his life.

"The commission can't regulate behind closed doors without being publicly accountable for its decisions and its failures to hold the industry to account."

After Mr Ashton's inquest, the coroner issued a prevention of future deaths report, in which he said he was concerned that Betfair appears to judge its responsibilities to customers by industry [regulatory] standards, "rather than current good or best practice".

The Gambling Commission reviewed the case and confirmed in November that it would not take regulatory action against Betfair.

A spokesperson said at the time that Betfair - run by parent company Flutter - "had been in special measures because of social responsibility and anti-money laundering issues" at the time of Mr Ashton's death, which resulted in it giving £635,123 to "charities furthering the national strategy to reduce gambling harms".

They added: "Taking into account the action we have already taken and that new regulatory requirements are now in place, it was considered that no further action would be taken against the licensee in respect of this matter."

Court officials confirmed the case was at "paper stage", and was yet to be referred to a judge.

Responding to the legal claim, a Gambling Commission spokesperson said: "With legal proceedings in process we are limited in what we can say.

"However, we vigorously disagree with any claims we have failed to adequately regulate operators or protect people from harm.

"We take robust action against gambling businesses. In the last four years we have taken action against 56 operators who have paid out £105m for failing to protect consumers."

A spokesperson for Flutter added: "We have made a number of improvements to our player protections since early 2021.

"Unfortunately, due to live legal proceedings we are unable to comment any further at this time."

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, support is available via the BBC Action Line.

Follow BBC Leicester on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected] or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210.