FOCU

S

1 2 08 .03 . 15

My name is RichardOakley and I am not a gambling addict. Iwas, however, a “low-staking, standard”gambler, according to Paddy Power.

I started betting online with thecountry’s favourite bookmaker in July2008 and I stopped last December. It hasbeen 68 days since my last wager. In thattime I laid 2,216 bets, staking €17,377.33.This might seem excessive, but it includesbets made with earlier winnings. TheamountofcashItransferredintomyPaddyPower account was much smaller. Onaverage, Imadesixbetsaweekofabout€8each. Unlike many gamblers, I regularly

withdrewsomeofmywinningamounts—as any future loan application process willhopefully confirm.In short I was a tiny fish in the €80bn

sea of international gambling. I carefullymaintained a “low-staking” customerprofile, but I wasn’t so insignificant that Iwent unnoticed.According to Paddy Power, I was quite

good at betting on athletics and politics,performingwell enough in both sectors to

be worth monitoring, and to have a limitimposed on the amount I couldwager.On politics I was given a 60% “stake-

limitation factor”. In other words, if thebookmakerwereprepared to lose a total of€1,000 on a particular politics bet, I wasallowedtostakeonlyanamountthatcouldresult in me winning nomore than €600.In athletics, the factor was 80%.Paddy Power, it seemed, had no

problemwithme losing asmuch as I likedon other bets, but it wasn’t prepared toallowme to win the full amount of cash itwas prepared to lose on politics andathletics wagers.Thesedeterminationsweremadebythe

company’s traders. I know this because Irecently applied under data-protectionlaw for the information that the companyholds on me. Last week I was given adocumentcontainingmygamblingrecordand “customer attribute notes”. Ittranspired that on two occasions, in July2009 and May 2014, Paddy Power stafflogged onto my file and set newparameters, having identified a modicumof success on my part. “Looks smart onathletics,” onewrote.For bookmakers to do well, they need

customers to lose about 10%of everythingthey bet, preferably over a long period oftime. They do everything they can toensure this, including enforcing limits onbets.Thehousealwayswins.LastTuesday,Paddy Power announced its preliminaryresults for2014.Netrevenuewasup18%to€882m,andthe firmmadeapre-taxprofitof €167m. Its customers bet €7bn during2014, up 16% on the previous year.Gothroughthefullreportandyou’llfind

the 10% figure for which bookmakers areaiming. Having paid out on all winningstakes, PaddyPowerwas leftwith 9.9%ofallmoneywagered. Shouldn’t thismarginconvince gamblers to put down the minibiro or close the betting app? For whilethereisfuntobehad,almosteverygamblerwill generally lose 10% of everything theybet. For every €100 deposited into yourPaddy Power account, Paddy keeps €10.Thanking you.

“PUNTER’S €1 turns to €200k” screameda newspaper headline last month. The“lucky” Galway gambler won €206,262thanks to a 17-fold football accumulator.“Anyone who defies odds of 206,261-1 isdueatipofthehat,”saidarepresentativeofPaddyPower, availing of the free publicityto help cover the loss.Thewinner in this casewas not named,

butproblemgamblerswhoendup incourtusually are. Last October, a 27-year-oldKildare man was spared a jail term afterstealing €100,000 from his employer tofeeda“chronicgambling”habit.Hisnameandaddresswerepublishedatthetime,buthe has a new job and is paying back themoney, sowecanskip that formalityhere.The two cases represent the extremes:

the small gambler who beats the oddsand strikes it big; and the addictwho losesuntil he reaches an all-time low. Almosteveryone else is somewhere in between.Paddy Power has 2.4m active onlinecustomers. Exclude Australia, and thebreakdown is 1.4m in Britain and 405,000in Ireland and the rest of theworld.Pete Lunn, an economist with the Eco-

nomic and Social Research Institute, and aspecialist in economic decision-making,saidmoregamblersthinktheyarewinningthan actually are because they miscon-ceive how much it is costing them.“Research suggests there will always be aminorityofgamblerswhoareup,butsomewill be up only because they have beenlucky and they will eventually lose,” hesaid. “Similarly there are some losers whoin the long term might win, but that poolis likely to be smaller. The proportion of

gamblers who are systematically up isvery small.”Bookmakerspromote responsiblegam-

bling and have sections on their websitesdedicated to messages such as “when thefun stops, stop”. They argue most cus-tomers bet within their means, and enjoythe various ups and downs.“We’ve always been clear with punters

that they are probably not going to beatus,” said Paddy Power, the eponymousspokesman for the company. “We are notselling a dream, we are selling entertain-ment. It’s about getting extra value froman event. Our hope is that if you come intoour shop with €100 and you walk outwith €90, you’ll feel you had €10 worthof entertainment.”Lunn is not sure it’s quite that simple.

“Withgamblingyouarebuyingentertain-ment or social interaction, and that’s fine.The difficulty is there are other thingsgoing on, to do with human behaviour.Gamblers systematically misconceive thelikelihood of getting something back fromtheir transactions and tend to takeexcessive risks. It’s hard to believe thatthey are always making a rationaljudgment when buying this particularform of entertainment.”It has been proved that when people

else and followed an extreme trajectory.There is a lot of denial on their part.They will tell you they don’t have aproblem, even though they may havestolen their children’s holy communionmoney to bet.”O’Gara believes the gambling industry

should be more closely regulated. Both heandLunnhaveargued for the introductionof “binding limits”, whereby gamblerswould enter into a legal contract with abookmaker tobetonlyacertainamount ina given period. They also want onlinegambling accounts to include details oftotal stakes, total winnings and totalnumber of bets. These three categoriesweredetailed in thepersonal file I receivedfrom Paddy Power, but were not visible inmyonlineprofilewhichholdsonlyrecordsof recent bets.Last week the bookmaker said it would

generally give this information to cus-tomers who specifically requested it, butwould nowconsidermaking it a feature ofonlineaccounts. It claims tohavealreadyasystem whereby gamblers can declare alimit,onethatcanbe increasedonlyaftera24-hour cooling period.“We try to be responsiblewithout being

draconian,” said Paddy Power. “We havetofacilitatepeoplewhoenjoyabetwithoutanyproblem.Weofferpeoplethechancetocontrol their betting, and if anyone indi-cates they are struggling to do this, wepoint them in the direction of help.”

WHEN the Kenyan runner FlorenceKiplagat won the World Cross CountryChampionships in Jordan on March 28,2009, she was so surprised that shereportedly fainted. Back in Ireland, Icelebrated in wild style on her behalf,havingwon€1,400.Various previews of the race had tipped

Kiplagat as a potential winner, so whenPaddy Power gave her odds of 14-1,Iwagered€100.Acolleague advisedme totake themoney and run, but I was havingtoomuch fun to closemy account.If you think youmight have a gambling

problem, there are questions you shouldaskyourself.Doyoubetmorethanyoucanafford? Are you able to stop? Do you lieabout it? I checked the list recently andanswered a firm “no” to them all. I amnot a problem gambler, but my totalnumberofbets,2,216,hasshockedmeintorealising I was a regular one. In general Igambled on the results of rugby matches,first goal-scorer in football matches,athletics and on big events such as theOlympics or a golf major.To begin with, I really enjoyed

gambling. I got a buzz when I won anddidn’t mind losing. Over time, however, IfoundIwaslessexcitedwhenabetcameuptrumps, and eventually indifferent. Bycontrast, I went from being mildly disap-pointedwhenlosingtobeingratherunim-pressed. On a couple of occasions, I foundthis affectedmyusuallyupbeatmood, andthat is thekey reason I quit. The fun, as theslogan goes, has stopped; so I have too.I was a reasonably careful gambler and

my file shows I amactually ahead. I staked€17,377.33 and won €17,981.57, so I’m intheblackby€604.Notbad,buthardlylife-changing and not a great return for timespent — outside working hours, boss —thinking about bets.I will miss the satisfaction of calling

something right, and the sight of moneyappearing on my Paddy Power balance,but I won’t miss checking results on myphoneon family days or cursing situationsinmatches over which I have no control. Iwon’t say I’ll never bet again, but I don’tthink I will. So ahead of the CheltenhamFestival, and after six years, it’s a goodbyefrom me to Paddy Power. It’s been, well,interesting.

FERGAL PHILLIPS

GAMBLERS MISCONCEIVETHE LIKELIHOOD OFGETTING SOMETHINGBACK FROM THEIRTRANSACTIONS ANDTEND TO TAKEEXCESSIVE RISKS

Oakley bet more than €17,000 oversix years, but closed his account in

2014 having made just €604 profit

WhenRichardOakley asked for detailsof his Paddy Power account, he found

outwhy the house alwayswins

WHAT YOURBOOKMAKER

KNOWSABOUT YOU

incur losses, their instinct is totakeriskstorecoup them, according to Lunn. Humansalso tend to be optimistic and exaggeratethe chances of winning a particular beteven when given information, such asodds, to the contrary. “Bookies makemoneybecause the system is set up to takeadvantage of humanbehaviours,”he said.Colin O’Gara, a consultant psychiatrist

andheadof addiction services at St JohnofGod Hospital in Dublin, is part of theresearch teambehind the currentNationalOnline Gambling Survey (gambling-survey.ie). In his work, he deals with the1% of adults who are considered severegambling addicts. He estimates about 5%of people are “at risk” gamblers.“The idea of gambling being fun is

critical to the industry, but it’s inherentlyaddictive—and that bit getsmissed,” saidO’Gara. “All of us have the potential tosuccumb to an addiction if the cues in ourenvironment are strong enough. Withgambling, the cues are very strong.”Hepoints to the high level of gambling-

related advertising, and the fact thatbetting odds, and stories about supposedbetting coups, are routinely reportedin themedia.“Problem gamblers often start off with

abigwin thathooks theminandtheystartchasing the next one, which may nevercome,” saidO’Gara. “Gamblers talk aboutform, but they fail to factor in chance. ThepeopleIworkwithstartedofflikeeveryone