Section:GDN 1N PaGe:12 Edition Date:190829 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 28/8/2019 18:34 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Thursday 29 Aug ust 2019
(^12) National
Inquest to consider role of state
in suicide of gambling addict
Rob Davies
The government may be held liable
for a gambling addict’s suicide after
a coroner ruled that his inquest could
consider whether the state failed in its
duty to protect him.
Lawyers for Jack Ritchie’s par-
ents, Charles and Liz, who founded
the Gambling with Lives charity after
their son’s death in 2017, argued that
the inquest should engage article 2 of
the European convention on human
rights , which concerns the right to life.
The Department for Digital, Cul-
ture, Media and Sport fought against
the use of article 2, which is typically
applied in cases where the state fails
to protect people from risk, such as
deaths in police custody.
The ruling by Christopher Dorries,
the coroner for South Yorkshire West ,
means the Ritchies’ lawyers can seek
an inquest verdict that blames the
government for not providing proper
medical care for addicts or suffi cient
information about the dangers of
those who cared for them and had also
neglected to provide suffi cient treat-
ment for suff erers. He said this may
have been the result of “lobbying by
the gambling industry”.
Dorries said he was “deeply cau-
tious of the inquest appearing to
become involved in the political
aspects of safeguarding potential
problem gamblers .”
But there could be signifi cant ram-
ifi cations for gambling regulation if
the inquest determines the state was
partly to blame. Any verdict that fi nds
the public is not receiving suffi cient
warnings about the dangers of gam-
bling could force the government to
impose smoking-style warnings on
gambling products.
Measures are already being devel-
oped to improve the treatment
opportunities on off er to addicts. The
fi rst of 14 specialist gambling addic-
tion NHS clinics is due to open soon.
There are 55,000 children classed as
having a gambling problem in Britain,
according to the Gambling Commis-
sion , which also found that 450,
were gambling regularly – more than
the number who said they had taken
drugs, drunk alcohol or smoked.
Recent studies have drawn links
between gambling addiction and an
increase likelihood of suicide.
The government said it was consid-
ering Dorries’s ruling.
Samaritans can be reached on 116 123
gambling. “The arguable case here
is that the state had not provided the
opportunity of meaningful medical or
psychiatric treatment,” he said. Dor-
ries also pointed to “the apparent lack
of information that might assist fami-
lies or others to save their loved ones”.
The lawyers are expected to argue
that lobbying by the gambling industry
may have been instrumental in pre-
venting tighter regulation.
The family are not seeking fi nancial
compensation , but a fi nding in their
favour could trigger claims from rel-
atives of other people who took their
own lives after struggling with a gam-
bling addiction. It could also force the
government to strengthen gambling
regulations rather than leave itself
open to further liability.
“There is evidence of a long-estab-
lished and understood link between
gambling addiction and suicide , of
which the state was aware prior to
Jack’s death,” said a spokesman for
the Ritchies. “There is evidence Jack
took his own life due to the longstand-
ing gambling disorder .”
The Ritchies have previously told
All light on
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on Tuesday as
a new Atlantic
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of how their son’s gambling addiction
began with lunchtime visits to play on
fi xed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs)
in bookmakers’ shops while he was
still at school. He took his own life in
November 2017, aged 24, in Hanoi,
Vietnam, where he had been teach-
ing English as a foreign language.
Maximum stakes on FOBTs were
cut from £100 to £2 this year after the
government acknowledged they were
a “social blight”.
The Ritchies’ spokesman said the
government had failed to provide ade-
quate information to gamblers and
▲ Jack Ritchie began gambling while
at school and died in Hanoi, aged 24
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