Page 14 Daily Mail, Thursday, August 8, 2019NHS addiction expert
Rooney’s £7.8m bet
Top psychologist says
player should visit his
clinic ‘to learn why deal
with 32Red is harmful’
How he branded
Row: Wayne Rooney with a shirt promoting the gambling firm. Inset: NHS psychologist Matt Gaskellhours of the announcement the
father of four – who has admitted
to gambling away thousands of
pounds as a player – posted pho-
tos with 32Red branded shirts
and the hashtag ‘#WR32’ to his
31.3million followers online.
Yesterday Rooney’s move back
to the UK after a stint with DC
United in Washington continued
to attract criticism. One aca-
demic said it highlighted the ‘big
moral issue’ of gambling
in football. Critics also accused
32Red of being ‘immoral
and unethical’.
Mr Gaskell, who is helping to
set up the first NHS clinic outside
London for gambling addicts,
said: ‘I can only think Wayne
Rooney is not aware of the seri-
ous harm that gambling can
cause young people.
‘He should visit us at the NHS
Northern Gambling Service
to learn why wearing that shirtwith gambling, has led to a lot of
talk about it. It is an issue that is
on everyone’s agenda.’ Experts
suggested that Derby County
would not be able to afford a
player of Rooney’s calibre with-
out 32Red’s sponsorship deal.
The general manager at 32Red,
Neil Banbury, said the arrange-
ment with Derby ‘shows a new
model for football club sponsor-
ship is possible’.
Former Arsenal and England
captain Tony Adams has previ-
ously said such sponsorship deals
should be brought to a halt.
He said last year: ‘It’s time gam-
bling sponsorship in football
stopped, like the alcohol sponsor-
ship of the past.
‘Gambling’s everywhere. It’s
destroying people’s lives.’
Industry regulator the Gam-
bling Commission said that spon-
sorship should be ‘undertaken in
a socially responsible manner’
and should not appeal in particu-
lar to under-18s.
Former Derby player Danny
Mills, who also played alongside
Rooney with England, said the
deal ‘seems like a little bit of a
publicity stunt’.
Gambling campaigners said that
the arrangement was a clear sign
of the iron grip betting firms had
on football.
Half of the 20 Premier League
tweams and 16 of 24 Champion-
ship clubs are sponsored by gam-
bling firms this season.
Gambling firms tried to allay
fears after a whistle-to-whistle
ban on TV advertising during live
sport, but critics say young fans
are still bombarded with adverts
on social media, players’ shirts
and pitch-side hoardings.
32Red also sponsors Champion-
ship rivals Leeds United, Preston
and Middlesbrough, and Rangers
in Scotland.
The firm was fined £2million last
year for targeting a gambling
addict who had spent more than
£750,000 with free bonuses. The
Gambling Commission found
32Red plied the customer withBy Tom WitherowWAYNE Rooney was slammed by one of the NHS’s
top consultant psychologists last night for taking
millions to promote an online casino.
Matt Gaskell, clinical lead for the Northern Gambling
Service, said the former England footballer was causing
immense harm by promoting 32Red.
Rooney will wear the number 32 shirt after joining Champion-
ship side Derby County, which signed a ‘record breaking’ sponsor-
ship deal with the gambling firm on the back of his transfer.
On Tuesday he was accused of ‘selling his soul’ after agreeing the
18-month contract which will earn him £7.8million in wages. Withinnumber is harmful.’ Derek
Webb, founder of the Campaign
for Fairer Gambling, said: ‘These
companies are immoral,
unethical and have taken advan-
tage of lax regulation and weak
politicians.
‘We need to stop young men get-
ting addicted to gambling –
they are using football to grow
their wealth.’
Dr Dan Plumley, a senior lec-
turer in sport business manage-
ment at Sheffield Hallam Univer-
sity, said Rooney’s ‘unique’
arrangement with the club’s spon-
sor added to the ‘ethical issue’
football has with gambling.
He told the BBC: ‘There is a big
moral issue with gambling at the
minute. This is no coincidence.
And it is right to be pointed out.
‘The ethical issue, especially
with the wider societal problemsFrom yesterday’s MailBad bet,
Rooney
THE former England player con-
demned his own gambling as
‘stupid’ in his autobiography.
Rooney told how his betting
spiralled out of control after a
teammate introduced him to a
private bookmaker.
He said he won initially, receiv-
ing winnings in cash from a
‘young lad’ who brought them to
the training ground. But whenfreebies despite 22 incidents
which indicated they were a prob-
lem gambler. Based in Gibraltar,
32Red pays less corporation
tax that it would if it was based in
the UK.
Its parent firm paid an effective
corporation tax rate of just 12 per
cent, compared to the rate of 19
per cent in Britain.
Company filings show Kindred
Group, which is based in Malta,
paid £17.9million of tax – an effec-
tive tax rate of 12 per cent.
Last night 32Red refused to
disclose how much tax it pays in
the UK.
The firm does pay into Treasurycoffers via the Remote Gaming
Duty – a 21 per cent tax on reve-
nues accrued in the UK – but
does not disclose how much.
In all it paid £137million in
duties in Western Europe, accord-
ing to filings.
A spokesman for Kindred
Group, which also has subsidiar-
ies registered in the British Virgin
Islands and the Channel island of
Alderney, said that it was
‘fully regulated by the UK
Gambling Commission, has a
big office in London and pays all
UK gambling levies to the
UK Treasury.’
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