The participant told McGee he had 40 accounts with online betting companies and cannot watch matches, except the odd Premier League game, without betting. He told McGee he had lost two friends to suicide, one directly attributed to gambling debts. As McGee came to know the groups, he found the intensity of the online gambling culture in football has had catastrophic impacts on many of the participants. Of that total, £5.3bn was lost gambling online, a 12.8% increase on the previous year. Photograph: Craig Milner/News Images/Rex/ShutterstockMajor betting companies based in the UK, offshore and in overseas countries, particularly Asia, also sponsor billboards around pitches, which are prominent during broadcasts.

Source: The Guardian January 10, 2019 14:02 UTC