Millionaire who sued luxury Mayfair bookmakers for not protecting him from his own gambling habit has £100,000 claim thrown out by judge
- Scott O’Brien, 54, lost £48,859 on bets and at least £50,000 on terminals
- Sued Star Sports claiming he should have been protected from his addiction
- Sold Essex-based paper recycling business Pulp Friction for £9million in 2012
A millionaire high-roller who sued an upmarket West End bookies’ claiming they should have protected him from his addiction as he blew £100,000 has had his bid to get his money back thrown out by a judge.
Businessman Scott O’Brien, 54, claimed he has been addicted to the ‘dark and destructive’ habit of gambling all his adult life and was even driven to attempt suicide by his problem.
But he said his habit went into overdrive after he sold his Essex-based paper recycling business Pulp Friction for £9million in 2012 and he was so ‘erratic’ at one point that he stashed £1million in cash at the bottom of his wardrobe.
He was a regular at upmarket bookie Star Sports’ flagship shop – close to the Dorchester Hotel, in Mayfair – and claimed he bet more than £400,000 there.
Businessman Scott O’Brien, 54, claimed he has been addicted to the ‘dark and destructive’ habit of gambling all his adult life and was even driven to attempt suicide by his problem
He was a regular at upmarket bookie Star Sports’ flagshop shop – close to the Dorchester Hotel, in Mayfair – and claimed he bet more than £400,000 there
After losing £48,859 on bets – and at least another £50,000 he said he blew on betting terminals – he sued the company at Central London County Court for his money back, claiming he should have been protected from his addiction.
He claimed Star Sports breached its duty to act in line with its ‘social responsibility code provisions’ and that some of his gambling loses ‘were due to Star Sports’ failure to comply with the (code) applicable to its operating licence’.
READ MORE: Ministers are urged to back long-awaited betting curbs amid concerns over efforts from gambling firms to have plans watered down
But Judge Heather Baucher dismissed Mr O’Brien’s case after rejecting his claim that he had told staff he had a gambling problem when he first visited the Deanery Street shop.
It comes as ministers have been urged to back betting curbs to tackle addiction.
A White Paper setting out reforms to the betting industry is expected to be published this week, having first been promised in December 2020.
It is expected to introduce a £2 limit on the stakes which young gamblers can place on online games and impose a statutory tax on firms to fund addiction treatment.
But there are fears over gambling firms’ efforts to get ministers to water down plans after Scott Benton was suspended as a Tory MP after he was caught offering to lobby for the industry in an undercover sting.
During the three-day trial, the court heard Mr O’Brien lost about £48,000 on bets – including £14,000 advanced to him in credit – but said that taking into account money he also blew on betting terminals, his losses ran to around £100,000.
Mr O’Brien told the judge it was ‘common knowledge among Star staff that I had a gambling problem’ and that he only went there because other bookies had restricted his bets.
‘I’ve gambled all my life and it’s stripped me bare. I don’t even like gambling, but it’s just something I can’t control,’ Mr O’Brien told the judge.
He said his habit went into overdrive after he sold his Essex-based paper recycling business Pulp Friction for £9million in 2012 and he was so ‘erratic’ at one point that he stashed £1million in cash at the bottom of his wardrobe
He said his gambling fever was such that he once lost £836,000 in one night at a casino, only to win it all back during a ‘purple patch’.
He had been a ‘good customer’ at Star Sports, where he lost ‘horrendous amounts of money’, claimed Mr O’Brien, adding: ‘It was very easy for me to gamble in Star with no questions asked.’
Mr O’Brien insisted he told a member of staff, Gemma Mehmet, that he was a ‘compulsive gambler’ and said the company ought to have taken steps to bar him, or at least tried to limit his wagers over a six-month stretch between October 2018 and March 2019.
The one-time recycled paper magnate said he told Ms Mehmet of his problem as he recognised her as a parent from his childrens’ school, but urged her not to let on that he had a problem because he was concerned that his ex-wife might learn that he was back at gambling.
‘I thought Gemma might say something,’ he told the court. ‘I asked her not to tell anyone that I had a bit of a problem with gambling and she appeared understanding.
‘I told Gemma I had tried committing suicide once and spent ten months in rehab due to my addiction – and begged her not to tell my ex.’
Mr O’Brien, who said he went through rehab in 2002, added: ‘I told her that I’d had serious problems in the past and it would create more serious problems if my ex-wife found out.’
He accepted that he did not ask Star Sports staff to bar him from the betting shop to prevent him gambling, but explained: ‘I’m a compulsive gambler and so I didn’t want to be excluded’.
His ‘off the scale’ gambling reached a climax when he staked £111,945 on March 30, he said.
But defence barrister, Christopher Gillespie, disputed that he had confessed his addiction to the Star Sports cashier, branding his claim ‘nonsense’ and arguing that staff had no reason to suspect Mr O’Brien was in deep trouble, and disputing that he was a ‘problem gambler’.
The barrister told Judge Baucher: ‘At no time did the claimant ever alert any member of staff that he had a gambling problem or was a problem gambler.
‘On the contrary, the claimant portrayed himself as a successful businessman with a variety of interests, who lived in Knightsbridge, had a driver, dressed well and moved in wealthy social circles.’
The former recycling tycoon was not a daily visitor at the Star Sports store, said Mr Gillespie, having attended it 17 times over six months.
And until his final day of betting, March 30, 2019, ‘his winnings exceeded his losses’, said the barrister.
Dismissing Mr O’Brien’s case, Judge Baucher said it had been based on his claim that he told staff when he first attended Star Sports that he had a ‘gambling problem.’
However, his evidence did not ‘establish that the claimant was a problem gambler when he presented at the defendant’s premises,’ she continued.
Staff had no inkling that he might be overstepping himself until the last day of his gambling when his losses hit their ‘internal trigger point of £40,000’.
Staff had had no reason to suspect he had a problem when he first went to the shop, the judge ruled, and concluded: ‘The claimant was not a problem gambler and he did not tell Ms Mehmet he was.
‘There was nothing to alert them to the fact that the claimant had an issue with gambling until…the 30th March.’
His claim was dismissed.
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