The widow of Luke Ashton, a Leicester gambling addict who died by suicide in April 2021 after falling £18,000 into debt, has begun a legal claim against Betfair that could have major implications for the UK gambling industry. The case, which starts on Thursday, alleges that the operator failed to intervene as Ashton’s betting losses escalated, despite signs of problem gambling and repeated periods of self-exclusion. Lawyers for the Ashton family argue that Betfair was negligent and breached a duty of care, making it legally responsible for his death.
Ashton, who was 40 when he died, placed thousands of bets with Betfair over several years and received promotional “free” bets from the company. According to the family’s claim, those offers increased in the month before his death, when his gambling intensified after he was furloughed during the pandemic. In March 2021 alone, he placed more than 1,000 bets and lost a net £5,500. Over three years, his total losses reached £21,777.
The Ashton family’s lawyers, Leigh Day, will seek to establish for the first time that a betting operator owed a duty of care to a customer showing clear signs of gambling harm. If successful, the case could open the door to claims worth millions of pounds across the industry. Britain’s gambling sector generated more than £12bn from UK customers last year, while an estimated 1.4 million adults in Britain were said to have a gambling problem in a Gambling Commission study using updated methodology.
Betfair, part of the £13bn international gambling group Flutter, denies liability. In its defence to the High Court, it said Ashton never told the company he had a gambling disorder and argued that his losses were due to his own contributory negligence and other mental health factors. The company also said Ashton would have lost the money with another operator even if he had not done so on Betfair, and insisted it had robust safer-gambling checks in place.
The court will also consider Ashton’s repeated attempts to control his gambling. He signed up for temporary exclusions from Betfair three times, returning to bet each time they expired. He also opted out of some promotional messages from Betfair Exchange, but that exclusion did not cover other parts of the company’s website and app, where he later took part in several free-bet and cashback offers.
The case has already drawn scrutiny from a coroner, who in 2023 criticised Betfair’s role in Ashton’s death and said more effort should have been made to intervene. Evidence at the inquest included notes Ashton left for his wife and children, which referred to gambling and said he had “demons”.
The Ashton family is seeking damages of £846,478, including sums they say Betfair made from Luke’s gambling and financial losses linked to the support he would have provided had he lived. Flutter said it offered its condolences but could not comment further because of the ongoing legal proceedings.
