Ex-Paddy Power chief lobbied against 'crack cocaine of gambling' betting terminals

reb it might be important to say that he had this Crise de consciencein 2009 if we can remember that far back. He was still involved in PP up to last year and I think you can lay long odds against any fobt's being removed from UK shops in the intervening period.

A more recent report on said PP outfit by Greg Wood last spring:

When Paddy Power launched a new advertising campaign with the tagline “You’re Welcome!” last year, its chief marketing officer told a trade magazine that “the Paddy Power brand has always been about two things – being as generous as we can with our customers, and behaving in a mischievous way”. Thanks to a damning account of its failures on customer protection and crime prevention, published by the Gambling Commission on Monday, we can now add a third: exploitation, of the most cynical and deliberate kind.

The Commission’s report tells the story of “Customer A”, who had five jobs to feed his addiction to fixed-odds betting terminal gaming machines. By the time “Paddy” had finished with him, Customer A had lost everything: his family, his home and his jobs.
Concerns about his compulsive gambling were passed up the line to senior managers by betting shop staff, to no avail. One senior employee, in fact, responded to a report that Customer A might be “visiting the shop less frequently” by advising that “steps should be taken to try to increase Customer A’s visits and time spent in the gambling premises”.
The Commission’s report strips away the calculated, “cheeky chappie” offensiveness of Paddy Power’s multimillion-pound ad campaigns and exposes what lies beneath: a business founded on betting which is now hopelessly addicted to the risk-free profits from high street gaming machines.

Hopefully the UK government have the balls this year to eviscerate this method of gambling but don't hold your breath as I believe they generate £500m alone in tax revenue.

A gambler only becomes a problem gambler in two instances with these kind of filth. Firstly they are problem gamblers when they show real signs that they may actually win , but they are at their most problematic when they have run out of money . Then it's time to give Gamcare a shout.

R.A., I admire Stewart Kenny for the stand he took against the introduction of FOBTs in Ireland back around 2008. I believe that his intervention then played a big part in their failure to be introduced into this country (I suspect that he would have been on first name terms with a number of leading political figures and his uncommercial opinion of opposition would have been listened to and valued by them in their decision making process).


FOBTs had been introduced into the UK betting shops in 2001 and followed on from the introduction of slot(fruit) machines back in 1997. I'm not sure when PP opened their first UK shop but I believe Stewart Kenny would have made the same attempt at opposition to their introduction in the UK if he felt he had the same influence at that time with the UK authorities.

Met him a couple of times in their Tralee office ,talking to us punters on the floor . Fairly long time ago I suspect , time passes quickly , probably 1980's . Had his finger firmly on the betting pulse , on reflection I should have bought some PP shares in those early days when he was I believe , running the show . There was the sense of a "sporting" person you were talking to , a man who would give the punter a chance .

Dont think he would condone any dodgy practices as outlined above .