The sister of a football fan who took his own life says “predatory” gambling systems “consumed his mind”, an inquest has heard.
Oliver Long, 36, was found dead in East Sussex on February 23 2024 after sending farewell messages to his family a few days earlier.
He had been diagnosed with a “severe gambling addiction” and started using unlicensed overseas sites when he tried to self-exclude.
On Tuesday, East Sussex Coroner’s Court heard from Mr Long’s family that “gambling had made him believe that he was better off dead”, and they “firmly” believe that it is to blame for his death.
Mr Long, who was from Buckinghamshire but had lived in London since 2012, was a big Liverpool FC fan.
In a pen portrait read in court by Mr Long’s sister Chloe, he was described as “intelligent, quick-witted and endlessly kind”, but that “gambling took hold” and “consumed” him.
Ms Long said: “The gambling products he encountered were not harmless entertainment. They stripped away Ollie’s enjoyment of the game he loved so much.
“They were highly addictive, predatory systems designed to exploit. And they did. They stole from Ollie – not only his money, but his peace, his future, and ultimately, his life.”
Mr Long began betting by winning £15,000 on his initial sign-up offer, and continued to bet and “do well” for six months before things went downhill.
He seemed to have self-excluded from UK gambling sites in 2022, before starting to use overseas unlicensed gambling sites which “target” people like him in 2023, the court heard.
His bank statements showed that his savings depleted by £20,000 in April 2023 alone, and his activity on these sites continued before his death.
Tim Miller, the executive director of the Gambling Commission, told the coroner that these sites are “deliberately seeking to target people who are already experiencing harm”, and marketing themselves to circumvent UK self-exclusion like “GamStop”.
He said that some of these sites are run by “criminal networks” who are involved with “terrorists and organised crime”.
“Because of our work we had over 81,000 individual URLs being removed from search engines, a lot of those will have been ‘not on GamStop’ sites,” said Mr Miller.
He said the Commission is “disappointed” that Meta is not being proactive in taking down these sites, and there is “much more” they could do.
However, legislation to give the Gambling Commission more power to require internet providers to deal with illegal sites is expected to come into force next year.
Mr Long had spent a weekend with his family the weekend before he died, before he travelled to an Airbnb the day he was set to begin a new job.
His death was recorded as “multiple injuries” by a pathologist, the court heard.
Mr Long had struggled with depression and anxiety, which the court heard are “common” mental health problems associated with gambling.
He also used cannabis as a way to isolate himself when he relapsed into gambling, the court heard.
The inquest will conclude this afternoon.
