Financial planner who blew over $8 million, blames gambling operator

A player in Australia, who also happens to be a financial planner, has blamed gambling operators for his addiction, after blowing $8million in online sports betting apps; even using clients’ money to feed his addiction.

$8 million in four years

Gavin Fineff, a 41 year old financial planner in Australia, had been secretly gambling for four years, keeping his addiction hidden from his friends and family. He had gained an excellent reputation in his chosen career and was highly regarded in his role. However, over this period of time, he managed to gamble away over $8 million to three online gambling operators.

Given the fact Mr Fineff was highly respected as a financial planner, gambling away such a huge sum of money is shocking in itself. This is made worse by the fact that not all of the money belonged to him; some of the cash used to fund his habit actually belonged to his clients, meaning that Mr Fineff is now also facing prosecution and a potential jail sentence.

VIP Status

Gavin Fineff said he would gamble moderately on horse racing, mainly while enjoying a pint in the pub, and it wasn’t until he started using mobile apps to place bets that his gambling became problematic. He was then given VIP status which came with a personal customer service advisor and gave him additional bonuses and treated him to special events. It was at this point Mr Fineff said he was actively encouraged to gamble further with bonuses. In 2017, over a 6 month period alone, he lost over $1.5million.

The UK Gambling Commission have said that VIP players account for 83% of total deposits at some of the largest operators and several operators have been investigated due to their lack of social responsibility.

Gambling operators to blame

Mr Fineff has now revealed to his friends and family the extent of his gambling habit and has taken full responsibility for his actions. However, he has also stated that gambling operators are the ones to blame due to some of their ‘predatory practices’ he claims are designed to take advantage of players with gambling addictions.

He says it took the gambling operator, TAB, 3 and a half years to ask for source of funds checks to be completed on him and his account was then frozen.