I always like to look at things that don’t involve me personally with as little bias as possible, keep an open mind and see both sides of the story.
Whilst I don’t see the OP’s actions as responsible, that is not what he has asked us to judge. Let him without sin cast the first stone so to speak. Meaning that can all of us honestly say that we have never once acted irresponsibly when gambling? I know, I can’t.
The OP obviously wouldn’t say no to his deposits back and yes that’s probably the ulterior motive but his question is did Ladbrokes act responsibly? Yet nobody has considered that to be the case, instead choosing to blame him for his actions.
Primarily yes, we are all responsible for our own actions but gambling is an addiction, a drug, that is extremely dangerous and we all handle it differently. If you were the Landlord of a pub and a stranger walked in and started drinking Whiskey by the half pints would you just let him carry on until he dropped dead and then blame him or would you intervene?
I also find it quite difficult to believe that online Casinos do not have some kind of “alarm system” that alerts staff to extreme activity or irregularities taking place regarding accounts or an automatic blocker that COULD be enabled once a threshold is breached.
Yes, we have seen similar stories before but do you all think Ladbrokes are totally blameless here? I don’t.