Inquest into the death of 40-year-old Gareth Evans finds gambling caused him to take his own life

Concluding the inquest at Croydon Coroner’s Court, HM Assistant Coroner Adela Williams found that Gambling Disorder was part of the medical cause of Gareth’s death and that a lack of intervention in Gareth’s gambling by the operator William Hill contributed to his death. 

The inquest heard that Gareth had longstanding problems with gambling, which his family first became aware of in 2013. Gareth subsequently joined Gamblers Anonymous and referred himself to the National Problem Gambling Clinic (NPGC) to seek help. 

In November 2020, after extensive online gambling in the previous months, predominantly with William Hill, Gareth self-excluded from online gambling via the GAMSTOP scheme. In January 2021, he made a complaint to William Hill, explaining that his gambling and losses over many years had greatly impacted his mental health. However, the complaint was rejected, and Gareth is understood to have resumed gambling in William Hill betting shops in around April 2021. Following this, in the six months leading up to his death, Gareth’s bank statements show large cash withdrawals, many of which were made from a cash machine next door to a William Hill store near his flat. It is understood that these were funded in part by a series of HSBC bank loans which his family were unaware of until after his death. 

Two weeks before he died, Gareth contacted a firm of solicitors to enquire about a claim against William Hill. Gareth described that he had regularly been going to a William Hill betting shop “five times a day, often spending up to £800 in cash on the sports betting terminals”. Despite this, William Hill staff never attempted to speak to him about his gambling. 

The inquest heard evidence over two days including from Gareth’s family, the betting company William Hill and the Gambling Commission. This included: 

• Evidence from Gareth’s mother, Rosalie Evans, that Gareth was a happy and healthy young man who was very sociable, had many strong friendships and a very close relationship with his family. His family never regarded him as having any kind of mental health difficulties until they came to understand the devastating impact which gambling had on him. Mrs Evans told the Court that the family firmly believe that Gareth’s gambling was the root cause of the harm to his mental health and, ultimately, his death.
• Evidence from William Hill that Gareth’s online gambling activity in August 2020 triggered a telephone interaction from William Hill’s safer gambling team, at a time when Gareth had lost around £18,000 with the operator in the previous three weeks. A short time after this interaction, Gareth requested to close his online William Hill account, and William Hill told the Court that it had no records of Gareth’s subsequent gambling in William Hill retail stores in 2021.
• Evidence from Tim Miller, Executive Director at the Gambling Commission, that the Gambling Commission had considered the circumstances of Gareth’s case and had identified that they were consistent with failings which the Commission had identified in William Hill’s policies and procedures in a separate review conducted after Gareth’s death. Although Gareth’s case did not form part of that review, it resulted in the largest ever financial penalty issued by the Commission in March 2023. In Gareth’s case, the Commission identified a number of areas where William Hill could have identified a risk of harm and stepped in. 

The Coroner found that, based on the evidence of Gareth’s gambling in William Hill betting shops in 2021, insufficient steps were taken by the operator to intervene in Gareth’s gambling. Despite hearing evidence from William Hill about changes made since Gareth’s death, the Coroner indicated that she still had concerns about training provided to staff in betting shops and about a lack of standardisation across the industry of measures to control customers’ gambling in the retail sector. She indicated that she intends to issue a Prevention of Future Deaths report to the Gambling Commission and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. 

Gareth’s family were represented at the inquest by Merry Varney and Dan Webster with Helena Hart-Watson at law firm Leigh Day and counsel Jesse Nicholls of Matrix Chambers. They have also been supported since Gareth’s death by the charity Gambling with Lives. 

Following the conclusion, speaking on behalf of the family, Gareth’s father, Tony Evans said: 

“Four and a half years since Gareth took his own life, the coronial process has confirmed what we as a family always knew: that his death was directly caused by the gambling industry and its dangerously addictive products, and that William Hill failed in their duties to protect him. We are also pleased that the Coroner will issue a Prevention of Future Death report.  

“Gambling had a catastrophic impact on Gareth’s mental health. Gareth was a normal, happy and healthy person who was loved by us all.  He had a good job and lots of friends. He loved football and pub quizzes and travel. Although nothing can change what happened to our wonderful Gaz, we hope this inquest can help people understand that gambling kills – and that by telling his story we can open the conversation around gambling addiction, reduce the shame and stigma associated with it, and encourage other individuals currently experiencing gambling harm to seek treatment. Please know you are not alone. 

“There are currently around 700,000 people registered with the gambling blocking site, GAMSTOP– that’s around 1.3% of the adult population. The gambling industry deliberately designs their online games and other products to create addiction, and then tells us all that the addicted are to blame. Everyone, including the government, needs to understand where the blame really lies and take action to prevent future harms and deaths.” 

The family’s solicitor, Dan Webster from Leigh Day said: 

“The inquest into Gareth’s death is the latest to illustrate the devastating harm which gambling can cause, even to otherwise happy and healthy people like Gareth. This is the seventh inquest since 2022 at which gambling has been recognised as contributing to a self-inflicted death and the fourth in 2026 alone. 

Like a number of other cases, Gareth’s inquest has highlighted that, even where people self-exclude from online gambling via GAMSTOP in an effort to protect themselves from harm, there are inadequate systems in place to prevent them from gambling by other means. In Gareth’s case, he was able to spend tens of thousands of pounds gambling in William Hill stores, even after having made a complaint to the operator about its failure to intervene in his online gambling and the resulting impact on his mental health. It is vital that better systems are put in place to protect people in Gareth’s position and to identify signs of gambling harm in betting shops as well as online. 

“Although the Gambling Commission has identified serious failings on the part of William Hill at the time of Gareth’s gambling, William Hill’s evidence at the inquest provided no reassurance that lessons have been learned from Gareth’s case and Gareth’s family are not satisfied that the changes made since Gareth’s death will prevent similar events from re-occurring in the future. The family urge the Government and the Gambling Commission to learn lessons from Gareth’s case and to take urgent action to prevent further deaths.” 

Charles Ritchie, Chair of Gambling with Lives said: 

“This inquest has exposed a series of missed opportunities to identify that Gareth was suffering  gambling harm and to intervene. Multiple organisations – primarily the gambling operator – had opportunities to recognise the harm he was suffering, yet those opportunities were not taken – either because of lack of understanding or lack of care. 

“Gareth's death is one of a growing number of cases where a coroner has recognised the role gambling played in a self-inflicted death. Every death linked to gambling should be independently investigated so that lessons can be learned and action taken to prevent future deaths. 

“Families bereaved by gambling are repeatedly hearing the same themes emerge at inquests: failures to identify people being harmed and failures to intervene in any meaningful way. Operators devise their own algorithms and rules on how they identify people being harmed with no external validation of how or whether they work.  We also continue to hear the same issues of people drawn into using highly addictive high speed products and targeted incentives to keep people betting or draw them back in when they manage to stop. And so often we come back to the fact that no one in the system has an overview of an individual’s gambling and the harm they are suffering, despite the fact that we know that those being most harmed have multiple accounts. 

“The Government must ensure that the regulatory system is focused first and foremost on preventing harm. Gareth's death underlines the urgent need for stronger protections and a modern gambling law that reflects the risks posed by today's gambling products and industry practices."