Declan Lynch: 'Online gambling is the most dangerous thing I've ever seen'

Irish author and journalist Declan Lynch says online gambling is “the most dangerous thing” he has ever seen in his life.

The Sunday Independent columnist has written widely on the topic and this week he joined Róisín Ingle to talk about his new book, The Ponzi Man, which delves deep into that seedy world.

The book is about a compulsive gambler who we meet living in a caravan park as he waits to be sent to jail for stealing his client’s money. Lynch says he made no attempt to moralise in the book, because the situation is not black and white, but also because moralising doesn’t make for an interesting read.

He spoke to many gambling addicts for his research and says one of the difficulties with it, is that it is “the only addiction that’s only a problem if you lose”, but also, “nothing out there makes it so easy to ruin your life”.

Lynch told Róisín Ingle that he frequently emails the big bookmakers with stories he has been told by people whose lives have been destroyed by gambling.

“They don’t want to know anything about this stuff . . . they know I’m right basically. So what they do is, I send them emails saying ‘this guy’s life has been ruined’ and they just send me back the same one all the time saying ‘we do not discuss individual cases’, ” he said.

Gambling adverts

The writer is critical of government policy on the issue and says the only way to combat the scourge of gambling is an all-out ban on its advertising, but “the politicians won’t do it”. In years to come, he says, we will look back on gambling advertising with the same incredulity that we view old ads of doctors smoking cigarettes from the 1950s.

Lynch says female consumers are being increasingly targeted by betting companies, with women now accounting for about a third of all online gambling transactions. He told the podcast this will lead to the industry’s “Liveline moment”.

“I think the bookies are a bit like Icarus – they’ve flown too high. One day on Liveline there’ll be a story something like, ‘mother of four commits suicide over gambling issues’ . . . then everyone will go crazy,” he said.

A journalist since the late 1970s, the 54-year-old also spoke to the podcast about how that industry has changed since the days of filing copy to your editor in the pub and staying there drinking for the day.

A recovering alcoholic himself, it was, he says, “an alcoholic profession”, with journalists expected to be drinking so much “that it wasn’t noticeable”.

Things have changed now though, he says. The job has more structure and “there is a clear career path that wasn’t there before”.

The Ponzi Man is out now.

To listen to the conversation or other episodes of the podcast, go to Soundcloud, iTunes, Stitcher or irishtimes.com.