A person who was suspended from all sports betting operators in the UK for participating in a betting slip scam and later wrote a book on how he succeeded in doing so, revealed that he has lost about £4 million on feeding his expensive gambling addiction.
Conman Jason Haddigan, who once tricked British bookmakers into giving him money and later wrote the book “How and Why I Conned the Bookies”, has confirmed he was a problem gambler. As part of the aforementioned scheme that he even described as “going to work”, he managed to generate thousands from cashing in fake betting slips with his father.
Recently, he has participated in the Anything Goes with James English podcast and shared more details about the roots of his habit. He explained that the gambling addiction “grabbed hold” of him at a very young age, pretty much at the time when his father took him into a casino with him at the age of just 16. Mr Haddigan revealed that it was actually extremely easy to sign someone in as long as they had an ID.
The conman shared that he generated his first win in a casino, playing roulette. He had won approximately £1,500 at the time.
Problem Gambling Took Hold of the Conman from Young Age
The gambling addiction did not take hold of him straight away, though. He started gambling at a relatively young age and wanted to be like his father, who seemed to be always winning money and was often accompanied by women at times when his wife was not around.
At a later stage, the father and son joined efforts and managed to defraud dozens of betting shops operating under the William Hill, Ladbrokes, and M Cook brands by using false slips – a scheme that eventually brought Jason behind bars for 14 months, after facing conviction of conspiracy to defraud in 2014. Apart from that, he also faced a five-year order that saw him banned from all sports betting operators in England and Wales as a result of his antisocial behaviour.
Years later, after he seemed to have been clean for a few years after he was released from jail, Mr Haddigan served 21 weeks for fraud in 2021 as he was caught participating in another fraud that involved switching betting slips once a horse race had finished.
Earlier this week, the conman took part in the aforementioned podcast and shared that, as a result of his compulsive gambling, he had also lost approximately £4 million over the years after he got addicted to electronic roulette machines available in local betting outlets, which were first introduced in the country in the 2000s. He recalled the first time he used the machines, saying they were responsible for triggering his costly addiction.
The fraudster shared that he is no longer allowed to play real-life roulette in casino venues because he is suspended from all of them.
- Author
Daniel Williams
