Your full address
Telephone number
Strictly Private & Confidential
Recipient
Title
Address
By email only
Date
Dear (enter name of person)
(Enter your name and case reference number if you have one)
NB: Everywhere in this example letter before action (LBA) might be different from what you experienced, so it is important to note that this isn’t a ‘copy and paste’. You must enter all the relevant detail for your case and replace the LBA example text wherever relevant.
Between (enter dates), I held multiple accounts with your company, losing (enter amount) of pounds during that period.
At no point did your staff check my ability to sustain such heavy losses, nor did they ascertain the source of my funds or perform any of the mandatory responsible gambling checks required for a customer who had clear signs of a gambling disorder. I had zero income at the time meaning I was spending all of my savings on gambling. It is clear that had your company performed any affordability checks, I would have failed on all counts and thus should have been barred from continuing to spend such sums with you (if you had an income enter an estimate as opposed to zero).
Instead, I was treated with appalling laxity by your staff, as laid bare by audio recordings, internal emails, and external communications with me, which expose your company’s repeated and sustained refusal to adhere to its commitments to the UK gambling regulatory code of conduct (enter here what information you have as opposed to the example).
I lost my life savings as a result of my gambling disorder and have suffered of depression as a direct consequence of the cumulative effects of this period of time. After intensive and costly therapy, I began to rebuild my life, and in (enter date) I issued a Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) to your company to try to ascertain what had happened during my period holding accounts with you (enter here what information is relevant to you as opposed to the example).
Your company was incredibly obstructive, meaning I to repeatedly follow up with your data management department to plead with them to adhere to your company’s obligations as per data protection law. However, to date, your company refuses to comply in full with the DSAR. I hope your company realises that this is a breach of English and European Union privacy law (again only enter here information relevant to you as opposed to the example. It is likely that the company you’re in dispute with will not have provided all relevant data, especially third party data).
However, as you will no doubt be aware upon communicating with your data management department, some data was supplied including:
- Transcripts between me and your staff in which, after explaining I had a self-exclusion and/or deposit limits on my account, your staff encouraged me to close my original account and open a new account with no such restrictions in place, allowing me to deposit as much money as before, and as often, as I liked. This pattern played out on several occasions, despite me pleading for help in curtailing my addiction.
- Audio recordings of your management staff admitting that I was allowed to circumvent self- exclusion/deposit limits in such a fashion, which is a breach of company policy (not to mention regulatory policy) and that it had allowed even heavier losses to be incurred as a result.
- Internal emails between your staff members acknowledging such breaches, and urging one another not to allow a repeat of such actions, yet these actions continued for years to come, resulting in even more devastating losses.
- Countless other interactions between me and your staff, in which my gambling disorder is both tolerated and encouraged, and no affordability checks or other responsible gambling interventions carried out despite the huge sums being staked and lost for years.
I clearly had a gambler disorder, as evidenced by the sustained volume of bets placed, my betting patterns, and the huge amount of money I lost in incredibly short periods of time. Your company was not only aware of this, but also encouraged me to take steps to circumvent responsible gambling policy in order to make even higher profits for your company from my gambling disorder.
I would like to draw a line under this awful time for me, and I wish to engage in dialogue with your company as to how you propose to remedy this situation. I have a cache of documents, audio recordings, internal emails about me, all of which proves (enter name of company) did not utilise all the resources available to a multinational company to ensure I was safe during the time I had a gambling disorder and when gambling with you.
I wish to firstly allow you the opportunity to engage with me in a frank and open manner about the next steps. Should you decline to speak to me, I will consider taking the matter up with the industry regulator, press and other related bodies, and if needed the courts. However, should you be open to such a discussion, I would propose a without prejudice, round-table by the (enter date) at the latest.
I await your response.
Yours faithfully
(enter your name)