My husband took his own life after betting 100 times a day, but nothing has been done

A widow whose husband took his own life after amassing huge debts has said enough is not being done to protect addicts like him.

Annie Ashton has launched a legal challenge against the Gambling Commission at the High Court. She accuses the regulator of failing to adequately protect gamblers like her late husband Luke, who died in 2021 after racking up debts of £18,000.

Luke, 40, was found by a coroner to have had a gambling disorder that contributed to his death. Despite this, he was not classified as a problem gambler.

In 2024, the commission decided against taking regulatory action against the betting company Betfair on two occasions. Mrs Ashton has expressed her dissatisfaction with the Gambling Commission's efforts to safeguard consumers and vowed to 'continue fighting it until something is done'.

She shared her grief and frustration, saying: "I didn't think there would be anyone else after that (Luke's death), and then the reality is there is another family, and you're meeting another family where someone has died from gambling-related suicide, you are hearing stories that operators were misbehaving and the things that they have gone through.

"The Gambling Commission are part of that problem because what they should have done is made this so that people were aware of what is happening.

"This is a government body. They should have been protecting, they should have been regulating, they should be making sure that customers are safe, they should be regulating with the view to enforcing if necessary, and they are not doing their job."

The inquest into Mr Ashton's death, held in June 2023, was reportedly the first in the UK to list a gambling company as an Interested Person in the proceedings. Mr Ashton had a severe