A compulsive gambler is to take legal action against William Hill after losing £2.1 million on gambling.  He claims he told the high street chain not to let him gamble anymore but they kept on taking his bets even though they knew he had a gambling problem.

28 year-old Greyhound Trainer Graham Calvert, from Tyne & Wear, wants William Hill to refund his losses as he believes they failed in their duty of care.

He said, “If I’d known I had the problem and didn’t do anything about it, I would see myself as being 100 percent responsible.

“The fact is I did try to go through the right procedures and I was let down.”

William Hill has denied liability for Mr Calvert losing over £2 million.

Graham Calvert had worked hard to establish a successful career as a Greyhound Trainer.  He earned £30,000 a month and managed to accumulate savings of £70,000.

He has been chosen to train greyhounds for international competitions and looked to have a healthy future in the industry.

This has all been destroyed by his compulsive gambling which has lost him his career, family life and business.

Responsibility in Trust claim that a problem gambler can ask to be barred from one betting chain but taking such action was not enough to deter them.

Ron Findlay from the trust has said they are trying to develop a database of “self-excluded” gamblers and are asking for financial contributions from the betting industry.  The database would then allow all outlets to be notified of all punters who had self-excluded themselves.

Mr Calvert started gambling at the end of 2005 and wanted to gamble big, often in the thousands.

At one stage he was gambling 20 bets each day at £30,000 a punt.  He then realised things were getting out of control and excluded himself from several bookmakers.

Some of the bookmakers barred him from gambling while others placed a limit of a few hundred pounds.

Mr Calvert was so intent on gambling more that he opened an account with William Hill in May 2006.  He had been reluctant to gamble with William Hill before because they owned the track where his greyhounds raced.