This article started out very differently.I'd heard rumblings from a few gambling sources alleging that bookies had been upping restrictions on people's accounts. They'd explain that when they tried to back their chosen horse with a tenner, the bet had been rejected and they'd only been offered a stake of a few quid, if even that. Some even told of how, out of the blue, they'd been informed they could no longer bet, shut out by the ethereal traders whose decisions on such matters are final. Others found themselves being asked for everything from passport scans to months' worth of bank statements before they could withdraw winnings.Most cases had a mundane explanation. Some people were innocently snared by the tough anti-fraud measures that many bookmakers implement; others had been caught out by the complex terms and conditions that bookies often use (and are being investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) over).A minority, however, believed they were being shut down simply for winning.These are the high-stakes professional sports bettors who, the more I dug, appeared to be at the heart of a war with bookmakers. Each week they wager thousands – sometimes tens of thousands – through a network of alias accounts, set up using friends' bank details in an elongated game of cat-and-mouse with the bookies.But this war is only the focal point of a far more damning change in the industry: the way that some bookmakers are identifying and excluding winners, seemingly to ensure that they only take bets from people with a history of losing.Read more on VICE Sports.
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