Ladbrokes gambling addict hire ends with predictable outcome

What would happen if you not only let a self-excluded gambling addict through the doors of a local retail betting shop, but also let him run the entire store? UK operator Ladbrokes found the answer to the question to that question earlier this year when they hired 31-year-old Mustafa Khader to run a branch in Maidstone Kent.
The results of this unintentional experiment turned out about exactly how you think they probably would have when Khader shut the branch down early, stole £9,000 ($11,700 USD) and so he could spend some quality time with his drug of choice – fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs). Spoiler alert, Khader did not win back the pilfered £9,000 and a Maidstone Crown Court judge was unimpressed with the whole affair.
What really got under Judge Philip Statman’s craw was the fact that Ladbrokes had hired Khader in the first place. That’s because Khader was a self-excluded gambling addict who once spent three years in an Argentinian prison for his role in dealing drugs to pay off (you guessed it) gambling debts. Judge Statman, according to the UK Daily Mail likened this to being “akin to hiring an alcoholic to work in a brewery.” He also showed a bit of mercy when he sentenced Khader to an eight month suspended sentence, 200 hours of community service, and 30 hours of therapy.
Khader’s lawyers plead for mercy and fixed the blame on FOBTs saying, “Fixed odd betting machines have been his downfall and are known as the crack cocaine of gambling, such are their addictive powers,’ he told the court. “Subsequent to this offending, the maximum bet allowed has been cut from £100 to two pounds because there is such recognition of the powerful addictive ability of these machines. On this occasion it started, as all too often the sorry tale does, with the gambler thinking they can make a quick profit and it would go undetected,” they concluded.
The Judge also ordered Khader to pay Ladbrokes back the money he stole.