SÉVERIN MILLET
Whether it’s football, tennis, basketball, boxing, mixed martial arts (MMA), or cycling, it’s the bet that matters. It’s also the adrenaline, the win and the status that comes with victory. And above all, the prospect of making a lot of money, very quickly. For Bilal (name changed), every sporting event, big or small, near or far, represents an opportunity to place an online bet. He gambles on the outcome, the number of fouls, how many times a player passes to another player, and the number of penalties. He bets on anything and dreams big. For two years, Bilal has been chasing that dream, and for two years, he has been losing. But the stakes keep growing.
Read more Subscribers only Inside a major investigation into tennis match fixing linked to gambling
Bilal is 19 years old. He lives with his mother and younger brother in a working-class neighborhood in the Yvelines department, west of Paris. Unemployed, he has accumulated about €1,500 in gambling debts, owed to his bank, mother and friends. He did the math a few months ago, and it was a shock. “I realized none of this made any sense,” he said, ashamed of his losses and consumed by the feeling that he had “[been] taken in.” He has been hiding the amount of his loss from those close to him.
You have 84.96% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.