Online services that promise to find people romantic matches have been likened to gambling products designed to keep customers hooked “Designed to be deleted” is the tagline of one of the UK’s most popular dating apps. Hinge promises that it is “the dating app for people who want to get off dating apps” – the place to find lasting love. But critics say modern dating is in crisis. They claim that dating apps, which have been downloaded hundreds of millions of times worldwide, are “exploitative” and are designed not to be deleted but to be addictive, to retain users in order to create revenue. Continue reading...

Rob Minnick uses the platform to detail the dangers of gambling in an effort to tackle content that normalizes it Rob Minnick was in a bathroom in Paris when it dawned on him that he might need some help. Having flown 3,700 miles to explore the French capital, he kept disappearing for 10 or 15 minutes at a time. “People must have thought I had the worst stomach problems in the world,” he said of his trip, in February 2022. While his stomach was fine, he was not. Minnick had developed an addiction to gambling. Continue reading...

Internet betting tycoon Teddy Sagi’s multimillion-pound acquisition of a gaming firm now allegedly worth nothing is the subject of a court case involving heavily contested claims of fraud and physical threat Ensconced within the luxury of his £30m Knightsbridge pad overlooking Hyde Park, the billionaire Teddy Sagi laid his cards on the table. “I have a big pair of balls,” he proclaimed, according to documents filed at the high court. “I lost £300,000 in the casino last night. I will buy your business for £53m.” For the man on the other side of the negotiating table, the online gambling entrepreneur Simon Wilson, the stakes had never been higher. Continue reading...