The father of a 13-year-old schoolboy was shocked to learn that his son spent £80,000 (almost Dh400,000) gambling online using his business credit cards. The teenager from Lancashire became addicted to gambling after seeing adverts online while watching a football match at Wembley.

He started placing bets by creating a betting account on his father's name and took pictures of his credit cards on his mobile phone which he used to pay the gambling amount. The boy soon started placing hundreds of bets a week on football matches and horses, spending as much as £3,000 (Dh14,719 approx) each time.

Speaking to the Mirror, the teenager said, "I had no idea that gambling could be an addiction like smoking, drinking or drugs. It seemed like fun and I thought I would make money too." He added, "I just had to put in dad's name, address, date of birth and card details and checked a box saying I was 18 - it took literally seconds to register and start gambling."

After the boy's gambling addiction caused massive financial loss and discord in the family, he was referred to a psychotherapist to help curb his addiction. Recent figures revealed 25,000 children aged between 11 and 16 are addicted to gambling in the UK, according to Gambling Commission's government regulator. The alarming figures call for stricter advertising regulations to prevent child gambling.

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