All the teen needed to sign up was his dad's credit card and date of birth. Photo / 123RF
All the teen needed to sign up was his dad's credit card and date of birth. Photo / 123RF
A 13-year-old boy with a gambling addiction managed to blow more than NZ$150,000 on betting websites after stealing his dad's credit card.
The teenager, from Lancashire in the UK, got hooked after seeing adverts for online bookmakers while watching a football match at Wembley, reports The Sun.
Heused his mobile phone to take pictures of his company director dad's business credit cards and set up a betting account in his parent's identity.
The youngster, who has not been identified, began placing hundreds of bets a week on football matches and horses — and some stakes were as much as NZ$5700 a time.
He told the Sunday Mirror: "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.
"It was just far too easy. 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."
The debts went unnoticed at first as his dad's groundworks firm turns over about NZ$57,000 a month but a call from the bank six months later uncovered the fraud.
When confronted by his parents the boy immediately confessed to the deceit, which by this point stood at more than NZ$37,600.
