The "Mirror" reported that a semi-professional player in England was fined nearly 50,000 pounds for betting on football. This is the heaviest fine in the history of non-professional leagues.
An investigation by the Football Association found that James Bernie, who plays for Portishead, the eighth-tier English league team, has bet on football matches a total of 992 times in the ten years since 2015. Not only that, Bernie also frequently outsmarted bookmakers, making a total profit of nearly 50,000 pounds. Although he was not banned like Premier League star Ivan Toney, who had previously violated gambling regulations, Bernie was ordered to return all profits, a specific amount of 48,388.66 pounds.
This fine is approximately 500 times his income from playing football, but the Football Association has provided an installment plan. If he uses all his football income to pay the fine, he will still need to play for another ten years to pay it off.
Bernie, who was released from the youth training camp of English League One club Exeter City when he was young, revealed to the Football Association that in addition to being a semi-professional player, he also serves as a sports data consultant. With a love of maths and data (he holds a master's degree from the University of Bristol), Bernie has achieved success in the world of betting.
During the investigation, he explained to the FA that bookmakers often closed his account because of his frequent winnings. For this reason, Bernie will register new accounts and even deliberately place bets that he knows are difficult to win to hide the fact that he is good at calculation.
The left-back, who can also play as a midfielder, moved to Portishead from Yete Town in August this year. He was still playing for Yete Town when the FA launched its investigation. Bernie cooperated with the investigation throughout the entire process. He also revealed to the Football Association that his weekly salary during his time at Yet Town was only 97.5 pounds.
The FA report has the following record: "When he entered the semi-professional league system, he did not receive gambling education, but in 2017 he realized that gambling was prohibited as a fourth-level player. He understood that he could continue to gamble if he was relegated to a lower league, but he was unwilling to sacrifice his competitive level for this."
"He believed that betting had become a habitual behavior, but his original intention was just to indulge in it. He explained that the closure of his accounts by betting operators shows that their strategy is highly profitable. "
The report concluded: "He called this FA lawsuit the "last nail in the coffin" and admitted that he hopes to continue playing football until he is 40 years old.