A compulsive gambler whose debts cost him his marriage has lost his High Court bid to claim more than £2 million in damages from a bookmaker.

Greyhound trainer Graham Calvert sued William Hill after his gambling reached "staggering" proportions.

He had periods of mania when he placed huge multiple bets in the space of a few hours and lost around £347,000 in one bet alone when he backed the US to win the 2006 Ryder Cup.

Mr Calvert claimed the bookmaker allowed him to carry on betting after he asked them to stop taking his money under the bookmaker's own self-exclusion policy.

But Mr Justice Briggs agreed but ruled that William Hill owed Graham Calvert no duty of care and that pathological gambling would still probably have led to his financial ruin, but over a longer period of time.

In a summary of his ruling he said: "William Hill's failure to take reasonable care to exclude him from telephone gambling... did not therefore cause Mr Calvert any measurable financial or other loss."

Mr Calvert agreed under cross-examination during the hearing that he had never gambled because of financial needs and he did it for the "buzz".

He agreed he had given evidence lodged in court that between the years 2000 to 2005 he made £50,000 a year profit from gambling.

His downfall came, he said, when bookies limited his bets on greyhounds, a sport he knew, and he started placing stakes on horses and golf.

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