By Tommy Bonnet
Nottingham’s only in-person gambling support group has criticised the betting industry’s high-profile ‘awareness week’ campaign, saying it could “seem disingenuous”.
Across Nottingham and the UK bookmakers have replaced spaces where odds are normally featured with messages about safer gambling.
The initiative – Safer Gambling Week – is running from November 18 to the 24 to improve awareness of risky betting which can lead to harmful addiction.
The industry says it does help to encourage people to seek help or control their gambling all year round.
But the effectiveness of the scheme, which is supported by the Betting and Gambling Council and the Bingo Association, has been questioned by Nottingham specialists who support those suffering with some of the most harmful cases of addiction.
Nottingham charity Double Impact’s “TimeOut” gambling recovery service began in July. It is the only charity which offers face-to-face support for gamblers in recovery – funded by Nottingham City Council.
National survey data when applied to Nottingham City, estimates approximately 4,500 people aged 16 and over and 1,000 in-school 11-16-year-olds show signs of a gambling problem.
Project Lead for TimeOut Ben Jones gambled for ten years, starting as a university student only gambling with a small amount of money. This turned into huge amounts of debt and being unable to get out of bed without placing a bet – he ultimately served time in prison after stealing from an employer to fund his addiction.
He said: “I became desperate to gamble on anything. I’d gamble on basketball in Japan and volleyball in the Philippines – but mainly football, rugby and cricket.
“I didn’t know how to stop, the big fear was my wife would leave me and I would lose the kids, when I did stop I was at my rock bottom, facing criminal charges.”
Now, after six years without placing a bet, Ben works full-time providing assistance in their office above Cafe Sobar on Friar Lane, Nottingham, to people with gambling addictions at any stage – through one-to-one help and peer support groups.
He said: “A huge part of gambling is isolation, so we get people out and about, having a coffee, out their comfort zones.”
On the topic of Safer Gambling Week, Ben said: “It is a good thing for safer gambling – but it can seem like one week a year they care and the rest of the year they don’t.”
Director of Operations at Double Impact and TimeOut, Stephen Youdell originally came through the Double Impact recovery programme in 1999, with his own addiction problems.
While Stephen said he wouldn’t discourage the industry from highlighting safer gambling, he said: “You could question if it’s disingenuous. I’m not anti-gambling – people can do whatever they want – we’re not saying bookmakers and casinos should be closed down.”
However, he added: “There was a betting company which sponsors a radio programme and instead of them doing their normal bit about odds and football they used their sponsorship time in gambling awareness week to talk about the tools they’ve got to help a gambler.
“I thought ‘how about you use the ad time in complete silence to remember the young people who have taken their lives as a result of gambling’. That would really show it – that’s the sharp end of it.
“Parents of gamblers who have committed suicide we have spoken to – the profile of them is very similar – the amount of money they were losing, the parents actually had the wherewithal to sort their problem out [if they had known].
“One family didn’t even know their son was gambling before he took his life.
“A lot of gambling is secretive. With smart phones and apps you can be sat with the family home losing everything while the partner and kids are watching TV.
“There’s a lot of guilt and shame associated with gambling. Coming here, you just come into the café, meet us here or speak to us on the phone.”
Specialist speaker, Nathan Barnes, works for Newark-based Musgrove and Ball, which delivers sessions to workplaces up and down the country supporting those with gambling addiction.
Nathan’s first proper job was in a bookmakers, and after winning his first 50p bets, he thought it was his way to easy money.
“Over eight years, 50p bets become £10 pound bets which become £100 pound bets, and I basically went on to lose over £25,000,” he said.
“I gambled on anything with a pulse. I spent 10 hours on a bingo site once, I went to a casino before it opened and camped outside, It was bizarre.”
After reaching rock bottom sleeping on a deflated mattress in his mum’s house, he said he realised “there’s always a way to bounce back”.
On the topic of Safer Gambling Week, he said: “I come from an anti-addiction not anti-gambling approach.
“There are people who want to stop problem gambling. I have a friend in the industry risk assessment system, who takes it really seriously, and I think he should be commended for that.”
However, he said: “People have their heart in the right place but the execution can be wrong. There is an element of the virtue signalling aspect.”
Grainne Hurst, Chief Executive of the Betting and Gambling Council, said: “Safer Gambling Week is about showcasing safer gambling tools that exist in the regulated industry all year round to ensure that the millions of people who enjoy a regular flutter, continue to do so in a safe and responsible environment.
“Previous years have shown that this campaign leads to increased use of those popular safer gambling tools – like time-outs and deposit limits.”
More information, including how to get local support with addiction, can be found on the Double Impact website.
