BETTER CHANGE
Gambling’s Love-Hate Problem: Who really wins?
Better Change’s Engagement Director, Rob Mabbett, LOVES gambling. Don’t believe me? Over to you Rob…
I
love gambling! [told you so! – Ed]. I genuinely don’t think there is much I don’t like about it: the different games and the excitement of the action, win or lose - either as a player or by facilitating someone else’s play working as an operator; these are things I really enjoy. From an early age I was interested in games of chance or being able to predict the winner of a sporting event. Being under-18 though, this would be limited to games of cards with the family, games with friends - usually involving low value coins or marbles - and trips to the seaside and the arcades.
My parents did not approve of gambling at all, particularly my father who despite playing the lottery (supporting good causes), occasionally playing cards with his workmates (being social) and telling a younger me that one day we should have a day at the races (just for the experience of course), would fi ercely object to any gambling activity I engaged in or talked about. For me this made it all the more alluring; it became forbidden fruit, and on numerous occasions in my early adulthood I attempted to make my hobby my profession by applying for jobs in the industry. Ironically given my opening remark my journey in the industry started on Valentine’s Day, February 14th, 2012, when I took a job at a local betting shop.
Do forgive the love theme for this month’s 20 FEBRUARY 2026
article as appropriate (as it is being February) but I thought it was relevant given that it feels like our world of regulatory compliance particularly in the fi eld of player protection is seeing a signifi cant culture shift. When I moved roles from being an operator to a treatment provider, the phrase “poacher turned gamekeeper” popped up a lot. Basically, I was being accused of going from being pro-gambling to anti-gambling, which couldn’t be further from the truth. I did have non-gambling reasons for making the switch. I believe many people who enter into charity work do so because of an issue close to their heart, but for me it was also important to try to understand the question of why some people can gamble safely their whole lives, why some cannot, and why some go from gambling safely to risky play.
We could only do this by looking at the data that was presented to us from people reaching out to access our services; my own or other’s opinion or stance on gambling didn’t come into the equation. For some of them, gambling had always been an issue but for others it was something that had developed in later life and affected something that for them was a harmless pastime. In both instances it was extremely rare that gambling was the only diffi culty they were experiencing. Aspects of their lives had led them to gamble as a means
of escape and then in turn as the gambling turned problematic it became a catalyst for existing issues and potentially new ones. Learnt behaviour from parents, friends or loved ones supported the belief that gambling was something you did to escape, relieve some stress or simply have some fun, which would make gambling an attractive proposition if they were going through hardship, particularly fi nancially, and especially if there was an experience of a “big win” - the fact that another one might be just around the corner which could make everything better is often too hard to resist.
My conclusion from my time in treatment was that the cases presented to us had a lot less to do with gambling than I had expected; in fact if you were to ask me now what the number one cause of gambling addiction would be, I would not say roulette or a volatile slot game, I would say adverse childhood experience, and after that it would be the presence of trauma in someone’s life that has built up over time or that has happened because of a sudden incident. This is my opinion of course and as I stated earlier in this article, I love gambling, so it’s impossible for me to say I have no bias but I wanted to look at this objectively so that we can start to look at how we can effect positive change on an industry we care about.
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