BETTER CHANGE
It’s all about balance
Rob Mabbett, Better Change’s engagement director, stands on one leg, asking: “What has the gambling industry ever done for us?”
H
ere’s a loaded question: what has the gambling industry ever done for us? I know that sounds like something out of Monty Python but I am being serious, depending on where you ask this question the responses could be pretty bleak!
Many of us are aware of the impact gambling harm can have on individuals and we take our responsibility to protect those who are vulnerable very seriously. We know that gambling can attract crime and that we have a duty to keep it out of our business, we also know that we need to avoid our products from being consumed by minors. There are a wealth of solutions available to protect against these challenges and in a regulated market there will be a governing body to ensure they are upheld, so why then is the public perception of the gambling industry so negative?
20 JUNE 2024
For me this has a lot to do with balance or should I say the lack of it when gambling hits the news. I have become increasingly frustrated during the coverage of a number of gambling stories where only one side of the story has been told. This has happened with the proposed measures of the UK gambling act review, the ongoing focus on gambling advertising, the stories of sports professionals that have been caught gambling (on their own sport/team) and most seriously of all the contested data around gambling related suicide. Every single time these topics are being covered the mainstream media are on the phone to secure an interview with an anti-gambling lobbying organisation or asking treatment providers to put forward someone whose life has been devastated by gambling harm. As an aside I have a lot of experience with the latter as I dealt with these requests
whilst working for a treatment provider. Some were good to work with as they understood the sensitivity required as well as the courage it takes for someone to share their own experiences with the masses. The majority I am sad to say had little to no interest in the individual, instead looking for emotive and sensational even voyeuristic rather than factual.
The most recent instance of this was the announcement that cashless payment solutions will be permitted for slot machines in the UK. This would allow players to directly load credit onto a machine without interacting with staff or using a third-party app. As expected, the news was met with a raft of negative comments such as…
“Proving even more that the government cares more about the gambling industry than it does problem gamblers.”
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