Significant changes continue to sweep the U.K. gaming industry. Last year, maximum stakes for high-street gaming halls were slashed from £100 to £2. Starting in April, a ban on credit card use by online gamblers will be implemented. Now, the head of the National Health Service (NHS) is calling for an end to VIP programs.
Claire Murdoch has written to five major gambling companies, demanding urgent action on tackling gambling addiction and its impact on people’s health, the BBC reported. Murdoch said incentives like VIP treatment should be banned to stop the “vicious gambling cycle.”
In her letter to the CEOs of William Hill, BetFred, bet365, GVC and Flutter, Murdoch said she’s worried that such programs ensnare problem gamblers.
“I am concerned that offering people who are losing vast sums of money free tickets, VIP experiences, and free bets. All proactively prompt people back into the vicious gambling cycle which many want to escape.”
In her nursing career, Murdoch said she saw “first-hand the devastating impact on the mental well-being of addiction. The gambling industry has a responsibility to prevent the occasional flutter turning into a dangerous habit.” She also said betting firms should stop streaming “Be-to-view” live matches.
A former gambling addict told the BBC that incentive practices including VIP programs “have caused a public health crisis.”
“I was groomed with VIP schemes and free tickets to football matches,” said James Grimes. “It normalized the relationship between football and gambling. It is now time for urgent change to protect people.”
Fourteen new NHS clinics for treating gambling addiction have been planned in England, with the first one in London also offering help for children from the age of 13. About 430,000 people in the country are estimated to have a serious betting problem. GamCare, an organization that provides support for problem gamblers and their families, said more people are calling their helpline and more are in treatment—up 9 percent to more than 9,049 in 2018-19.
Online gambling, including betting, casino games and slots, was a problem for more than half of those who called the GamCare helpline.
Murdoch said, “The links between the sporting industry and gambling are deeply disturbing, and the tactics used by some firms are shameful. It is high time sporting bodies get back to their roots and start focusing on fans and families enjoying watching their heroes play, rather than allowing firms to hijack sport in pursuit of profit.”
Twenty-seven of 44 football clubs in England’s top two divisions are currently sponsored by a gambling company, the BBC reported.
