At this time of year the Turkeys who voted for Christmas might begin to regret their decision!
I attended GambleAware’s 11th annual conference yesterday and was left with the overwhelming feeling that the event has become very negative towards the gambling industry.
There was a lot of talk about the mandatory levy and although this is something that GambleAware supported, I fear that the current narrative is been driven by the NHS and other anti-gambling bodies. What is more concerning is that there seems to be an attempt to re-write or wipe from history the efforts of the BGC, the operators and the 3rd sector over the past four years. It needs to be recognised that the BGC along with the main four operators pledged to increase voluntary RET funding from £10 million to £100 million over four years and they achieved it, in fact they exceeded it and I don't think we would be talking about sums as grand as £100 million being generated by the levy if this had not been achieved.
I know the system isn’t perfect and that there needs to me more governance around the distribution of funding, but with that money rehabs were built, peer support groups were set up, new organisations and education programmes emerged, the list goes on. I for one am extremely proud of what we achieved with the industry in that time and GambleAware as a commissioner of that funding should be too. The comments around industry influence were unfair, I have never been told by an operator what to spend RET money on.
The theme of the conference was about working together and there was a panel discussion on a “Whole System approach”. How can we say this when we are dismissing the industry and it’s operators? In my view no party should be excluded from the combined effort in tackling gambling harm and it was a shame that organisations such as Gamcare, Gordon Moody, Betknowmore, Epic restart foundation and Ygam did not feature on the agenda given their contribution to the sector. I sincerely hope these valuable organisations have not lost their voice as a result of the stranglehold certain bodies may have on future funding.
#PositivePlay #safergambling #collaborationovercompetition
Better Change (Gibraltar) Ltd
Retired at Kroger
2wCongratulations Neal! Enjoy your well deserved retirement! Thank you for all your contributions to this great organization! I enjoyed working with you!