Promoting Positive Play. Preventing Gambling Harm | Engagement Director at Better Change (Gibraltar) Ltd
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
Agree, well said, and thanks for sharing. It's come a long way and now just a shake-up with a fresh positive look.
Spot on. A very disappointing conference by all accounts.
Well said Robert.
Gambling Commissioner and Executive Director at Government of Gibraltar -Ministry of Justice,Trade and Industry
10moRobert it’s good that you say what you see. I stopped attending this conference because it isn’t inclusive and I found the whole tone far too anti gambling, frankly a bit depressing and detached from general reality. Reports from contacts who attended confirmed my view. I am absolutely commited to making gambling fair and safer. The third sector and social enterprise has, and hopefully will, have a major role in promoting safer gambling. I don’t have all the answers, but someone needs to push the reset button in the UK ( in terms of research, prevention and treatment) and sense need to prevail in what has become a public health and anti gambling echo chamber. It is as if the academic and policy debate on gambling is a good few years behind the current reality. The industry is far from perfect ( and needs effective regulation), but progress will not be made by some academics and those with lived experiences simply pursuing a prohibitionist approach and being exclusively funded to pursue that objective. There is a more nuanced middle ground solution.