BGC Launches a £10 Million Education and Support Program

UK’s Betting and Gambling Commission (BGC), the industry association that represents casinos, betting shops, and online gambling businesses has unveiled a £10 million gambling education program for the youth. The main aim of BGC’s new initiative is to independently educate the young generation about how to reasonably engage with gambling products and environments and to help them understand the risks of gambling irresponsibly.

This new program will now come as part of BGC’s package of Safer Gambling Commitments that the gaming association revealed back in November 2019 and it will be rolled out by the YGAM (Young Gamers & Gamblers Education Trust) and GamCare charities. The program plans to start offering the education directly to 120,000 youths and train 100,000 professionals including the police, youth workers, teachers, sports trusts and mental health practitioners in the community to help with relaying the information.

YGAM and GamCare Aspirations in the New Initiative

The objective of the education program for young gamblers in the UK was summarized in the following ‘shared aspirations’ according to the joint statement released by YGAM and GamCare:

All youths aged between 11 and 19 years in Northern Ireland, Wales, and England will take at least one gambling awareness lesson in the course of their secondary/further education.
All youth workers, teachers, and other professionals who work with the youth are to be sensitized about gambling and its risks and how to detect gambling-related harm in the youth, and where they can get help.
Parents and families at large are to be informed about gambling in the youth, how to keep them safe and where to refer them for support and professional assistance.
All the youth, aged below 18 years who are at high risk, or have developed gambling problems, or have been affected directly or indirectly by the gambling habits of someone close to them such as a parent or a sibling should be given access to age-appropriate treatment

This program has full support from a host of superb material that was developed per Pearson, City & Guilds, and PSHE Association quality education standards. The information will be spread beyond the people directly reached by the program, by equipping other individuals with the confidence to educate others about the harms of gambling and identifying harmful behavior in close family and friends.

Getting Started Online

Given that the UK and the world as a whole is currently dealing with COVID-19 related restrictions, the program will also be delivered online via digital content. The online delivery will include quality video streaming that reflects the spaces that the youth currently turn to for the consumption of information.

Any person identified as an individual being affected by gambling-related harm will seamlessly be allowed access to support and professional assistance from the GamCare team and through BigDeal, GamCare’s youth-centric online portal.

The BGC is disbursing funds to the Charities Aid Foundation, which is then supposed to allocate the funds per GamCare and YGAM grants. To ensure that the program runs effectively and efficiently, an independent evaluator will be granted oversight duties and the said evaluator will then submit regular reports to assess the progress against a set of key targeted objectives.