A group of gambling addicts with support from MPs and public health experts have written a letter to UK football clubs, encouraging them to refrain from promoting gambling messages via their social media handles.
Football clubs in the UK are under fire for conducting gambling advertising campaigns via their social media channels as it poses potential harm to children and people who are either trying to recover or are suffering from gambling addiction. To raise their concern, a group of 50 people who have been harmed by online gambling penned a letter and cc-ed it to 11 top teams from the English Premier League (EPL), and the English Football League (EFL) in England and Scotland’s leading league, the Scottish Premiership (SP).
The letter is calling on the clubs to put an end to their gambling promotions via their social media handles due to the kind of stress it causes to gambling addicts and those who are trying to recover from compulsive gambling.
Moreover, this letter indicates the potential harm that such advertisements could cause to youngsters as the platforms used don’t have any age restrictive controls to target the messages to age-appropriate audiences.
What Action Does the Group Want Football Clubs to Take?
The message on the letter is very categorical, citing statistics of gambling harm in the UK from YouGov, a renowned market research and data analytics firm. Thus, from recent YouGov reports, the UK has over 1.4 million gambling addicts and on top of that, 3.6 million more are directly affected by the gambling habits of someone close to them. YouGov also recently disclosed that 55,000 youngsters are already part of the problem gambling statistics.
In the letter, the group further lists the practices that football club social media handles should stop with immediate effect as follows;
The letter reads in part;
Quote“It’s painful to see brands associated with unimaginable harm when doing something as simple as checking their team’s starting line-up on Twitter. Ending these forms of direct gambling marketing will prevent your young fans from being one click away from a gambling site and protect your supporters who have been harmed by gambling We hope that you will take this request seriously and we look forward to seeing your social media channels free of direct gambling promotion soon.”
UK MPs and Public Health Experts Supported the Letter’s Message
This letter was also supported by local MPs from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Gambling Related Harm (GRH APPG), starting from its chairperson, Carolyn Harris, and the group’s vice-chairs; Ronnie, Cowan, and Ian Duncan-Smith. The GRH APPG is a safer gambling coalition that was launched by 50 UK MPs in June 2020 to push for radical reforms in the region's gambling industry.
Heads of different public sectors were part of the support group involved in the matter, including Dr. Matthew Gaskell, the Clinical Lead at NHS Northern Gambling Service, Louisa Mason, the lead at Gambling Health Alliance and Prof Henrietta Bowden-Jones OBE, the Founder and Director at the National Problem Gambling Clinic.
Some of the football clubs to whom the letter was directly addressed are Arsenal, Manchester City, Leicester City, Celtic, Coventry, Nottingham Forest, Burnley, and Newcastle United.
Clubs Voice their Commitment to Safer Gambling
On their part, some of the clubs that received the letter responded positively in a way, reiterating their social responsibility towards safer gambling and encouraged anyone suffering from gambling harm to seek professional assistance. Arsenal for instance released a statement via the club spokesperson saying that;
Quote“Our partnership with SportsBet is founded on a joint commitment to promote safe and responsible gambling. We are pleased to partner with an industry-leading organisation that takes its social and regulatory responsibility extremely seriously. We would encourage anyone struggling with gambling to seek confidential and professional support at www.gamstop.co.uk.”
The spokesperson of the Coventry City Football Club also commented on the matter, mentioning that the club and its gambling partner adhere to industry guidelines in the following statement.
Quote“In line with English Football League guidance, the club and BoyleSports work closely to ensure that the promotion of any gambling products is conducted responsibly and in line with all appropriate licensing and regulatory guidelines.”
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