NHS Stops taking Gambling Funds To Treat Addiction

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19 February 2022

The NHS will stop taking cash from the gambling industry to deal with people with dependency, the NHS England national psychological health director has actually stated.

Writing to charity GambleAware, Claire Murdoch said the NHS would instead money its own betting services from 1 April.

The gaming market paid ₤ 16m to GambleAware in between April and December to help fund treatment services.

Of this promotion code, ₤ 1.2 m was granted in grants to NHS-run betting centers.

But Ms Murdoch said clients were uneasy about using services spent for by the gaming industry - and she stated that had actually "heavily affected" her choice to decline future financing from GambleAware.

She said market funding "has enabled us to roll out treatment services quicker than would have otherwise been possible", however there was a desire to move the funding into general NHS funding.

"Additionally, our clinicians feel there are disputes of interest in their clinics being part-funded by resources from the gambling market," Ms Murdoch composed.

It comes less than a year after Ms Murdoch told the Guardian, external that gambling companies should be struck with a mandatory levy to fund treatment, as the NHS had been left to "get the pieces".

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In her latest letter to GambleAware, she stated the health service can not attend to the "harms" brought by gambling alone, and neither is it the NHS's "job" to do so.

Ms Murdoch said the NHS would continue to work carefully with GambleAware to establish a treatment system that is "in shape for purpose".

Last year, the overall voluntary pledges to GambleAware consisted of ₤ 1m from William Hill, ₤ 4m from Entain and simply over ₤ 4m from Bet365.

As well as the NHS treatment centres, that money is used to money the 24-hour National Gambling Helpline.

The NHS is facing rising need to help issue bettors.

Two brand-new gaming dependency centers will open in Southampton and Stoke from May, bringing the number of professional centers in England to 7.

According to NHS England, between April and December in 2015, 668 individuals with the most severe betting addiction issues were described NHS specialist centers.

That is a 16.2% increase from 575 during the same period in 2020.

the yohaig code gambling industry makes revenues of more than ₤ 14bn a year in the UK.

A representative for the Betting and Gaming Council stated the wagering industry has actually been a "majority funder" of research study, education and treatment for betting damage for more than 20 years.

It is approximated that around 246,000 people - about 0.5% of the UK adult population - are most likely to have some type of gambling addiction, with 2.2 million at risk.