This week James is supporting Safer Gambling Week to help raise awareness of safer gambling.
Safer Gambling Week is an initiative to promote safer gambling across the UK and the aim is to provide people with the information and tools they need to gamble more safely, directing those who need further advice and support to the right point of contact.
As part of the week, Safer Gambling is offering free online courses for workforces, teachers, parents, universities, police, sports organisations and, homeless practitioners to provide specialist knowledge and understanding of gambling-related harms.
Courses include:
- Understanding and Responding to Gambling-Related harms
- Brief Intervention - A Guide for Professionals
- Problem Gambling - Awareness
- Problem Gambling - Identification and Brief Advice
- Understanding Safer Gambling and Safeguarding in a Gambling Environment.
James, as a member of the Public Accounts Committee, led on their inquiry into gambling regulation and protecting problem gamblers. The report found that there are an estimated 395,000 problem gamblers in the UK, with a further 1.8 million people ‘at risk’. The effects can be devastating, life-changing for people and whole families, including financial and home loss, relationship breakdowns, criminality, and suicide.
The Committee called for a new league table of gambling operators’ behaviour towards their customers, naming and shaming poor performers. It said the Department must urgently begin its long-planned review of the Gambling Act, setting out a timetable within three months of this report.
To find out more about Safer Gambling Week please visit: https://safergamblinguk.org/sgw
To find out more about the Public Account Accounts Committee report on gambling please visit:https://www.jameswild.org.uk/news/gambling-regulation-stacked-deck
