Will parliamentarians and GambleAware support Flutter-Free February?
Campaign for Fairer Gambling
The Campaign for Fairer Gambling writes about initiatives put forward by betting companies to eradicate problem gambling and encourage gamblers to reduce the time or amounts they gamble.
The Living Room Cardiff is an independent charity engaged in addiction treatment, therapy and advice. It is promoting a new campaign, not just to help addicted gamblers and vulnerable at-risk gamblers, but also gamblers in general. Flutter-Free February recommends taking a month off from gambling in a similar call to that of Dry January. If gamblers cannot take a month off, then maybe gambling has a stronger hold on them than they realise and for those who can, a month off provides many positives on their time and finances.
This week, Swansea East’s Labour MP, Carolyn Harris, brought forward the final Report of the APPG on FOBTs, recommending stake reduction to a £2 maximum. This will provide evidence based support to DCMS which is now in the process of meeting parties that submitted to the Gambling Review. The Flutter-Free February campaign could not be more timely and the Campaign for Fairer Gambling has contacted MPs asking them to support the “Flutter-Free” campaign concept.
Another recent event is a GambleAware Week held in London’s Chinatown. The headline slogan of this campaign is “Never bet more than you can afford to lose” – which could be translated as “Keep losing until you have gone broke!”. Naturally, the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) is giving the campaign the thumbs up with ABB CEO, Malcolm George, repeating the dubious statement that “betting shops offer the safest place to gamble”. Maybe he should try telling that that to betting shop workers.
The ABB claim that GambleAware Week is targeting the Chinese community. Of course, they have been doing this for some time only not with responsible gambling messages, but with their shops and FOBTs. As a Geofutures’ study revealed, “The Guardian has been given research by Geofutures, a data analysis company, which identifies the high streets in England that are most densely packed with bookmakers' shops. London's Chinatown topped the rankings, followed by Newcastle, Rotherham and Bradford.”
There is a vast difference between Flutter-Free February which is from a grass roots independent service provider, and the GambleAware Week of bookie promoted, “responsible” gambling. GambleAware is the new moniker for the Responsible Gambling Trust (RGT), which is dominated by bookie funding.
Neither the RGT nor GambleAware really advocate taking any time off gambling. On their “How to Stop Gambling: Tips & Support” page, the key messages: “only gamble with money you can afford to lose”, “set a money limit in advance” “set a time limit in advance” and “take frequent breaks” sound exactly like the messages championed at ABB Week, but have nothing to do with “How to Stop Gambling”.
To understand how deceptive this information is in the context of gambling addiction advice, look at any book on the theme of Gambling for Idiots or Dummies. The US version of Casino Gambling for Dummies says “Protect your money with a plan. Set a budget and stick to it. Determine your daily limits. Limit your losses. Manage your money.”
This is “How to Gamble” advice, not “How to Stop Gambling” advice but it is the same mantra as the RGT, GambleAware and the ABB.
The strongest words of advice from GambleAware are, “Sadly, the longer you gamble, the more likely it is you will lose money, because the odds are against you.” This is not “sad”, it is elementary. However, when you look for the thorny subject of FOBTs there is no mention. GambleAware just can’t bring themselves to say that four letter word and so refer to them generically as Fruit Machines with no differentiation of FOBTs. With such muddled gambling-promo messages from GambleAware and the bookies co-opting these messages, we definitely need some “flutter free” time.
As GambleAware say - “Some people will win, some will lose.” With GambleAware the bookies will certainly not be the losers!
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