Safer Gambling Week: Panel Perspective

From 19 to 25 November, the licensed gambling industry in Great Britain is coming together to promote the importance of safer gambling and the various tools that are now available to help people who are concerned about their own relationship with betting – and the impact that might be having on others.

John Cobb, a member of IBAS’s Adjudication Panel and Associate Editor of the Racing Post newspaper and website wrote an article which was published this week, reminding anyone who bets that they may be vulnerable to temporary or longer-term patterns of potentially unsafe or unaffordable gambling.

He wrote:

As a reader of the Racing Post there may be an assumption that you are more discerning than the average punter, shrewder than the rest and well able to take care of your finances.

For you, betting on racing may be just a hobby, a serious hobby, or something you do with such regularity and success that it funds treats outside your usual spending.

All of this may make you less likely to fall victim to gambling harm but it doesn’t make you invulnerable. There can’t be one of us who hasn’t gambled more than we should and taken risks with money needed elsewhere.

The full article can be found here on the Racing Post website. Links to other Racing Post articles on Safer Gambling can be found here.

Under the current structure of consumer dispute resolution, complaints that companies should have intervened to prevent unaffordable gambling are not currently part of IBAS’s remit. This is currently under governmental review and in April 2023 the previous government indicated a desire to create a Gambling Ombudsman to look into claims that gambling businesses had acted irresponsibly.

Even though IBAS cannot currently consider complaints of this nature, we receive dozens of requests each month from people asking if we might be able to help. One of the most common themes we read is that initially, everything was going fine with a person’s gambling; but then, something changed. Perhaps a big win, a winning streak, a losing streak, a personal event – a promotion, redundancy, bereavement or other loss. The damage from gambling related harms can be done relatively quickly – so recognizing that there might be a problem and exploring the options available for help, as soon as possible, can be extremely beneficial.

As John wisely writes, no-one who enjoys betting should believe that they are at no risk. The industry’s Safer Gambling Week can be a helpful reminder to explore the safety nets and services available and to take stock of your own gambling activities.

We have a few notes of advice for people on our own website and they can be found through this link.