The NHS is “picking up the tab” of the online betting industry, with a surge in suicidal gambling addicts turning up to A&E, doctors have warned.
Health bosses urged betting firms to “think hard about the human cost behind their profits” after a 42 per cent annual rise in demand for NHS gambling clinics was revealed.
Doctors said more patients were attending A&E after losing all their money in online betting sprees. NHS gambling clinics are full of “young men in football shirts” who have fallen foul of “predatory tactics” by betting firms, including a boom in addictive “in-play” sports betting.
The health service will announce tomorrow that it has opened clinics in Southampton and Stoke, adding to a national network of five commissioned in 2019. Figures seen by The Times show that 599 patients have been referred to the service in the past six months, a 42 per cent increase on the same period last year and up 65 per cent from 2020-21.
The clinics offer addiction therapy, including medication usually given to opioid users to reduce cravings. Patients can be sent by GPs or hospitals or self-refer and usually spend several months in treatment. One in three have attempted suicide; 57 per cent report thinking they would be better off dead. There are more than 400 gambling-related suicides a year in England.
Matthew Gaskell, a consultant psychologist and clinical lead at NHS Northern Gambling Service, said that almost all the patients it saw were hooked on online gambling, including in-play betting, which allows fans to bet on every aspect of a live game. He said: “People start gambling as soon as they wake up in the morning; they’re gambling in the shower, gambling while they’re driving to work. The NHS is picking up the tab.
“There has been an increase in people turning up at A&E in crisis, in a state of suicide. People are completely desperate, begging for help and seeing suicide as a genuine escape.” The service opened in 2019 and has clinics in Leeds, Manchester and Sunderland.
“One of the first things I noticed was that groups were filled with young men wearing football shirts,” Gaskell said. “That hasn’t stopped.” Three quarters of patients are men, most in their thirties.
Gaskell suggested that doctors’ surgeries should routinely ask new patients whether they gambled — in the same way they asked how much alcohol people drank in a week.
He said the patients referred to NHS addiction clinics were a “drop in the ocean” of those suffering mental health problems because of problem gambling. “It is largely a hidden problem as a feature of problem gambling is secrecy and shame,” he said.
Claire Murdoch, NHS England’s mental health director, said: “Firms engaging in activities that fuel addiction should think hard about the human cost that can be behind their profits.”
Experts are looking for the root causes of problem gambling as more addicts turn to the NHS for help amid a mental health crisis. About 2.2 million people are problem gamblers or at risk of addiction, but heading to the local bookmaker on a Friday to place a bet on the weekend’s sport is largely a thing of the past. Most gambling is done by smartphone, giving customers 24/7 access to casinos, bookmakers and slot machines in the palm of their hand.
The rise of online gambling has led to an explosion of in-play betting, which is a live participation sport on its own. Gamblers are given never-ending odds for games unfolding on their screens.
When England played Iran on Monday in their first World Cup match, websites promoted live odds on a huge variety of potential outcomes, from whether Harry Kane would score a goal to which team would have the next corner kick.
Figures from the Gambling Commission show the majority of online betters place bets in play, with rates highest among those aged 18-24, three quarters of whom bet on live matches. Customers are able to wager large sums of money multiple times in a matter of seconds on unfolding events.
Dr Matt Gaskell, the clinical spokesman for NHS gambling clinics, said that doctors’ surgeries should routinely ask new patients whether they gambled — in the same way they asked how much alcohol people drank.
He said the patients referred to NHS addiction clinics were a “drop in the ocean” of those suffering mental health problems because of problem gambling. “It is largely a hidden problem as a feature of problem gambling is secrecy and shame,” he said.
Leading doctors, including Gaskell, have called for the gambling industry to face a multimillion-pound statutory “addiction levy” to fund the treatment of gambling-related harm.
Health experts are calling for early intervention by doctors to prevent a flutter spiralling into a deadly addiction. Experts and NHS chiefs have spent years calling for tighter regulation to avert a public health crisis, including an end to pervasive advertising on television and social media.
Campaigners are demanding a severing of ties between gambling and football — which generates £1.2 billion a year for the online betting industry.
The World Cup has shown that the football industry has a long way to go. Supporters have been bombarded with advertisements featuring famous former footballers such as Peter Crouch and Robbie Keane. One, for William Hill, features the song Sweet Caroline — now an anthem of the England football team.
In March the NHS said it would no longer take cash from the gambling industry to fund treatment of addicts, stating that “predatory tactics from gambling companies are part of the problem, not the solution”.
Government reforms to gambling laws, first promised in 2020, were delayed this summer for a fourth time — provoking outrage from campaigners who said that tens of thousands more people would be harmed as a result.
The Betting and Gaming Council, which represents Britain’s betting firms, said members had pledged £100 million for research, education and treatment between 2019 and next year, “unlike the alcohol industry, which hands the NHS the bill for problems associated with alcohol”.
‘I spent all my money — I couldn’t feed my children’
Jennifer, a young mother, spent weeks in hospital and lost custody of her children after her gambling addiction triggered a mental breakdown.
Jennifer — a pseudonym because she did not want to reveal her real name — began gambling a decade ago aged 24, and became addicted to online slot machines, feeling trapped “in a never-ending spiral with no escape”.
By 2019 Jennifer had £40,000 of debt and was declared bankrupt. Her mental health collapsed and she was admitted to hospital, with social services taking control of her children.
She said: “At one point all my money was going on gambling, I had no money to feed the kids. It got to the point where I couldn’t afford any bills.
“When you’re gambling you’re in a different world. It gives you the same buzz and adrenaline rush that a drug addict would get from a drug. I still live with guilt of the money I blew, of what that could have bought for me and the kids.”
In spring 2020, after being discharged from hospital, Jennifer began treatment at the NHS Northern gambling clinic in Manchester, where she received group cognitive behavioural therapy and one-to-one sessions with a psychologist.
She has not placed a bet for two years. She said: “The group therapy made me realise there’s gambling addicts from all walks of life. By giving me the tools to manage gambling addiction, I’ve had the platform to rebuild my life financially and it means the world to me to be with my kids again as a happy family.”
Jennifer, now in her mid-thirties, urged other people struggling with a gambling addiction to seek NHS help. She also called on gambling firms to stop preying on vulnerable customers. “Life would be much easier without advertising. You don’t see posters for heroin and cocaine in billboards and televisions.”
NHS gambling clinics have come too late for other young addicts, who died before they were able to receive treatment.
There are 400 suicides a year in England linked to gambling.
Jack Ritchie, 24, an English teacher, killed himself in 2017 after six years of battling his addiction to gambling.
Joshua Jones, 23, a talented jazz musician, leapt to his death from a ninth-floor balcony in 2015 after an addiction that culminated in him gambling all his money away and even selling his prized trombone.
Source: Big rise in gambling addictions putting suicidal young men in hospital | News | The Times
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