UK Gambling Services

Whilst on a 6 week holiday in the UK recently re– elected chairperson Kate Roberts took the opportunity to follow up her e-mail liaison with two significant problem gambling support agencies in England. Her summary of these visits is as follows:

The first visit was to GamCare, based in London, where I met with the clinical director Adrian Scarfe. Over a couple of hours Adrian helpfully explained the working of GamCare Britain’s only Problem Gambling specialist non-residential counselling agency established in 1998 by Paul Bellringer (Social Worker). The main focus of GamCare is upon treatment. Awareness raising, and working with the industry to raise awareness of their service and needs of Problem Gamblers. GamCare provides a range of counselling service based in London, with outreach partners being developed across the UK. Their function is primarily on direct and telephone counselling but they also provide a significant number of education program to the industry who have a close working relationship with them. This historical relationship hails from the voluntary contribution the gambling industry has made directly to the establishment this counselling service since its inception. Four years ago these financial donations were developed into an independent trust the Responsibility In Gambling Trust (www.rigt.org.uk ). At this point there is no government levy placed upon the industry so these donations equate to about 3 million pounds a year. As yet there is little community education or widespread community awareness raising in Britain although Adrian felt this was definelty needed. The recent Gambling Act has set specific responsible gambling criteria for any venue to gain a gambling license. This comes into force fully in 2007. For further information about GamCare refer www.gmcare.org.uk and for the criteria for licensing see the code on www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk .

My second visit was a to met Lornda Daly of GamAid– Lorna had recently switched jobs from the Gordon House Association specialist residential rehabilitation program for people who gamble (refer www.gordonhouse.org ). Having been initially involved with their distance therapy program ( www.gamblingtherapy.org ) Lorna has now joined forces with DataSmith to develop an online support service for internet gamblers. In her own words, “www.gamaid.com – is predominantly intended as a portal to provide online gamblers with direct access to information about problem gambling and signposts to local services. Whilst clients can get to the ‘safety-net’ page directly from the GamAid website (this may be friends or family maybe), we anticipate most of the connections coming from a link that is on a gambling site”. GamAid is already piloted with a number of gambling operators and plans are take this support system global.

It was extremely interesting and productive to meet both these organisations personally. The GIS will continue to liaise with these organisation to develop ongoing and supportive relationships with view to maximizing opportunities to support both land based and internet gamblers. 

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