SBC News

Responsible Wagering Australia (RWA) member bookmakers are preparing themselves for NSW GambleAware Week, centred around the theme ‘What’s gambling costing you?’.

The trade association and industry standards body, which includes prominent licence holders bet365, Betfair, Entain, Sportsbet, PointsBet and Unibet as members, encouraged ‘all Australians to join in supporting this worthwhile initiative’.

However, the RWA also reiterated long-held concerns by Australian betting stakeholders regarding the threat posed to the regulated industry by unlicensed operators. These sites offer ‘strong inducements’ with ‘no deterrent’ for customers.

Kai Cantwell, RWA CEO, remarked: ‘RWA members are proud to set the industry standard for keeping customers safe, going well beyond the requirements set by governments. The biggest risk to safe gambling in Australia is offshore operators enticing Australians to gamble through illegal promotions.

“While RWA members and other licensed wagering service pr..

Monica Shafaq has been appointed CEO of Gordon Moody – a UK-based charity which provides support and treatment to those suffering from severe gambling harm.

Source: Gordon Moody
Following what the company described as an ‘extensive and thorough’ recruitment process conducted by its board of trustees over recent months, Shafaq will take over in January of next year.

Bringing around 13 years of experience in the charity sector, the CEO will join Gordon Moody from mental health and wellbeing organisation, The Kaleidoscope Plus Group, where she has served as CEO since 2010.

Claire Arnold, Gordon Moody Trustee, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Monica to the Gordon Moody team as our new CEO, and we would also like to express our sincere thanks to our departing CEO, Matthew Hickey, who has worked tirelessly to advance our cause over the past four years.”

Monica succeeds Hickey, who will continue to support the leadership team at Gordon Moody until the end of the year, in the aim of..

GambleAware has published new ‘data maps’ indexing problem gambling harms across UK local authorities and parliamentary constituencies, to help the stakeholders of the National Gambling Support Network (NGSN).

The maps, produced by PoliMapper, reveal regions with high levels of gambling harm and increased need for support and treatment. The data is based on the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) to visually represent gambling harm in different areas.

As the commission charity for gambling harm prevention and treatment services, GambleAware cites that it seeks to provide NGSN stakeholders with a ‘screening tool’ visually highlighting PGSI indexes within local areas.

A visualisation of PGSI at a local level is needed to enhance GambleAware and the NGSN’s regional-first approach to ensure local access to support those affected by gambling harms.

The maps for local authorities and parliamentary constituencies index data collected in November 2022 from GambleAware’s “Annual Great B..

Margot Daly, Chair of GamCare has urged MPs to ensure that the funding from the problem gambling’s RET levy is ring fenced in order to guarantee the most effective treatment for victims of gambling harms.

Writing in the Commons news source, PoliticsHome.com, Daly emphasized the importance of third sector organisations such as GamCare, which provide first-hand treatment for gambling harms across the UK.

On the frontline of treating harms, Daly highlighted that, every day, “GamCare provides support to 220 individuals through free and confidential calls, online chats, and treatment sessions, aiding 80,000 people annually”.

Yet, despite effective treatment, Daly believes that GamCare and other organisations are “only scratching the surface”. Problem gambling has become a “serious public health issue impacting families and local communities”, she wrote.

As the leading provider of problem gambling treatment and support services, GamCare is closely monitoring the ongoing consultations reg..

BETBY has advanced its corporate social responsibility via a charity fundraiser for Common Ground, a community centre located in Riga, Latvia.

The sportsbook supplier held a charity auction for the organisation, with prizes including a speedboat trip with CCO Chris Nikolopoulos and a wine-tasting session with COO Eva Berkova.

On a business note, the company also organised a series of online talks and meetings involving BETBY staff and the company’s executive team, including CEO Leonid Pertsovskiy, who took questions about the firm’s future plans.

Pertsovskiy remarked: “Celebrating our five-year anniversary by giving back to our staff along with people in the wider community in Riga is a fitting way to mark this occasion.

“We take great pride in putting people first and without the talented and dedicated staff we have, we would not have seen our business go from strength to strength and be in the wonderful position we are today. I am very thankful to everybody who has joined us on o..

Svenska Spel has announced that it will sponsor “50 Swedish athletes from 40 different sports” continuing its ‘Elite Sports Scholarship’ programme in partnership with Riksidrottsförbundets, Sweden’s Sports Confederation.

The flagship sports directive of Sweden’s state-owned gambling and lotteries monopoly received applications of 353 athletes from 36 different Swedish sports federations to join its 2023/2024 programme.

Scholarship recipients will receive SEK 50,000 (€4,500) in financial support from Svenska Spel, alongside access to athlete resources such as sports psychology, medicine and mentoring offered by Riksidrottsförbundets.

Nicklas Biverståhl, who oversees the Scholarship programme for Svenska Spel, commented: “Svenska Spel is Swedish sports’ biggest sponsor, and talent development is very close to our hearts.

“Combining an elite investment with studies requires a lot of will and we are happy to help the scholarship holders realize their dreams. It’s especially fun to se..

An academic research project backed by £1.6m in funding has been launched as a ‘direct response’ to the government’s review of the 2005 Gambling Act.

The project will be conducted by the University of Nottingham, University of Glasgow and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, with financial backing from the Welcome Institute.

Addressing and building on a common talking point seen throughout the debate on the Gambling Act review, the research will examine gambling’s impact on public health, particularly with regards to sports sponsorships.

Anna Greenwood, Professor of Health History at the University of Nottingham, said: “We are so excited to have achieved this award which will show just how important historical precedents have been in shaping contemporary responses to sports sponsorship by unhealthy industries. We need to better understand the past to avoid making similar mistakes in the future.”

Researchers noted that the Gambling Act review White Paper had a number of pro..

British doctors and healthcare professionals have been advised to question gambling habits when treating patients with mental health issues.

The advice forms part of a ‘draft guidance for consultation’ published by NICE – the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence – on identifying, assessing, and managing harmful gambling within Britain’s public health network.

The institute advises healthcare practitioners, such as GPs, to ask patients about gambling, mirroring the mandatory questions on tobacco (smoking) and alcohol consumption.

As reported: “NICE has identified that when people present at appointments with depression, anxiety, or thoughts about self-harm, suicide, or a possible addiction (for example, alcohol or drug misuse), they may be at increased risk of harm from gambling. NICE recommends this risk be identified and addressed by healthcare professionals.”

To aid the assessment of mental health issues, practitioners should encourage patients to self-evaluate their..

Gambling issues may have been overshadowed by HS2, the smoking age, immigration, trans rights and Penny Mordaunt’s impression of the King of Sparta, but the industry did get a mention at the Conservative Party conference.

The industry got more than a mention in fact, as it was actually the subject of a panel on Day Three of the conference titled “The Gambling White Paper: Implications for Treatment’. As the title suggests, the panel examined the Gambling Act review White Paper, one of the 2019 election pledges of the Conservative Party.

After being promised four years ago and commencing two years ago, and being overseen by no less than nine Ministers – both Secretaries of State and Parliamentary Undersecretaries – the White Paper was finally published in April, with a key and highly-anticipated recommendation being a mandatory research, education and treatment (RET) levy.

Speaking on the panel in Manchester this week, Dr Jane Rigbye, CEO of Ygam, asserted to assembled MPs and journa..

The government of Ireland has been warned “that there is far more problem gambling in the Republic than previously believed.”

The assessment comes from independent public policy research agency the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) which published its “Measures of Problem Gambling in Ireland” report.

The ESRI study was commissioned by the Implementation Team supporting the establishment of the new Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland.

Applying a new ‘anonymous online survey’, the ESRI outlines its best assumption that 1-in-30 Irish adults has a problem with gambling. The figure is 10X higher than the 2019 estimate guiding the Irish government’s current agenda on gambling harms.

The ESRI survey was conducted in August 2023 with a user sample of 2,850 adults aged 18 and over, in which researchers underlined that they had carried out ‘multiple validity checks’ in comparison to previous studies measuring harms.

As such, the “validity of the 1-in-30 figure is supported..