This week is Safer Gambling Week, an awareness campaign to promote safer gambling throughout the industry. The initiative is an annual cause that has the potential to reach gamblers who had not previously thought about (or known how to begin) seeking help. Nevertheless, as a charity that provides free support to individuals struggling with problem gambling, where do we fit in? We know that many of our clients feel that “safer gambling” is a misnomer, and that there can be no such thing. In fact, in the past, we have received some criticism for participating in the week’s events. At Ara we listen carefully to feedback from our clients and supporters; therefore this year we have thought extra hard about our involvement.
We certainly acknowledge that for some people, any amount of gambling is unsafe. Previous experience of problem gambling and addiction makes it impossible for a subset of people to gamble in a “controlled” manner. The impacts that gambling addiction has on people’s lives is impossible to overstate – it can be devastating to entire families. We would never deny that for many of our clients, abstinence is the only realistic option.
However, of course many people gamble on an occasional basis without experiencing harms and disturbances to their lives. There are also those who are perhaps experiencing harms but are unsure about stopping completely, or in denial, or are not ready to stop. We would not want to discourage these people from coming forward to ask for help, and would never turn someone away who simply wants to attempt to reduce their gambling or learn more about safety around gambling.
There are plenty of options for those who are not quite ready to access counselling services. We cover these in depth in our blog post on how to block gambling sites and on our self-exclusion page. Our free gambling support manual also has a wealth of resources to use to analyse and act upon your gambling; take the gambling behaviour quiz to give more insight into your current situation.
What is most important is that we encourage people to come forward and to know how they can get support. Therefore, we at Ara believe that focussing too hard on wording and debating “safer” gambling is less urgent than the essential cause of casting a spotlight on problem gambling. Instead, we would like to highlight the services that we offer and hope that some people will be encouraged to come forward this Safer Gambling Week.
We’re available to anyone in Wales and the South West for free and confidential treatment, or even just a chat.
Call us on 0330 1340 286, email aragamblingservice@recovery4all.co.uk, or visit recovery4all.co.uk/get-support
