THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS: addressing the gambling crisis
In this episode:
There are 430,000 problem gamblers in the UK, with a further 2 million at risk of developing gambling problems. What’s driving this ‘hidden epidemic’ and what do we do about it? Charles and Liz Ritchie from Gambling with Lives share the story of their son who took his life after problems with gambling and discuss their campaign for reform. Then Henrietta Bowden-Jones, director of the National Problem Gambling Clinic, and Jim Orford, Emeritus Professor of Clinical & Community Psychology at University of Birmingham, talk about the need to take a public health approach to gambling and what this should mean for government policy.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org. International helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.
Guests
Henrietta Bowden-Jones (@ArtScienceDoc), Director of the National Problem Gambling Clinic
Jim Orford, Emeritus Professor of Clinical and Community Psychology at University of Birmingham
Charles and Liz Ritchie (@GambleWithLives), founders of Gambling with Lives
More info
Gambling
HoC Library: Gambling-related harm (Mar 2019)
Respublica: Online Gambling: Addicted to Addiction (Aug 2018)
Culture, Media & Sport Committee: The Gambling Act 2005: A bet worth taking? (Jul 2012)
FT: The troubling legacy of Britain’s gambling experiment (Jul 2019)
National Problem Gambling Clinic
BBC: Gambling addiction clinic to help addicts aged 13 to 25 (Jun 2019)
The Times: Problem gambling: the woman who people can bet on (Jul 2017)
The Guardian: Inside the NHS’s only specialist gambling clinic (Jun 2016)