The National Health Service (NHS) has urged the local gambling sector to start caring more about the actual human cost that usually remains hidden behind their profits after revelations that the demand for NHS gambling clinics in the country has increased by 42% year-on-year.
According to data provided by medical professionals, more people were attending A&E departments after losing all their money while betting online. Doctors revealed that, currently, NHS gambling clinics are full of young men who have been lured into risky gambling behaviour by betting firms. A massive increase in compulsive in-play sports betting has also been registered.
In a response to the rising demand for professional treatment of gambling addiction, the NSH has opened clinics in Stoke and Southampton, adding to a national network of five clinics aimed at the
prevention and treatment of problem gambling that was established in 2019. Currently, there are NHS gambling clinics in Manchester, Leeds and Sunderland.
According to data provided by the National Health Service, almost 600 patients have been referred to the gambling addiction treatment service over the past six months – a figure that represents a 42% increase from the same period in 2021, and a 65% from the same period in 2020.
One of the consultant psychologists at NHS Northern Gambling Service, Matthew Gaskell, explained that almost all patients who sought help were addicted to online gambling, including so-called in-play betting. He revealed that such people would start gambling as soon as they woke up in the morning, and would continue to gamble throughout the entire day, no matter the place or the time.
NSW Mental Health Specialists Say Gambling Addiction Remains Much-Hidden Problem in the UK
As mentioned above, NHS medical specialists warned there had been an increase in the number of people who enter A&E centres in crisis, with some of them being literally in a state of suicide. Such people are completely desperate and need help because they have started thinking of taking their own life as the only way out of the addiction and the problems associated with it.
Mr Gaskell further noted that he had noticed that about 75% of gambling addiction treatment groups were young men, most of them in their thirties, with many of them wearing football shirts.
However, what is even more concerning, is another warning from NHS professionals, who say that the patients referred to the addiction clinics of the National Health Service were “a drop in the ocean” of the massive number of people suffering the negative effects of their problem gambling behaviour. According to them, gambling addiction remains a much-hidden problem, with the majority of gambling addicts living in secrecy and shame.
As an increasing number of gambling addicts turn to the National Health Service for help because of a mental health crisis, NHS experts are looking for the major factors that cause problem gambling. According to estimates, approximately 2.2 million people are at risk of developing gambling addiction or can be categorised as problem gamblers. Unfortunately, the easy accessibility and wide variety of gambling services online only make the situation worse, because customers have 24/7 access to online casinos, sportsbooks, and slot machines in their pockets.
- Author
Daniel Williams
