In a development that will be music to the ears of gambling awareness campaigners, UK gambling charity GambleAware has announced that awareness of its National Gambling Treatment Service (NGTS) campaign has been growing at a rapid rate.
Last year, GambleAware launched the NGTS awareness campaign, primarily targeted at men yet also with a specific arm dedicated to women. The campaign was rolled out via papers, magazines, billboards, radio and of course on the web, with the idea being to help high-risk individuals and stop them from running into serious harm.
According to a spokesperson from paybyphonebillcasino.uk: “This is encouraging news coming out of GambleAware. There has been lots of concern in recent times around so-called problem gambling and this will certainly help to allay some of those fears.”
Indeed, the findings from the campaign announcement make for interesting reading, let’s take a closer look below.
Growing recognition nationwide
Amid growing concern over problem gambling in the UK, GambleAware said that campaign recognition has been increasing exponentially, hitting 74% amid high-risk male gamblers in August 2021, and 79% with others impacted. Ever-expanding amounts of high-risk gamblers say that they would contact NGTS as a first step if they had concerns about their gambling – 60% in August 2021, up from 47% in May 2020.
Need and appetite for help and support has been growing rapidly – with phone calls (and online chats) to the National Gambling Treatment Service’s National Gambling Helpline up 41% in the past 2 years (year to 31 March 2021 versus year to 31 March 2019).
The most recent campaign was given particular emphasis in London and the Midlands after research showed these areas had larger numbers of high-risk gamblers. This boost led to 40% of all male gamblers aged 16-44 in London stating that they would probably reach out to the NGTS, or the National Gambling Helpline, if they required help for gambling-related issues, compared to 31% across the whole of Great Britain.
Job not done yet
According to Gambleaware: “Insights from the Annual Great Britain Treatment and Support Survey found there was a need for more awareness of the support available to motivate people to seek treatment.”
“The National Gambling Treatment Service campaign was designed to promote self-referrals amongst high-risk gamblers by directing them to the National Gambling Helpline, live chat, and online support available via BeGambleAware.org.”
Certainly, the appetite for this service has hit all-time levels and it remains important to spread awareness, with increasing levels of high-risk individuals saying they had been gambling more as a result of the pandemic – 38% in August 2021, up from 24% in May 2020).
Zoë Osmond, CEO of GambleAware said: “The National Gambling Treatment Service brings together a network of organisations across Great Britain that provides free confidential treatment and support for anyone experiencing gambling harms.”
“It is heartening to see that this campaign is helping to signpost more people to treatment for gambling harms, and also working to drive greater awareness of the provision of treatment services.”
GambleAware said it will continue to consider boosting awareness of the National Gambling Treatment Service and the ways in which the campaign has aided.
Story by Michael Wild
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AFP
