19 February 2022

The NHS will stop taking money from the betting market to treat individuals with addiction, the NHS England national psychological health director has actually stated.

Writing to charity GambleAware, Claire Murdoch said the NHS would instead fund its own betting services from 1 April.

The gaming industry paid ₤ 16m to GambleAware between April and December to assist fund treatment services.

Of this promotion code, ₤ 1.2 m was granted in grants to NHS-run betting centers.

But Ms Murdoch said patients were uncomfortable about using services spent for by the betting market - and she stated that had "heavily affected" her decision to decline future funding from GambleAware.

She said industry financing "has actually allowed us to roll out treatment services faster than would have otherwise been possible", but there was a desire to move the financing into basic NHS financing.

"Additionally, our clinicians feel there are disputes of interest in their clinics being part-funded by resources from the gambling industry," Ms Murdoch composed.

It comes less than a year after Ms Murdoch told the Guardian, external that gambling firms ought to be hit with a mandatory levy to fund treatment, as the NHS had been left to "get the pieces".

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In her newest letter to GambleAware, she said the health service can not address the "damages" brought by betting alone, and neither is it the NHS's "task" to do so.

Ms Murdoch said the NHS would continue to work carefully with GambleAware to establish a treatment system that is "suitable for function".

Last year, the overall voluntary promises to GambleAware included ₤ 1m from William Hill, ₤ 4m from Entain and simply over ₤ 4m from Bet365.

As well as the NHS treatment centres, that money is utilized to fund the 24-hour National Gambling Helpline.

The NHS is facing increasing need to assist problem gamblers.

Two new gaming dependency clinics will open in Southampton and Stoke from May, bringing the number of specialist clinics in England to 7.

According to NHS England, in between April and December in 2015, 668 individuals with the most severe betting addiction problems were referred to NHS professional centers.

That is a 16.2% increase from 575 during the exact same duration in 2020.

The betting market makes profits of more than ₤ 14bn a year in the UK.

A representative for the Betting and Gaming Council said the betting market has actually been a "bulk funder" of research, education and treatment for gambling harm for more than twenty years.

It is approximated that around 246,000 individuals - about 0.5% of the UK adult population - are likely to have some form of betting addiction, with 2.2 million at threat.

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