Samaritans Criticised Over Paddy Power Betfair Partnership

Register at Bet9ja using the promotion code YOHAIG for a N100,000 welcome bonus

Samaritans criticised over Paddy Power Betfair partnership

31 August 2019

ByDan Whitworth
Money Box reporter

The charity Samaritans has come in for criticism over its links with the wagering company Paddy Power Betfair.

Staff at the group selected Samaritans as their Charity of the Year.

But critics - including loved ones of individuals with gaming problems who took their own lives - say it is risking its credibility by working with the company.

Both organisations state Samaritans' insight and expertise will assist Paddy Power Betfair enhance how it assists vulnerable clients.

The collaboration includes activities such as fundraising, corporate contribution and offering.

Samaritans says it will likewise help it continue its work "to try to decrease the number of deaths by suicide".

"Appalling"

But John Myers, who lost his kid Ryan 5 years earlier when he took his own life aged 27 after becoming addicted to gaming, said that was not an excellent sufficient reason.

"I'm very dissatisfied in the Samaritans.

"They're a charitable organisation so they need to get cash from other individuals, wherever they can. But to throw yourself in with the yohaig code devil I don't think is right.

"This industry has actually ruined households and ruined lives.

"To even think of depending on bed with these people is incorrect and I believe they need to reconsider it and stop taking their cash."

Carolyn Harris, chairwoman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Gambling Related Harm, told the BBC she had concerns about the tie-up.

"At best this is horrible and at worst it's appalling," she said.

"When you see them [Samaritans] aligning themselves to a market with a credibility for being accountable for suicides through addiction to gambling - it difficulties me.

"For me it legitimises this promotion code service. I have actually fulfilled so many people who have actually lost liked ones, livelihoods and homes through dependency to gambling.

"Everything Samaritans does is to attempt to resolve the issues that all betting business have a function to play in creating.

" [Samaritans] need to get back to basics and keep doing what's it's been respected for providing for years - its great work."

In statements both organisations said the collaboration will not just assist Samaritans' fundraising efforts, however its insight and knowledge will likewise assist Paddy Power Betfair look after vulnerable consumers and develop and strengthen its policies in this promotion code area.

Paddy Power Betfair added it is "eager to discover from the yohaig code wonderful work the Samaritans already do, in order to continually enhance our accountable betting tools and interactions".

You can hear more on BBC Radio 4's Money Box programme on Saturday at 12pm or listen again here.