19 February 2022
The NHS will stop taking money from the gambling market to treat individuals with addiction, the NHS England national mental health director has actually said.
Writing to charity GambleAware, Claire Murdoch said the NHS would rather fund its own gambling services from 1 April.
The gaming industry paid ₤ 16m to GambleAware between April and December to assist fund treatment services.
Of this, ₤ 1.2 m was granted in grants to NHS-run gambling centers.
But Ms Murdoch stated clients were unpleasant about using services spent for by the gaming market - and she stated that had actually "heavily affected" her choice to decline future funding from GambleAware.
She stated market financing "has permitted us to present treatment services quicker than would have otherwise been possible", however there was a desire to move the funding into general NHS financing.
"Additionally, our clinicians feel there are disputes of interest in their centers being part-funded by resources from the gaming industry," Ms Murdoch composed.
It comes less than a year after Ms Murdoch informed the Guardian, external that betting companies must be hit with a compulsory levy to fund treatment, as the NHS had been left to "pick up the pieces".
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In her most current letter to GambleAware, she said the health service can not attend to the "damages" brought by gambling alone, and neither is it the NHS's "job" to do so.
Ms Murdoch stated the NHS would continue to work carefully with GambleAware to establish a treatment system that is "suitable for purpose".
Last year, the general voluntary pledges to GambleAware included ₤ 1m from William Hill, ₤ 4m from Entain and just over ₤ 4m from Bet365.
In addition to the NHS treatment centres, that money is used to fund the 24-hour National Gambling Helpline.
The NHS is dealing with rising need to help issue gamblers.
Two new betting addiction centers will open in Southampton and Stoke from May, bringing the yohaig code variety of professional centers in England to 7.
According to NHS England, in between April and December in 2015, 668 people with the yohaig code most serious betting addiction problems were described NHS specialist clinics.
That is a 16.2% increase from 575 during the same period in 2020.
the yohaig code betting industry makes revenues of more than ₤ 14bn a year in the UK.
A spokesperson for the Betting and Gaming Council said the wagering market has been a "bulk funder" of research, education and treatment for betting harm for more than 20 years.
It is estimated that around 246,000 individuals - about 0.5% of the UK adult population - are most likely to have some kind of gambling dependency, with 2.2 million at threat.
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