The United Kingdom Gambling Commission explained problem gambling as a behaviour that is associated with negative gambling behaviour that causes harm to gamblers and their families, friends, and close ones.
There is a large number of people affected by gambling in the UK and according to researchers, these people are prone to committing suicides.
Football clubs in the UK have a close connection with the gambling industry due to the betting platform factor and sponsorships. According to the anti-gambling committee, these sponsorships can tend to be negative due to the wrong signals sent to vulnerable people and children.
What Is the Big Step?
The Big Step is a charity project as well as GamStop self-exclusion. It was founded in 2019 by a gambling addict on the road to recovery from Manchester and Gambling Lives which is a charity started by the devastated families of young people who committed suicide due to their gambling addiction.
The project was formed from the personal experience of problem gambling negativity. There are some bettors in the UK who used to check football sites that aren't on GamStop to place bets on their favourite team. It aims at the development of public health approaches in order to prevent gambling addiction via campaigns, awareness work, and educating people.
What Does The Organisation Focus On?
The Big Step is a football oriented gambling education project. The campaign is calling for football clubs to get accustomed to and engaged with the dangers that are on par with gambling addiction. James Gimes, the leader, has managed to maintain distance from Gambling for a year or so. His aim is to make local football clubs review their relationships with gambling operators as many of them are being displayed as the sponsors of these clubs. He has a group of supporters of The Challenge of The Big Step and have started their journey from Etihad Stadium in Manchester and would end at Old Trafford. It also includes eight other clubs that are sponsored by such gambling operators.
The Big Step Challenge had originated from Grimes’ personal experience while recovering from gambling addiction. His understanding of the exposure to gambling services via football from a very tender age was also a reason.
The group of supporters is all set to arrive at the Bolton Wanderers Stadium and has planned to have a meeting with the officials of the club for discussing the possible actions which the clubs might consider to help the supporters who are on the edge of becoming problem gamblers.
Initiatives and Events By The Big Step
The families of the recovering gambling addicts had joined a campaign for a sponsored 130 mile walk across five days in the month of September. They visited seven English Premier League and Championship football clubs that entertain gambling sponsorships.
The Big Step is planning to launch a petition that calls to terminate gambling advertising, sponsorships of football clubs and promotions, by the Government. In conjunction with Gambling With Lives, the petition hopes to draw attention to the suicidal risks of problem gambling disorder. It would also aim at promoting independent NHS treatment at the NHS Northern Gambling Service.
Gambling causes plenty of deaths each year. The exact numbers are unknown but research indicates that there are approximately 250-650 gambling-related suicides or self-harm cases every year in the United Kingdom, the minimum of one on every working day.
Tackling football’s relationship with Gambling as a whole can cause harm to people. Making these clubs realize the importance to eliminate such sponsorships is a major aim too.
Concluding Thoughts
Gambling addiction never ends well. It happens out of the blue with no warning or realization whatsoever. Punters keep on betting with the hope of winning a fortune and thus fall into massive gambling debts that at times become unpaid. Theft, fraudulence are also outcomes of gambling addiction. Gambling can have devastating effects on the person and their families which is irreparable and thus The Big Step Charity project had come up with the idea of increasing awareness about problem gambling among the population and collect amounts that can at least compensate a bit for the loss of the families who have lost their child due to obsessive gambling tendencies. Self-realization is very important in order to overcome this issue. Taking professional help is highly beneficial. Applications such as Gamcare, Gamban are also meant to help problem gamblers in the UK. It is never too late to try to come out of an addiction. Taking the first step is necessary.