A charity has called on all companies, which profit from gambling to help a fundraiser for support services for problem gamblers. This happened after figures that only 3% are getting help.
The Responsible Gambling Trust, which is now called GambleAware told to lotteries, professional sports clubs, advertisers and the industry as a whole, to contribute to education, research and treatment services.
The approximate number of the problem punters in the United Kingdom is 250,000. However, these figures suggest that the network of providers who treat them can only reach 3% according to the charity.
They managed to raise £7.6 million during the last year and received significant donations from over 80% of the British-licensed casinos.
However, the charity stated that an industry-wide contribution of 0.1% would amount to approximately £11 million and that it would also be working hard to boost other sectors like professional sports and media to financially support its work.
These numbers suggested that the current rates of problem punters are remaining stable, and are still a low percentage, despite the continuous growth of the gambling industry, as well as the extensive advertising and the much easier access thanks to the mobile technology.
Kate Lampard is the new chairwoman of the charity, and she stated that their main priority is to protect the vulnerable because the most important thing to them is to be able to provide preventative education, treatment, as well as research to minimise the harm that gambling deals.
