Citizens of the United Kingdom give immense weightage to sports as well as gambling as modes of entertainment for themselves. Considering the popularity of sports like football, tennis, horse racing, billiards, and so on, it is easily deduced that endorsing the message of self-exclusion through GamStop is a feasible option and a successful step in evoking a sense of awareness against problems related to gambling addiction.
Here are some of the ways sports can help addicted gamblers.
GamStop Advertisements
Popularising GamStop has to be the fundamental approach in order to eradicate gambling problems faced by the UK punters. It has been operating as the rescuer of people dealing with gambling addiction. GamStop is regarded as the primary step that a gambler might take after realizing his problems with the same. It was soon to be realized that GamStop and its effectiveness requires it to be marketed in order to reach the population it is important for.
There were certain steps taken by the government to spread awareness regarding GamStop and its activities. Simultaneously, the CasinoGap team revealed some sports brands that are not on GamStop and UK punters should be aware of. So the government made it compulsory for all the operators under the United Kingdom Gambling Commission to comply with GamStop. Moreover, the advertisements on mainstream media are helping to spread the word to the crowd of commoners making them realize the importance.
Spread Responsible Gambling Messages
In order to preach the methods and motivations of GamStop, to help problematic punters from experiencing major losses, with help of the United Kingdom Gambling Commission, GamStop is collaborating with various sports associations. The United Kingdom is a nation with huge sports fans and the followers constitute almost the entire population.
Hence, it is important to realize the quota of people engaging in gambling activities overlapping with the range of people following these sports. The reach of these sports is huge including the media that they attract. GamStop in collaboration with these associations is sure to attract the target audience to it and make them realize the importance of self-exclusion in order to overcome gambling addictions.
The sports associations are benefited from the sponsorship in return that helps them retain the quality of the team and for meeting other maintenance factors. On match days, the players support the cause by wearing jerseys with logos of the cause which are later auctioned. Apart from match days, the websites of these clubs and associations feature the link of GamStop supporting the same. The social media handles also do the job for better promotion.
Not just limited to that, programs like Safer Gambling Week stand by the same agenda attracting major organizations to sponsor for them. The major sponsors include Facebook. Football clubs like Swansea City and Middlesbrough Football Club actively participated in this program since 2018.
Remove Gambling Advertisement
Within the boundaries of the UK, it is allowed for the online casino operators, sports betting operators, and other such businesses to advertise for them conditionally if those operators are registered under the United Kingdom Gambling Commission. These are mere stimulation towards the population to lure them into gambling. These advertisements are not only noticed on billboards but available in mainstream media like television, newspapers, radio, and so on; hence it is exposed to people which increases the risk of people getting into a habit of gambling, mostly leading to a downward spiral.
Now the question lingers whether these advertisements are fuelling the problematic gambling habits of people throughout the country. The provoking statements used in the advertisements promote the likelihood of people engaging in similar activities. The exaggerations of the advertisements often lead or rather mislead people into overindulging in gambling activities. This promotion of instant gratification is not just harmful for the entire population but underage people are getting exposed to the ideas and definitely likely to take part in it at times even if it is illegal.
The government policies are conflicting enough to confuse people. The objective of this advertisement is to attract people whereas the government actively takes steps against problematic gambling. Thus, recommendation always goes towards limiting or even removing advertisements related to gambling, be it of the online or offline establishment.
Concluding Thoughts
Supporting addicted gamblers might sound like a lost cause but there are several ways like the ones mentioned and described in which overindulgence of gambling can be controlled.