19 February 2022

The NHS will stop taking cash from the gaming market to treat individuals with dependency, the NHS England nationwide psychological health director has stated.

Writing to charity GambleAware, Claire Murdoch said the NHS would rather fund its own gambling services from 1 April.

The gambling market paid ₤ 16m to GambleAware between April and December to help fund treatment services.

Of this promotion code, ₤ 1.2 m was granted in grants to NHS-run betting centers.

But Ms Murdoch said clients were unpleasant about using services spent for by the gaming market - and she said that had actually "greatly influenced" her choice to reject future financing from GambleAware.

She stated market financing "has actually allowed us to roll out treatment services much faster than would have otherwise been possible", but there was a desire to move the funding into basic NHS funding.

"Additionally, our clinicians feel there are conflicts of interest in their centers being part-funded by resources from the betting industry," Ms Murdoch wrote.

It comes less than a year after Ms Murdoch informed the Guardian, external that betting firms should be hit with a compulsory levy to fund treatment, as the NHS had been delegated "get the pieces".

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In her most current letter to GambleAware, she stated the health service can not resolve the "damages" brought by betting alone, and neither is it the NHS's "job" to do so.

Ms Murdoch said the NHS would continue to work carefully with GambleAware to develop a treatment system that is "suitable for function".

In 2015, the general voluntary pledges to GambleAware included ₤ 1m from William Hill, ₤ 4m from Entain and just over ₤ 4m from Bet365.

Along with the NHS treatment centres, that money is used to money the 24-hour National Gambling Helpline.

The NHS is dealing with rising need to help problem gamblers.

Two new betting addiction clinics will open in Southampton and Stoke from May, bringing the variety of specialist clinics in England to 7.

According to NHS England, in between April and December in 2015, 668 people with the most severe betting addiction problems were referred to NHS professional clinics.

That is a 16.2% increase from 575 during the same duration in 2020.

The gambling market makes profits of more than ₤ 14bn a year in the UK.

A representative for the Betting and Gaming Council stated the wagering industry has actually been a "majority funder" of research, education and treatment for betting damage for more than 20 years.

It is approximated that around 246,000 individuals - about 0.5% of the UK adult population - are most likely to have some kind of betting addiction, with 2.2 million at risk.

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