I wrote the below virtual letter...I really wanted to send it to 64 betting operators I had accounts with but never did. I understand now that in some counselling and rehab centres they suggest writing to the person's addiction. I've never read anyone else's and would love to if anyone cares to write one or share a previous one .....
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Dear Bookmakers
I am on day 51 GF today. Up to 51 days ago you pretended to be my friends for 44 years. You asked me to spend more and more time with you. The excitement each time got less and less but you just asked for one more bet each time. You made me not care about the amount of time I was spending with you, the money I was spending and the harm I was doing to myself, family, loved ones and friends. I lost so many girlfriends and friends over the years because of you. I spent time with you when I should have been working. You stopped me talking to people. I told lies to be with you and much more. You took my sanity away from me. You have done worse to other people on and off this site and continue to do so. You do nothing to protect compulsive gamblers but continue to draw us in with your offers, adverts and VIP handlers. I thought I needed you in my life to cope with real life. At no point in 44 years did I realise what you were doing to me, well it was that you helped me to become a bad person to the point at which I did not know who I was. Well, 51 days ago I realised that you aren't my friends. You were only in it for the money. I understand now that you have customers who aren't friends but they can control their relationship with you but I can't. The feelings that you made me feel like a someone, that I had friends, that I felt good when placing a bet were all fake. I don't feel angry about you and the money I have given you but I pity you instead as you live off misery and it's you that doesn't have friends not me. Your friends who are customers aren't real friends as they have been sucked into your fake relationship. No more. Every day I am determined to move one day further away from my last ever bet with you. I will not be defined by my relationship with you, I will not forget but I will not dwell on it. I will use it to be a better person each day. You have made me forget who I am but I will work that out through help and learn to like myself again. I am genuinely a good person. I have a lot to offer the world. Once I have spent enough time in recovery to know I will never go back to my relationship with you then I will spend the rest of my life helping vulnerable people to break the addiction of the relationship with you. I have hit rock bottom so many times over the last 44 years but you bought me back to you, only to hit a worse rock bottom. I will do my best to help people end the relationship with you at their first rock bottom so it doesn't get worse. If I can help one person to do that, just one, then my life will become worthwhile. You will never have a bet from me again. You took me to the absolute rock bottom and jeopardised everything in my life and you won't do that to me again. So this is a goodbye to every bookmaker from me and I can only hope from many people who are on this site and come in the future. I am only one step up a very tall mountain. I will spend the rest of my life walking another step each day knowing I will never reach the summit in my life time as I will always be in recovery and only one bet away from coming back to you.
51 days ago was the final end to our relationship and I am in a much much better place now and am a better person each day
Stuart
The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
5th December 2022
Dear Prime Minister,
The gambling industry should not control research, education, or treatment We six, bringing this letter to you today, are mothers of children who have died by suicide caused by gambling addiction. We would be grateful for a meeting with you to tell you about the catastrophe that has
happened to our families. As mothers we all knew about the dangers of drugs, roads, smoking, and alcohol addiction, having learned
through life experience and public safety campaigns, and these messages we had instilled in our children. But, never, ever, were we, or our children, warned or educated about the risks of gambling, and how easy it is to become addicted. Do you know that some forms of gambling have 45 per cent addiction and at-risk rates', higher than heroin?" Or that people suffering a gambling disorder have a 15 times higher risk of suicide than the general public?''' If we had known, and our children had been told about these dangers at
school, then our lives may not have been shattered. Gambling is presented as normal, fun, entertainment in ubiquitous advertising. Safety messages are limited to empty statements such as "when the fun stops stop" or "take time to think", which are ineffective, put
responsibility onto the individual, and say nothing about how addictive some gambling products are. The individual responsibility narrative runs through the leading education materials in our children's
schoolsvi
', and underpins much of the third sector treatment system for people suffering gambling disorder. This narrative made our children feel abnormal for suffering, contributing to the shame and pain that led to
their deaths. We know. We read their suicide notes. This became impossible to accept when we discovered that most of the gambling-related safety information, research, education, and treatment is controlled not by the state, but by the gambling industry, through their choice of who delivers it. Most of the gambling industry's profits come from people who are addicted
or at riski, which means they have a conflict of interest that is too great to allow such influence. The Government wouldn't allow the tobacco industry to choose who teaches our children in schools or who delivers public health campaigns about the dangers of smoking. So how is it acceptable that the gambling
industry holds such sway? As parents, we know that you and your wife will want to protect your children, but to do so you will need to know what the dangers are. Industry controlled information, research, education and treatment is unlikely to tell you. That is why they must be funded by a statutory levy and put under the control of a levy board led
by the Department of Health and Social Care. Successive governments have allowed the gambling industry to mislead the public and now is the time to put that right. We will be in touch with your team to discuss possible arrangements. Please save more parents
from suffering as we do.
Yours sincerely,
Liz Ritchie, Judith Bruney, Kay Wadsworth, Rosie Evans, Kim Jones, Sadie Keogh
Hi Taz
Gambling with lives is such an amazing charity and those people are so strong to campaign relentlessly suffering from such grief.Â
We are available 24 hours a day, every day of the year. You can also contact us for free on 0808 80 20 133. If you would like to find out more about the service before you start, including information on confidentiality, please click below. Call recordings and chat transcripts are saved for 28 days for quality assurance.
