FSA urges clubs to offer more education on responsible gambling
According to a fresh survey carried out by the Football Supporters’ Association (FSA), it was found out that UK football clubs need to do more to educate their fans over the associated risks with gambling.
The survey, carried out in conjunction with GambleAware’s safer gambling ‘Bet Regret’ campaign, surveyed 1,200 fans and found that ten per cent of fans felt that clubs were doing enough to have sufficient warnings surrounding problem gambling.
Kevin Miles, chief executive for The Football Supporters’ Association, said: “Football clubs are not like any other business – they are an integral part of many match-going supporters’ lives and have a duty of care.
“It’s clear fans want their clubs to do more on educating their supporters about the risks of gambling and alongside GambleAware we’ll be pushing clubs, particularly those with prominent gambling sponsors, to do better.”
13% of respondents felt that they are, or would be happy for their club to be sponsored by a gambling company, however 84% were highly critical of the 32Red sponsorship of Wayne Rooney, emphasising that the deal ‘goes too far’.
The survey is the first piece of joint work undertaken by GambleAware and the FSA, forming the latest part of the ‘Bet Regret’ campaign, educating the public about the potential impact of impulsive gambling.
Marc Etches, Chief Executive Officer for GambleAware, said: “The results of the survey highlight fans’ concerns that football clubs and gambling companies could do more to encourage safe betting and make people, especially young people, aware of the risks.
“Our new partnership with the Football Supporters’ Association is based on a shared agenda to help create a safe betting environment in football. It means the voice of the fans will be heard and allows us to engage directly with them in communities to encourage moderate betting behaviour.”
Alex Hurst from Newcastle United Supporters’ Trust said: “This is an important piece of work that reflects what we’ve heard from many of our members and the wider fan base – gambling companies have a huge presence at football now and a lot of people can get drawn into addictive betting behaviours.
“Having said that we’re not the fun police, we know lots of fans enjoy a wager as part of their match-day routine, but we’d urge clubs to step up and do more to warn their customers about the risks.”
Source: SBC News
