Today is Grand National day and, like every year, we are being offered vast sums of money by betting companies to promote their introductory offers. They want to pay us to convert you into gamblers. We won’t be involved in their recruitment drives. In fact, we’ll go even further to protect you by promoting their self-exclusion policies.
Gambling addiction is on the rise and devastates lives. I recently lost one of my closest friends through self-proclaimed gambling addiction. He lost his well-paid job and is now serving a 10 month suspended prison sentence for fraud and theft.
Before I was made aware of the full extent of his actions I had asked around to find out if there was any help for him, and found new legislation that requires gambling companies to offer a “self-exclusion” policy.
The great thing about this is that you can avoid dealing with gambling companies’ sales and marketing teams whose jobs are to retain your custom (money). Some have a reputation for being extremely aggressive and persistent, often using their “donations” to charity (most of which they are legally required to give) to guilt-trip you into staying. Even if you’re not already a customer of these companies, self-excluding will stop them from being able to send you unwanted junk mail.
I am continually patronised by TV ads featuring electric tigers prowling a city street at night or z-list celebrities delivering giant cheques. As a website owner, I go to great lengths to ban gambling ads, but they still get through somehow, often on public holidays when they are assuming that I’m not watching. They use tricks like classifying sports betting ads as “sports” rather than “gambling”. Meanwhile, FPL has continuing issues with ISPs and companies like Google who just can’t understand how a free lottery ISN’T GAMBLING.
If you want a hassle-free way of walking away from these companies, or just want them to stop bugging you to “get a free bet”, or perhaps your idea of helping charity is to set up a Direct Debit to the charity, rather than a lottery company, then self-exclude!
How? It varies between gambling operators but can be as easy as emailing them with your details with a request to be excluded. Search for “self-exclusion” followed by the gambling company’s name or head to BeGambleAware.org for more details. Indeed, if these companies fail to comply, they face hefty fines.
Chris 🙂