Crystal Palace FC: Kick gambling ads out of football!

My name is Tom and like countless others in the UK, I've been harmed by gambling. My addiction took me to a dark place, one full of self-loathing, shame, and guilt. I thought I was the only person in the world to feel like I did. Thankfully I was able to stop, but many aren’t as fortunate.

I was really pleased to see Crystal Palace drop their gambling sponsorship this year, and now I would love to see my club pledge to reject future gambling partnerships and back The Big Step campaign to end all gambling advertising in football. The government is reviewing the 2005 Gambling Act, but I would like to see football to do the right thing before it is forced to.

Football was undoubtedly the catalyst for my addiction. One study recently found that 700 gambling adverts can appear during a single televised Premier League game. The game I love told me that gambling was safe and fun – my heroes wore shirts plastered in gambling adverts, and ex-players and managers shouted at me from the television screen at half-time, urging me to place another bet. I trusted them, so I believed them. But not one of them told me about the risks.

Public Health England estimates there are 409 suicides linked to gambling each year in England alone, with a study finding that people suffering from gambling disorder are 15 times more likely to take their lives. When you consider there are up to 1.4 million people addicted to gambling in the UK, this paints a very disturbing picture. Added to this, there are millions more at risk of addiction and harmed indirectly by someone else’s gambling. Gambling is a huge public health issue and it’s not something that football should be promoting – how many other entertainment industries drive hundreds of their participants a year to suicide?