2023-03-16 10:36:12 +0000
To: Manchester City FC
Manchester City FC: Kick gambling ads out of football!
I want my family's club Manchester City FC to cancel all existing partnerships with gambling companies, to reject future partnerships, and to back The Big Step campaign.
Why is this important?
My cousin killed himself over gambling debts at the age of 27. He was a big football fan so was bombarded with adverts for gambling while he was trying to stop.
I don't want this to happen to anyone else so I volunteer with The Big Step and Gambling with Lives, a charity set up by the bereaved families of those who have killed themselves due to a gambling addiction.
The charities are working to highlight to the Government, the harm that the rise of front of shirt sponsorship is causing and the damage that seeing such advertisements will do, especially to young kids as there are already 55,000 children identified as having a gambling addiction in the UK. Front of shirt sponsorship will only make this worse.
There are 409 deaths related to gambling every year in England alone and a YouGov study from this year shows that 2.9 million people are either already addicted or at risk of being so, with a further 3.3 million classified as “affected others”. These stark figures show what we already know: gambling harm is not an issue affecting just a small minority, it is severely harming – sometimes killing – many.
To prevent any young fan from experiencing what my cousin and so many others did, I'm urging Manchester City FC to cancel all gambling partnerships, say no to any new offers, and back The Big Step campaign.
