Leeds United: Kick gambling ads out of football

My beautiful daughter Kimberly Rebecca Wadsworth took her life on 5th June 2018 at 32 years of age, after struggling with gambling addiction.

Kimberly’s addiction came rapidly, she was given “VIP” status by a gambling firm and was groomed and given “free bet” bonuses and similar promotional offers to keep her gambling, even when she was clearly losing large, unsustainable amounts of money.

Kimberly was born and grew up in Leeds and was a United supporter, and went to games at Elland Road. Every time she watched Leeds play she would have been encouraged to do the thing that was destroying her life. I was recently grateful to meet with the club to share Kimberly's story. I know they do great work in the community, but they must also make a stand against harmful gambling advertising.

There are 409 gambling-related suicides every year, and each death is one too many. Gambling needs to stop being advertised on TV, on football shirts and around the grounds. These highly addictive products must also be regulated properly to stop people from dying like my daughter did.

Support this campaign for your children's sake, for your grandchildren, and our future generations, because with highly addictive products and predatory marketing, addiction can happen to anyone. The only messaging we see is that gambling is “FUN” and other subliminal messaging that normalises it where the reality is that gambling kills every day.