Thoughts of an addict: Why is gambling so normalised?

One of the most challenging parts of being in recovery fo gambling addiction is dealing with society's normalisation of betting and gambling. Just watching one programme on TV i saw adverts for the national lottery, the post code lottery and at least 3 betting sites.

On 1st October 2022 Committee for Advertising Practice (CAP) set new rules for gambling ads, they state ads will not be able to use:

• Topflight footballers and footballers with a considerable following among under-18 on social media.

• Sportspeople popular with under-18s including those with a considerable volume of under-18 followers on social media.

• References to video game content and gameplay popular with under-18s.

• Stars from reality shows popular with under-18s, such as Love Island.

The aim of these new rules were to “protect under-18s from gambling-related advertising harms.” I can see the logic and thinking behind these new rules but they become a bit redundant when every other advert on TV is about betting, bingo or lottery, celebrity endorsed or not. Whether there’s a big sporting event going on or not it’s really hard to avoid these adverts.

When trying to recover from gambling addiction the first thing to do is to remove all access to sites and to keep gambling away from your line of sight.The phrase “out of sight, out of mind” applies directly to recovering addicts, but how can we keep it out of sight when we can’t even watch television without being reminded of the thing we crave to do. It’s like being starved of food and walking through a restaurant.

This constant barrage of adverts disregards the big issue, we think that compulsive and problem gambling is a small problem.It only affects the minority of people. The message from these companies is clear; gambling, lotteries and bingo is a fun and rewarding pastime. You can win big and change your life with the click of a button, minimising the dangers and the risk.

YouGov estimated that nearly 1.4 million people were problem gamblers and that as many as 3.6 million people, report having been negatively affected by someone else’s gambling problem. So my question is why gambling normal and why is there not more regulation.