After Hubbard started her journey to recovery, she became aware of how commonplace gambling advertisements were and developed a deep dislike for both the irresponsible advertisers and the unavoidable advertisements.
After claiming that gambling operators “stripped her of a personality,” a British woman from Rhyl gambled away half of the money she was given as a wedding present.
The rise in Hubbard’s harm due to internet gambling
Having battled gambling since childhood, Elissa Hubbard has accused gaming companies of being exploitative. The woman, who is currently in recovery from her gambling addiction, recalled her worst moment in an interview with the BBC.
Hubbard, 38, said that she lost half of the money she and her wife had been given as a wedding present because she gambled and hid at her 2021 wedding. She also disclosed that she first became aware of gambling when she was nine years old and played a slot machine at a tavern. However, her situation significantly worsened when she began gambling online.
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The woman’s gambling losses at the height of her addiction were £40,000 annually. The possibility of winning free spins at that moment may have caused her to spend her whole monthly salary.
My entire sense of value had vanished. I had basically lost my individuality because of it. She told the BBC, “I just felt like such a failure.”
Hubbard thinks that operators exploit others who are less fortunate.
Hubbard became aware of the pervasiveness of gambling advertisements once she started her journey to recovery. That’s when she started to hate the unavoidable advertisements and the careless advertisers that ran them.
She thinks that those who want to bet will do so anyhow, and that advertisements only harm the weakest players.
The woman also saw how prevalent gaming establishments and advertisements are in Wales’s less affluent neighborhoods. The BBC reports that one out of every five venues in Wales are situated in the most impoverished districts, indicating a significant issue. Hubbard herself pointed out that many impoverished individuals saw gambling as a means of increasing their income, but this isn’t always the case.
According to gambling psychology researcher Dr. Jamie Torrance, gaming operators have been becoming increasingly adept at grabbing the attention of potential patrons, which exacerbates the situation. In order to treat gambling-related problems like those in England, he said, Wales urgently needs NHS facilities.
Senedd member Darren Millar expressed similar views, stating that it is a “well-known fact” that injury occurs more frequently in disadvantaged communities. He expressed remorse that certain operators had been abusing that.
Many people believe that much more needs to be done, even though Britain has been stepping up its research, education, and treatment (RET) activities related to responsible gambling. However, a lot of people are hopeful that a healthy market would result from the implementation of a compulsory RET levy for gaming businesses.
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