On Wednesday 14th June we held our parliamentary reception at the House of Lords to mark five years since GAMSTOP launched. The event was hosted by Lord Browne of Belmont, who first advocated a national online self-exclusion scheme, and was well attended by Parliamentarians, regulators, gambling charities, operators, and those with lived experience.

Speakers included Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones (OBE), National Clinical Advisor on Gambling Harms for the NHS, who spoke about how the UK was leading the way on self-exclusion and called for further work to be done with land-based self-exclusion. She said:

“We are fighting tech with tech. Patients are frustrated by self-exclusion measures because they cannot beat them. Some patients are returning to bookmakers because that’s the only thing left to do. They are using cashback from Tesco to get around bank blocks. There’s an enormous need to block people from going into bookmakers by having a universal scheme for the country”.

A short film was presented featuring three of GAMSTOP’s registrants who talked about their positive experiences with the service and their lives since registering with GAMSTOP.

Stacey from Chesterfield, who is recovering from an eight-year addiction said:

“GAMSTOP was vital for me in my recovery. I’ve had a lot of comments during my recovery such as ‘You’re so strong’ but I don’t feel that way. The truth is that when I don’t feel in a good place, GAMSTOP is the tool that is strong for me.”

You can hear more about Stacey’s story here. Our short film will soon be available to view on our website.