Disturbing Report Reveals Suicide Risk for Blackpool Gambling Addicts

According to an unsettling study released earlier this year, Blackpool is a city plagued by “deaths of despair,” a term that health experts collectively use to describe deaths related to drug abuse, alcohol, and suicide. 

Results of the disturbing study quoted the seaside town in Lancashire, England as the city with the highest rate of deaths related to drug abuse, alcohol, and suicide in England, with 83.8 such deaths for every 100,000 people recorded between 2019-2021 compared to the national average of 42 deaths for every 100,000. 

Now, even more disturbing research warns gambling addiction has gotten so bad in the city that some of its residents are driven to consider suicide. 

“You Get So Low, You Feel Like Running in Front of a Bus”

According to one of the town residents interviewed by researchers, things can get really dark for gambling addicts. 

“You get so low, you feel like running in front of a bus, you get into so much debt and it’s terrifying.”

Report findings mentioned that the charity that offers “free, independent, confidential and impartial advice to everyone on their rights and responsibilities,” Citizens Advice, witnessed a 28% increase in gambling-related harm in people under the age of 25 in 2022. 

The charity also reported the figure for adults went up two-fold between 2019 and 2022 while estimating roughly one-quarter of its clients reaching out for debt advice had reported gambling was one of the reasons behind their financial strains.

The report explained recovering gamblers in Blackpool who discussed their experiences said that while they could abstain from gambling for several weeks, they would easily fall back into their compulsive behavior, maybe encouraged by successful stories of winners, and place new bets while convincing themselves “that it would be just one more go, ending with feeling of guilt, shame, and anxiety.”

Council Adopts Gambling-Related Harm Strategy

The Council in Blackpool has embraced a Gambling-Related Harm Strategy that would help tackle the issue that, according to experts, affects all aspects of gamblers’ lives, health, and relationships included. 

The four-year plan that wishes to harness the experience of former addicts to offer better support services was introduced during a meeting of Blackpool’s Health and Wellbeing Board when public health practitioner Helen Cook emphasized the importance of making people fully aware of the damages that gambling can cause.

Cook mentioned the examples of “footballers who have been successful but lost all their money, and people who are unemployed who have lost all their money,” making a point that no one is truly protected from gambling harm. “For some people, gambling can destroy their lives,” she added. 

The people of Blackpool can seek support via dedicated gambling support workers as part of Empowerment charity’s The Lived Experience Team, as well as the Beacon Counseling Trust commissioned via GambleAware to provide online group and individual support.

In similar news, Dutch MPs Derk Boswijk and Diederik van Dijk recently proposed a ban on online gambling amid concerns about harm rates, including suicide.