Incoming BGC CEO hits back at The Times' gambling claims
Grainne Hurst suggests newspaper “conflated” addiction and problem gambling as trade body chair accuses editorial team of “abject snobbery”
Incoming Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) CEO Grainne Hurst has pushed back against The Times after it published an opinion piece which she claimed “conflated” addiction and problem gambling.
Last week, the newspaper published a piece titled “The Times view on hereditary nature of gambling addiction: Generation Game”.
In the article, The Times’ editorial staff compared the sector to the tobacco industry before adding that gambling had been “normalised” in British society.
Alongside claiming some 650 people commit suicide every year due to gambling addictions, without citing evidence, The Times also made reference to a new report from GambleAware regarding affected others.
The charity’s report suggested that some 1.6 million children in Britain are impacted by an adult that suffers from problem gambling.
However, the piece read: “Gambling addiction, the report shows, is a disease passed down from parent to child”, which Hurst has since contested as a conflation and misrepresentation.
In her own letter to The Times, Hurst laid out the differences between addiction and problem gambling.
She said: “Betting has been part of British culture for centuries and is enjoyed safely by about 22.5 million UK adults a month. You also made claims about the apparent scale of addiction, but did so by conflating problem gambling with addiction.
“Problem gambling is a subclinical classification indicating loss of control and the presence of adverse consequences from gambling – but it is not a recognised mental health disorder.
“Gambling addiction, however, is a recognised mental health condition. According to the latest NHS Health Survey for England, 0.4% of adults struggled with problem gambling. An even smaller proportion would be diagnosed as gambling addicts by a healthcare professional.”
She added: “Our members accept that a minority of people struggle, and we are dedicated to minimising gambling-related harm.”
Hurst’s letter came after Michael Dugher, the BGC chair, took to X to lambast the opinion piece following its publication.
The former Labour MP labelled the commentary as “abject snobbery” as he took umbrage with The Times’ description of gambling as a “faintly disreputable pursuit” in the past.
“Half of adults bet – bingo, lottery, football, horseracing or at a casino. It is normal and not faintly disreputable,” he said.
“[The Times are] looking down their noses at what millions of working-class people choose to do with their own money. Get a grip.”