A service user has used her personal experience of the perils of gambling to change the law, and support a local MP’s campaign
In recent months more and more people struggling with a gambling addiction have been making their way to Living Room Cardiff.
“My gambling addiction has led to me losing everything. I'm now homeless and in debt. Getting arrested was quite an extreme way for people to find out I had a serious gambling problem. It's now out in the open and I'm determined to do what I can to stop somebody else ending up in the situation I now find myself in.”
It feels like the tip of an emerging iceberg as a previously hidden problem is coming to light. Sarah Grant is one of those people, who has impressed everyone with her bravery and the honest way she is entering into recovery. And not just that – Sarah is now turning the tables on the industry that caused her so many problems – with the help of Living Room Cardiff and Swansea East MP Carolyn Harris.
Sarah started attending Living Room Cardiff in the spring of 2016, Addiction to Fixed Odds Betting Terminals had led to all sorts of problems, but now she is on a path to recovery.
Sarah took the brave step of agreeing to talk at the Beat The Odds conference in June, where she spoke with openness and honesty about the challenges she has faced in her life, and the dark places that gambling took her. She took part in a “Q and A” Panel chaired by Jenny Rathbone AM at the event, and over the period has also appeared in Wales Online, Radio 5, ITV and the main BBC Website.
Building on this, Sarah is now campaigning for better support services for female gamblers (there are no rehab facilities for women gamblers in Wales), and working with Carolyn Harris’ campaign to limit the stake of FBOTs to £2 (currently the limit is £100, which is how people can end up hundreds of thousands of pounds in debt).
On 9 October 2017 BBC Wales Today focussed on Sarah’s story as an illustration of the relevance and value of Carolyn’s campaign, which has now entered formal discuss in the House of Commons, with the deputy leader of the Labour Party Tom Watson speaking in support on BBC Radio 4.