Sheffield father and son launch new project to raise awareness of gambling

Adam and David Bradford teamed up to help ensure more people get the help they need following David’s two years in prison for fraud trying to fund his gambling.

In April 2014, David, aged 65, was jailed for two years for fraud. He had been stealing money from his work to pay for an out-of-control addiction to online gambling, made even worse by his mounting debts and pressure to keep up his façade with his family.

Online slot machines and casino style games on internet betting sites had taken over David’s life and over the previous two decades he had amassed over £500,000 in debts including re-

mortgaging the family home.

David had told his family that he was travelling away on work business for a few days, but in this time, he actually attended a court hearing where he was sentenced to two years’ in prison after stealing over £53,000 to fund his habit.

His family only found out about his gambling addiction on April 11, 2014, when a phone call from a solicitor confirmed that David had been handed a prison sentence and would not be returning home that day.

After attending Gamblers Anonymous meetings and getting over the initial trauma, Adam, now 29, started a national awareness raising campaign to highlight the potential dangers of betting and to encourage the industry to implement more safeguards for players at risk.

Once David had left prison, he and Adam formed Safer Online Gambling Group, a charitable organisation which raises awareness of the addiction and designs innovative solutions to

provide support to players and the industry itself.

Last year, Adam and David finished developing ‘BetProtect’ which is a suite of tools used by the industry to provide education, awareness and support to players to prevent them from becoming addicted. The app was sold back to the gambling industry in summer last year.

Today, the organisation is launching its nationwide programme to educate GPs about the signs of a hidden gambling addiction.

The programme will involve digital educational resources, training and a suite of self-help tools made available to those presenting issues through primary care and public and private health providers.

The pair will also work with employer programmes to increase take-up of the programme, which is independently funded with support from the Social Enterprise Support fund, with thanks to National Lottery players.

Adam Bradford said: “Everyone’s ultimate aim is to prevent gambling harms as far as possible and we know as a family and from our extensive field work in this area that early detection is key to getting the right levels of support to prevent a potential addiction from escalating.

“We hope this avenue to providing development and support to the healthcare sector to spot the signs in primary care and to strengthen available support through simple practical tools will be a welcome addition to the suite of support already available.”