The Football Association (FA) did not permit to a gambling charity to film a video warning about the risks associated with gambling at the Wembley Stadium.
As revealed by iNews, last year, the main governing body of English football was addressed by the leading gambling charity GambleAware. The latter asked the FA to allow it to use the iconic national stadium that has been one of the most popular sporting venues on a global scale to popularise its Bet Regret campaign.
GambleAware has shared that despite football has become more commercially reliant on the promotion of gambling operators, the game also holds a responsibility to provide a balance by also revealing the risks associated with such a promotion. That is exactly why the charity has seen Wembley as a perfect site to film a video ad to share its responsible gambling message with football fans.
Marc Etches, chief executive officer of the charity organisation, has shared that GambleAware wanted to film its Bet Regret campaign at the Wembley Stadium. However, as he explained, the FA was unwilling to have such video filmed at the iconic sporting venue as they did not want to allow any relationship to be made between gambling and their principles. Mr Etches explained that he would like to have another conversation about that with the FA.
FA Is Unwilling to Be Associated with Gambling At All
As mentioned above, the Football Association has unveiled that the reason why it did not want to be connected with the gambling charity organisation that promotes safe and responsible gambling was due to fact the football governing body was unwilling to have any association with gambling at all. According to the FA, it would not be appropriate to allow to anyone related to the gambling industry to use such resources and reminded that football players are suspended from gambling.
At the time when it was reached by GambleAware, the Football Association discussed its position with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
As revealed by iNews, so far, no meetings have been held between the gambling charity organisation and the English Premier League (EPL), regardless of the fact that the charity has asked for such meetings to be held. Mr Etches confirmed that GambleAware had not yet been reached by the EPL.
According to the boss of the largest gambling-related charity in the UK, if sponsorship agreements still exist between football and professional football, then the promotion of responsible gambling is also necessary. Mr Etches believes that both football regulatory bodies and the gambling industry need to make sure that a safe environment for everybody is provided, especially when it comes to young people and the possible effect the above-mentioned commercial relationship between gambling and football may have on their gambling habits at a later age.
- Author
Olivia Cole
