Seven new gambling addiction clinics will open across the country this summer – as NHS England said a record number of people are seeking help with gambling disorders.

It follows an inquest on Friday, which concluded that a gambling addiction was a cause of the death by suicide of 40-year-old Luke Ashton in April 2021.

Mr Ashton, described as a devoted father, had been making as many as 100 online bets a day, accumulating more than £18,000 in debts. The coroner said the betting company “did not intervene or interact” with him “in any meaningful way”. Julie Martin’s husband Bill also took his own life in 2021,after struggling with an addiction to gambling. She’s campaigned since for tougher government regulation of the industry.