Gambling ads in football should be banned, professional footballer and recovering gambling addict Trevor Carson has said.

Carson, capped five times by Northern Ireland, told Good Morning Ulster that advertisements were fuelling addiction and said the Government should intervene to stop them.

The Government’s long-delayed White Paper reforming the Gambling Act 2005 has been criticised for offering little to curb the promotion of betting in sport.

Fuelling addiction

The goalkeeper, who now plays for St Mirren in the Scottish Premiership, has spoken openly about his addiction, describing it as a “dark place” that left him at “rock bottom”.

Carson estimates that at one stage he threw away more than £30,000 during a two-month period.

When asked about the prominence of gambling ads in sport, he replied: “There is no hiding place from it”. He also urged the Government to ban adverts from the game to stop bookmakers “aiding” addiction.

There is no hiding place from it

Carson recently told Record Sport: “I am almost eight years off gambling but I know I’m only one bet away from starting again.”

Self-regulating

Among its proposals, the Government’s gambling review recommends affordability checks for those who lose more than £125 a month, with further checks for those who gamble away £1,000 in 24 hours or £2,000 over 90 days.

The threshold would be tightened for under-25s, while the Gambling Commission will review the overall impact of ‘free’ bet incentives.

But in relation to what the Government calls “Socially responsible sport sponsorship”, the White Paper claims sports governing bodies can be trusted to develop their own ‘Code of Conduct’.

The review acknowledged that “indirect exposure to gambling marketing around sport is high, including among children, and can be particularly challenging for those already suffering gambling-related harms”.

The Christian Institute’s Ciarán Kelly responds to the Government’s White Paper – High Stakes: Gambling Reform for the Digital Age