New treatment centre opens in Southampton amid soaring demand for help with gambling addiction

• WATCH: ITV Meridian's Kerry Swain reports on the treatment on offer.

A new gambling addiction treatment centre has opened in Southampton and is one of only a few centres in the UK to offer treatment for gambling addiction on the NHS.

It comes as new figures show that the number of people seeking help has increased by more than two fifths in a year.

New NHS figures show referrals for treatment for gambling addiction were up 42% between April and September this year with 599 patients referred, compared to 421 patients between April and September last year. (2021)

Around 138,000 people could be problem gamblers according to Gambling Commission figures, with around 1.3 million people engaging in either moderate or low-risk gambling - although other research estimates this figure could be higher.

Earlier this year the head of mental health services in England, Claire Murdoch announced the NHS would fully fund its own gambling services, removing funding from GambleAware, a charity funded directly by gambling companies.

The decision followed feedback from patients and clinicians opposing the conflict of interest from the gambling industry, which generates profits of more £14 billion a year in the UK, funding treatment for addiction inadequately and on a voluntary basis, whilst continuing harmful practices.

Owen Baily from Oxford started gambling when he was a teenager before becoming addicted and has been involved in setting up the new centre in Southampton.

"When I was growing up I had very difficult and challenging times and as a result of that I discovered gambling on fruit machines.

"I lived quite close to a seaside arcade and I found myself going to the arcade and playing to one or two penny shoves, and I found that all the stresses and all the problems just disappeared.

• Owen Baily said he developed a gambling problem by playing on fruit machines.

"I also bought into the idea that I could profit from gambling, so as a teenager, I built a strong relationship with gambling.

"At that time all the the relationships in my life with family and friends were very stressful to me, and were very threatening, but when I was in front of a fruit machine, there was no sense of threat and no sense of rejection.

"It turned out that over the coming years my relationship with gambling was so strong it was all I could think about and all I could do.

"Whenever I got money I was overcome with physical and psychological sensations and in order to get rid of that I needed to go and gamble."

Owen said that gambling took such a hold of his life that he contemplated suicide.

"My life was stagnant and I wasn't moving forward at all. I was stood still in my life, it's devastating.

"It took me to the point, where on a few of occasions, I wanted to end my life because the nature of gambling is very traumatic.

"To experience repeated losses, month after month and year after year."

Owen was able to get help and turn his life around thanks to access to NHS gambling services- like those that will be on offer at the new Southampton centre. He has been acting as a consultant to the Southern Gambling Service on how the Southampton centre can best support patients.

The centre will be based at College Keep in Southampton which houses Southern Healthcare's Community Mental Health Team.

People will be able to self-refer themselves via the centre's website or through a healthcare professional such as a GP. They will be accepting referrals of patients from the age of 17 who have gambling problems.

Dr Konstantinos Ioannidis is a consultant Psychiatrist and the Clinical Lead for the Southern Gambling Service, which will run the new centre.

"Gambling disorders are generally under-diagnosed, and under-treated across England having a treatment service like ours can raise the recognition of the difficult we have offering evidence based treatment to those who need it.

"We offer evidence based treatments which are psychological treatments which are talking therapy, but also pharmacological treatments which is medication

"A lot of people are affected, both younger and older people and equally of both genders and that is important to know because often females are under recognised and under diagnosed.

"We encourage people to come forward and talk about their difficulties - especially women."

Many gambling treatment centres are funded via organisations such as Gamble Aware, funded by the gambling industry itself.

The government is currently reviewing regulations around the gambling industry, which makes billions of pounds in profits every year.

Many feel the funding link between the industry and those being treated should be broken.

Earlier this year the head of mental health services in England Claire Murdoch announced the NHS would fully fund its own gambling services, removing funding from GambleAware, a charity funded directly by gambling companies.

The decision followed feedback from patients and clinicians opposing the conflict of interest from the gambling industry, which generates profits of over £14 billion a year in the UK, funding treatment for addiction inadequately and on a voluntary basis, whilst continuing harmful practices.

Martin Jones from Swindon lost his son Josh to suicide after he ran up huge gambling debts. Martin has been campaigning for changes in gambling regulation that hold the industry accountable.

"I liken it to walking into quick sand, by the time you realise that you have a problem it's too late- it's really hard to tackle.

"Treatment isn't a silver bullet, I think the drop out and relapse rate are between 30% and 50%.

• Martin Jones said gambling organisations need to be held accountable

"More NHS clinics and shorter waiting times and more aftercare in particular would make a huge difference.

"I think you can't treat your way out of gambling problems and the gambling industry we have to today- we have to look at better regulation

"If there was a statutory duty of care and the operators took as much care and attention to safety as I did in my working life, with the health and safety in work act, that should give them that commercial incentive to prevent harm and intervene well before people got into real trouble."

A spokesperson for the Betting and Gaming Council, said: "In 2013 the NHS had a single National Problem Gambling Clinic, based in London, which received 632 referrals for problem gambling that year.

"The NHS now run seven clinics across the UK and has received less than 600 referrals for all those clinics combined in six months. 22.5 million people in the U.K. enjoy a bet - whether that’s on sports, bingo, at casinos or on the National Lottery - and the overwhelming majority do so safely and responsibly.

"We are encouraged by the latest figures from the Gambling Commission that showed the rate of problem gambling remains low by international standards at 0.3 per cent of the UK’s adult population – down from 0.4 per cent the year previous.

"The BGC’s largest members pledged £100m of funding over four years, for Research, Education and Treatment services to tackle gambling harm to be administered by GambleAware.

"The industry has no say on how that money is spent nor does it have any formal or informal role with GambleAware. We also continue to support and fund existing services delivered by charities such as GamCare’s 120 treatment centres, Gordon Moody and YGAMs youth outreach programmes, to ensure advice and support is free and easy to access."

For more support or information use the following links:www.begambleaware.org www.samaritans.orgwww.citizensadvice.org.uk