Haringey has formally joined the Coalition to End Gambling Advertising (CEGA) – the first council in the country to publicly back a national ban on gambling adverts!

It’s what we hope will be the beginning of a wider movement from boroughs in support of a national ban.

We all know gambling ads go after people in a manipulative and targeted way. The industry preys on some of the most deprived communities. If it feels like we have more betting shops and casinos around Haringey, it’s because we do. Our high streets have six times the national average.

There are as many as 8,000 people experiencing gambling harms in Haringey. Another 25,000 people are affected more widely by these harms, for example family and friends.

It is also estimated that gambling harms lose the borough over £8 million in associated harm-related costs every year. These include costs associated with homelessness, adult social care, NHS costs, unpaid rents, and more.

We’ve done some really good proactive work in Haringey, setting up a Gambling Harm Reduction Network and using what licensing powers we have to try and push back against betting shops and casinos. We’ve banned gambling adverts across the local channels that we control in this borough too.

But we need much bigger change. We can’t go after the vicious adverts all over the internet or the candyfloss ads on TV that glorify gambling – not without a national ban. These adverts set out to hook people. They need to go.

This country’s gambling laws make it very hard to stop betting shops and casinos from setting up shop – or even to enforce against them when there are obvious problems. Licensing can act where there is crime or anti-social behaviour or children are found on the premises, but there’s a high threshold for proof. There isn’t much we can do at the moment when betting shops or casinos are causing other kinds of harm, which they obviously do. We need licensing to have much stronger powers.

This isn’t about the morality of gambling – it’s about control. We need stronger and fairer regulation. We can’t just leave the gambling barons to come up with ever more addictive tools to extract money from the vulnerable. We need to protect people, especially children and young people, from exploitation and harm. That starts with a ban on gambling advertising.

We are proud that Haringey is the first council to join the Coalition to End Gambling Advertising, but we now want to build that coalition and bring together our fellow councils and allies to create a stronger movement for change.