We’ll be winding down the company during 2024. As individuals the two directors will continue to be be active as individuals.
Our work has been to raise awareness of gambling related harms. We recognise and support the vital immediate needs of more treatment and better education. But as well as doing a bit to raise awareness we continue to call for more focus on the gambling industry’s responsibilities, and to call for stronger regulation.
In particular, we call for tight restrictions on advertising, marketing, sponsorship and some product design. We are extremely wary of the wisdom of political parties’ vows to ‘work with industry’ to limit harm. We resist the industry-driven narrative that gambling harms represent a personal ‘problem’ for a few while millions ‘enjoy a flutter’ harmlessly because they ‘gamble responsibly’.
We have witnessed the growth of some remarkable organisations led by lived and living experience which provide vital support. In no way do calls to critique industry, regulators and governments contradict the impressive quality and absolute necessity of this user-led work.
Provided education about gambling is fully integrated into curricula structured from the ages of 5 to 18, and this provision expertly designed and continuously evaluated by external experts, we welcome its inclusion in schools. This is no different than we would expect to find in education about drugs, alcohol, diet, finance, mental health, citizenry, healthy living, and all elements of personal, health and economic life.
Our work has been remote from the immediate needs for treatment and education, generally taking a long view with a public health orientation. In delivery 0f awareness-raising our work has been very small-scale, mainly focused on the city of Glasgow.
A full retrospective can be read here.
The Machine Zone 