Responsible Gambling Awareness Week (RGAW) is taking place this week, running from 23-29 October in NSW. Held during the break between the footy grand finals and Melbourne Cup, RGAW aims to get people to take a moment and think about their gambling. NSW’s problem gambling counsellors get the latest professional training. “Responsible Gambling Awareness Week is a chance to remind the community about the damaging impacts excessive gambling can have on the lives of gamblers as well as their friends and families and issue a call to action for problem gamblers.

• Nsw Responsible Gambling Awareness Week Activities
• Nsw Responsible Gambling Awareness Week 2020
• Nsw Responsible Gambling Awareness Week 2020
• Nsw Responsible Gambling Awareness Week 2018

PEOPLE across NSW are encouraged to think about their gambling habits and promote sensible gambling choices as part of Responsible Gambling Awareness Week. The week of October 23 to 29 and aims to get the 65 per cent of NSW adults who gamble to think carefully about their limits whenever they have a bet. The current period between the football grand finals and Melbourne Cup is a great time for people to reflect on their gambling behaviour and consider if they need to make any changes. Young people in particular are being invited to get involved in Responsible Gambling Awareness Week and learn about the need to keep to limits when having a bet. Port Macquarie gambling counsellor, Steve Edman, speaks with upwards of 10 people a week who need help with problems associated to gambling. Mr Edman said when someone asks for help, it is often because it creates financial hardship or is having an impact on their life at home. “There’s a huge stigma that attaches to gambling as a problem, and from my experience it does take a bit for people to want to talk about it,” he said. “Gambling counsellors are contacted mostly because people are sick of not winning, it’s creating financial hardship for them, or maybe they lie about their behaviour because people don’t understand why they’re doing what they’re doing. “It’s a behaviour that comes about because people are trying to cope with life.” It is that coping mechanism, he said, that leads to the gambling as a way of numbing their issues. “They aren’t sure how to resolve those difficulties. It doesn’t work for a counsellor to say “you need to do this or that”,” he said. “I can say that to myself and still struggle. It’s really about engaging people, knowing they’re being heard and becoming curious to see if any change is possible. “The ones who come to counselling and who are looking to change, that are wanting things to change, then counselling works.” Problem gamblers can undertake a self exclusion, as across hotels and clubs a multi-venue self exclusion now exists. A person can nominate up to 35 venues with three options: do not allow them play pokies, to go into a venue or to do any form of gambling. You can seek help by phoning Steve, or calling the National Gambling Helpline on 1800 858 858 or visiting www.gamblinghelp.nsw.gov.au/rgaw2017/© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Ryan Pierse – CA/Cricket Australia/Getty Images

Gambling advertisements have been banned from stadiums hosting Big Bash League matches, as New South Wales attempts to address the normalisation of sports betting and raise awareness of gambling harms.

This week the NSW Office of Responsible Gambling announced a two-year partnership with Cricket NSW that will stop betting firms promoting their services at any cricket ground.

There is already a broadcast arrangement on free-to-air TV which bans wagering advertising and promotion during and within 30 minutes of matches, but the new deal is the first to address in-ground betting promotion.

Nsw Responsible Gambling Awareness Week Activities

© Photograph: Ryan Pierse – CA/Cricket Australia/Getty Images Cricket NSW and the NSW Office of Responsible Gambling have announced an agreement to ban gambling ads at BBL matches.

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The “GambleAware” partnership aims to promote a more family-friendly experience at matches involving NSW BBL and WBBL teams – Sydney Thunder and Sixers – and the NSW Blues and Breakers.

“We recognise the impact that constant sports betting advertising can have on young people and their families – particularly young men,” Cricket NSW chief executive Lee Germon said.

Nsw Responsible Gambling Awareness Week 2020

“The idea that kids are led to believe gambling is a normal part of sport is a real concern, so this is a step in the right direction that we’re proud to be taking.”

Sports organisations are regularly criticised for taking money from gambling companies.

Last year Cricket Australia rejected a sponsorship offer from an unnamed gambling company because, according to the organisation’s then-chief executive Kevin Roberts, the BBL was “fun, family entertainment”.

But CA still lists global betting giant Bet365 as one of its major corporate partners.

John Dalzell, chair of the Responsible Gambling Fund, said the initiative would provide a safer environment in which families could enjoy cricket.

“Young people are under immense pressure to fit in and are more likely to take up gambling if they consider it to be a normal part of sport and they assume that everyone’s doing it,” Dalzell said.

Nsw Responsible Gambling Awareness Week 2020

“Having matches free of gambling advertising means families can reclaim the game and go back to enjoying sport without the concern that children are being constantly exposed to sports betting promotions.

Nsw Responsible Gambling Awareness Week 2018

“It will remove the assumption that gambling is a normal part of cricket and it will refocus attention back on the game and the players – the way it should be.”