One of the cornerstones of our work at Sporting Chance is the principle that we never have and never will accept funding from industries that directly contribute to the harm experienced by our client population. One such industry is the gambling industry - a sector under severe scrutiny at the moment.
Our GATE (Gambling Awareness, Treatment & Education) Programme is now one year old and we are proud to treat sportspeople who have suffered harm from gambling and to educate athletes on the dangers of gambling, while being free from industry influence or potential conflicts of interest.
As a treatment provider, we feel we can maintain our integrity by not accepting funds from organisations whose products have contributed to the problems we are treating clients for. The safety and wellbeing of our clients is our priority and many would be uncomfortable with such an arrangement.
As an education provider in this area, our aim is to try to prevent and protect sportspeople from developing an unhealthy relationship with gambling. In order to do this, we must be free to challenge the gambling industry to do better and to discuss environmental factors (such as over-exposure to advertising in sport) without fear of compromise.
While it is not our place to comment on funding models of other organisations, we do believe in creating safe independent spaces in treatment and education and are proud to be the only non-industry funded treatment and education provider in sport.
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