According to The Betting & Gambling Council (BGC), the 2024 Safer Gambling Week, which was held in November, saw a marked increase in players using safer gambling tools.

Some 1.5 million unique accounts used at least one of the tools available during the week, an increase of 22% on the previous year's campaign, along with a rise of 14% in players setting deposit limits in the same period.

The campaign was helped by the involvement of the UK Gambling Commission and Premier League football clubs, with Aston Villa, Tottenham and Southampton adding their positive messages about gambling controls.

The campaign's reach was immense, over 7.2 million Safer Gambling messages were sent to UK players during the focus period, up 10% from the previous year.

The social media campaign also broke records, with over 60 million impressions across all the major social media platforms, up 21% over the previous campaign.

All in all, this led to an extra 500,000 visitors to the Safer Gambling site, once again showing the true value of such campaigns and also highlights how many players feel the need to explore safer gambling tools, with Public Health England suggesting 3.5% of the UK population can be classed as "at risk" gamblers.

For many gamblers, recognising potential issues with gambling control can be difficult, however, each betting site offers a variety of tools to help us all keep control and continue to have fun. These include:

• Setting Deposit Limits
• Setting Loss Limits
• Time Outs (short-term break)
• Self-Exclusion (Shut account)
• Reality Checks
• Block Bank Payments

If the options above fail to help, you can contact the following organisations, which provide further help, support and advice for UK players.

• Gambleaware
• Safer Gambling
• GamCare
• Gamblers Anonymous
  
• or visit your NHS GP/Doctor's surgery