NEWS
Scottish clubs must smooth prepare the English Premier League in banning betting sponsorship from the front of matchday shirts, a Celtic fan with a gambling dependancy has acknowledged.
Lifelong supporter Martin Paterson, 63, warned action is distinguished to model out the “sinful” dependancy.
The Premier League ban will come into force by the finish of the 2025-26 season.
The Scottish Knowledgeable Football League (SPFL) acknowledged there were no plans to prepare suit.
It acknowledged sponsorship became “a topic for each membership” and described betting deals as “a broad supply of income” for a range of groups.
Three Scottish Premiership clubs contain betting sponsors on the front of their shirt – Celtic with Dafabet, Rangers with 32Red and Unibet and Dundee United with QuinnCasino.
Mr Paterson, whose calls were backed by favorite first minister Henry McLeish, acknowledged his dependancy started with betting on football coupons.
He stopped gambling in 2014 and has been campaigning against online and casino gambling since.
“Gambling addition destroys households and since it be no longer a substance or alcohol it be less complicated to conceal,” he informed BBC Radio’s Correct Morning Scotland.
“It be lawful a sinful, sinful dependancy.”
Mr Paterson acknowledged: “I anguish that money is extra distinguished [to the clubs] instead of health, because gambling is a mental health disorder.
“And on a honest basis genuine athletes must smooth no longer be favorite as billboards advertising merchandise that don’t appear to be protected for all individuals.”
According to the most modern statistics from the Scottish Public Effectively being Observatory, about 0.4% of Scottish adults – 18,000 of us – were classed as downside gamblers in 2021. An further 1.5%, about 68,000 adults, were at menace of be at menace of common gambling complications.
And men were tremendously extra at menace of be downside gamblers than girls, 0.7% and 0.1% respectively.
‘It be embedded in society’
Mr Paterson acknowledged he wanted clubs to dash even further than they had in England and expressed fears that betting companies would smooth be advertised on shirt sleeves and training kits.
“They would possibly be able to finish better than promote merchandise that don’t appear to be protected,” he acknowledged.
“Tobacco acknowledged sport would no longer stay on with out their sponsorship and the gambling industry are using the same mantra. For certain they would stay on.
“But on a honest ground we should always now not be promoting these things to kids and thinking it be alright. It be embedded in society ample.”
Mr McLeish, who also played genuine football, described the English Premier League switch as a “dinky nonetheless indispensable step forward”.
He informed Correct Morning Scotland: “I am disappointed at the SPFL’s response since it looks to be to be no longer tenable to argue that it be a topic for the clubs when indeed, as an affiliation, they survey after the frequent interests of football.
“I think we’re in a location in Scotland where, forgive the pun, it be a match made in hell because moderately frankly the SPFL is determined for money and needless to whine the gambling industry is determined for advertising.
“So it be no longer a honest determination on the support of what has came about in England.”
Whereas acknowledging Scottish football groups are typically money-strapped, the favorite first minister argued tobacco, alcohol and gambling companies must smooth have not got any location in Scottish football.
“We handled tobacco, now we contain to handle alcohol, now we contain to handle gambling.”
Mr McLeish called for a phasing out of gambling and alcohol sponsorship to enable the SPFL and clubs to find different sponsors.
“I can not judge that in Scotland and the United Kingdom there are no longer honest sponsors willing to come support in to the game if the game itself could well well be made extra dazzling to these particular sponsors.”
‘Fundamental supply of income’
Following the English Premier League’s announcement on gambling sponsorship, an SPFL spokesperson acknowledged: “There are no plans for a league-broad proscription of such deals.
“For plenty of SPFL clubs, sponsorship from gambling companies is a broad supply of income which helps to enhance their business models and permits investment in so a lot of the distinguished neighborhood activities which clubs undertake.”
The Betting and Gaming Council, which represents the industry, welcomed the SPFL’s commentary.
It acknowledged the “overwhelming majority” of the 22.5 million of us in the UK who bet each month finish so “safely and responsibly”.
The organisation added the “fee of downside gambling remains low by international standards at 0.3% of the UK’s grownup inhabitants – down from 0.4% the Twelve months outdated”.