People bereaved by gambling-related suicide need mental health, practical, and legal support.
Every day in the UK at least one person takes their life because of gambling. For the children, parents, partners, and siblings left behind, the loss of their loved one is devastating.
Alongside the trauma and emotional impact of their loss, many families face a multitude of challenges following a gambling-related bereavement. Families can find it hard to manage the practicalities of arranging funerals, applying for probate, preparing for inquests, sometimes having lost a breadwinner.
You can help families to get through this difficult time and to speak up for their loved ones.
We need as much as possible to support families bereaved by gambling in the UK.
Supporting bereaved families gives them vital space to grieve and recover. This can include:
● Specialist therapy
● Investigatory support to find out what happened
● Legal and moral support through inquests
● Probate support and advice
● Expert debt advice
● Events where families can connect with others who understand
Gambling companies are acting with near impunity, running mass-advertising campaigns encouraging people to lose large amounts of money quickly on addictive products, offering “free bets” and bonuses, with dedicated staff pushing people to bet more, making it near impossible for people to stop until it’s too late.
Gambling with Lives is a vital support line for families all over the UK. No one else is providing this support.
Gambling with Lives is a charity set up in 2018 by Charles and Liz Ritchie MBEs who lost their son Jack to gambling-related suicide. Since then, we have supported dozens of bereaved families through difficult times and inquests, and more and more families are contacting us for help. Families tell us that without our support they would not know how they would cope. We also run programmes to prevent future deaths.