Alzheimer's Charity Betting Partnership under Fire

Heavy criticism has fallen on what started as an idea to trigger the breaking down of barriers keeping people with dementia from being included in society across the UK. The partnership between the William Hill Foundation and The Alzheimer’s Society was supposedly to help make the bookmakers betting shops a “safe haven” for people afflicted with dementia. According to their annual report, health and wellbeing is one of their strongest focusses. William Hill Foundation made a pledge in May last year to raise £2 million for the Alzheimer’s Charity over the partnership, which is to take three years. The William Hill Foundation is a bookmaker foundation that was established in 2011 with a hardship fund for charity programmes. They are a non-profit organization that provides relief in form of funds to various charities and their colleagues. The gambling giant had a re-launch in 2019 with a special focus on mental health. This mission was based on a statistic that one in four people experience mental hardships at some point in their lives. William Hill wanted to become the most dementia friendly bookmaker in the UK.

Partnership for dementia friendly betting?

This is the first partnership of its kind in the gambling sector. According to William Hill, it is meant to focus on three areas namely supporting colleagues, employability and nobody harmed. Some of these interests may however be detrimental and problematic for them given their vulnerabilities.

A partnership encouraging people with Alzheimer has to visit betting shops and participate in their activities raises eyebrows. For those looking for a betting site to sign up, try 888 poker and other sites here.

Supporting colleagues

William Hill have shops and offices all over the UK and believe that this makes them an integral part of the community. The partnership is aimed at providing their colleagues with sufficient information and tools. These tools are expected to support customers, themselves and the people in society living with Alzheimer’s. The foundation also has a hardship fund meant to support colleagues who are facing financial difficulties through no fault of their own.

Employability

One core priority of the William Hill community programme has been to provide skills and opportunities for employment. They believe work is directly connected to mental well-being. They intend to help people get back to work within their either foundation or elsewhere.

Nobody harmed

This foundation claims that its biggest principle is that no one individual is harmed by gambling. They intend to encourage innovation and new ideas when it comes to battling problem gambling and prevent gambling related harm. They are to fund and encourage new ideas within the foundation and support organisations with aligned interests.

They have promised to provide information for their employees to help them support customers and other people in the community afflicted with dementia. They also aimed to support programs that intend to help people with dementia return to work. They believe this partnership will help tackle problem gambling and protect people with dementia from gambling harms. The two parties maintain that the purpose of this partnership is to provide the necessary support and adequate training its staff would need to deliver the right environment and protections to give people with Alzheimer’s safety and protection from financial harm.

Public reaction and concern

There is a huge outcry over this partnership especially from health practitioners and British MP’s. It has been termed as ludicrous and puts morals to question. Profiting from people with dementia is not going down well with the public. In addition, concerns have been raised concerning William Hills poor record of accomplishment when it comes to customer care, having been fined £6.2 million when the regulator confirmed that they had failed in their mandate to protect customer harms. Critics believe that this partnership will instead enable gambling harms for vulnerable parties. They believe that people with dementia are vulnerable and should instead be protected from financial activity that could take advantage of them. One especially vocal Henrietta Bowden Jones also had something to say about this partnership. The director of the National Problem Gambling Clinic, called the act of expecting people with Alzheimer’s to safely and responsibly ludicrous and a matter of concern. MP Carolyn Harris, who is also the Chair of the Gambling Related Harm APPG can be quoted calling this dementia friendly partnership dreadful and an exploitation of the most vulnerable. She went on to explain that people with dementia tend to seek company, and suggesting that they find it at the bookies is not ideal. These environments are just not safe for people with this condition. While the charity from the foundations staff is evident, many agree betting shops are not the place for people with Alzheimer’s. Links to the gambling society are believed to be rooted in the Alzheimer’s society Board and believed to be the drivers of this agenda, leading to concerns as to whether the intentions of this partnership are upright and clear. The society has been flagged before for having a toxic management culture. They have even been accused of using non-disclosure agreements (NDA’s) to keep their staff silent about their malpractices.

What do the two partners have to say?

Dementia people want to be treated equally, this is how the Alzheimer’s Society was quick to defend the partnership amidst controversial concerns claiming that it was part of their mandate to ensure people with Alzheimer’s make their own decisions and are do not have to forego their personal interests, gambling being one of them. They claim to help these people continue doing things; they enjoy and keep them involved in society, even when it includes gambling, by giving education and awareness to influence this betting agenda. They maintain that besides the much important fundraising, this partnership focuses on staff training and support, to protect people with Alzheimer has and related diseases from harm.

Conclusion

There is substance to the criticism facing this partnership. Betting shops and gambling, as a whole is not a safe place for people suffering Alzheimer’s. We acknowledge that people with dementia have interests, as is the main goal of this partnership. Having been gamblers in the past they may want to try their luck at slots, roulette or blackjack just for fun. They may even be interested in signing up to online casinos through reviews such as Gambla.com/review/888. The predatory nature of these places makes this partnership a means to enable harm and taking advantage of a vulnerable people in society. Trying to help people afflicted with Alzheimer’s would be considered a noble cause up to a point where the very cause meant to protect them exposes these vulnerable people to the financial dangers of betting shops and gambling.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes