{"id":5418,"date":"2014-07-09T07:48:59","date_gmt":"2014-07-09T07:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/?p=5418"},"modified":"2016-01-07T09:49:14","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T09:49:14","slug":"enough-is-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/enough-is-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"Enough is enough"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\">In 2005 the Government in the UK opened the door to gambling becoming &#8220;an acceptable leisure activity&#8221;. I was a gambler for 40 years and believe me when I say that when you are in it, you don&#8217;t see the potential harm caused to some vulnerable people until you step back you see it for what it is. For those whose lives are ruined by Gambling Addiction, the notion of it being an acceptable leisure activity is ridiculous.<\/p>\n<p>How can I best channel my burning desire to help those who each day are being harmed by Gambling Addiction?<\/p>\n<p>Please bear in mind that my own experiences are testimony to the damage that may be caused &#8211; I have experienced family breakdown, relationship breakdown, debt, prison and I could go on. However let&#8217;s also consider some independent sources to understand what I see as some of the problems surrounding gambling in the UK:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ofcom research shows gambling commercials have rocketed from 234,000 in 2007 to nearly 1.4 million last year. That is a 600% increase in 6 years.<\/li>\n<li>In 2009 there were 109,000 children stopped in a betting shop but in 2013 that number had rocketed to 588,000 and 27,000 were stopped after placing their first bet.<\/li>\n<li>A report, for the Lottery Commission by Ipsos MORI in September 2013, concluded that of over 2,000 11-15yr olds, surveyed from 100 state maintained schools, no less than 15% of young teenagers had engaged in some form of gambling &#8220;in the last week&#8221;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What concerns me therefore is that we are now seeing the aftershocks of the 2005 Governement&#8217;s policy and in my opinion things are going to deteriorate even more.<\/p>\n<p>I want to share a dream I had; I was in The Spirit and I looked down and I could see the river Thames and there was fire on the water. Big Ben struck 12, and I saw that the fire went under a bridge and into the House of Commons.<\/p>\n<p>Zechariah 4.6 &#8220;<em>Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit<\/em>&#8220;, says the lord almighty.<\/p>\n<p>I truly believe that the Lord has heard the cry of those who are suffering from Gambling Addiction and is now asking Men of God to step out and say &#8220;enough is enough&#8221;. This is what led to the creation of GAMSERVE, a movement that is dedicated to asking serious questions and seeking significant change around the gambling industry in the UK. I spent the weekend of CVM&#8217;s Gathering (in a field near Swindon!) talking to people that could see the problem and agreed that something had to be done and I pray that anyone that reads this blog will take time to look at my <a href=\"http:\/\/gamserve.org.uk.\" target=\"_blank\">website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As Christians, we need to respond to negative developments in our society and one way is to speak out and challenge the liberalisation of the gambling industry. I trust that you will join me and that the Lord will see my prayers answered as I serve obediently in His name.<\/p>\n<div class=\"linkwithin_hook\" id=\"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/enough-is-enough\/\"><\/div><script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png?w=750\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2005 the Government in the UK opened the door to gambling becoming &#8220;an acceptable leisure activity&#8221;. I was a gambler for 40 years and believe me when I say that when you are in it, you don&#8217;t see the potential harm caused to some vulnerable people until you step back you see it for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7PoLK-1po","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5764,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/the-pressure-to-provide\/","url_meta":{"origin":5418,"position":0},"title":"The pressure to provide","date":"10 December 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I can call upon my own experiences when I say, that especially around the Christmas period the temptation to gamble was at its greatest. There can be many different contributing factors to this but I will briefly touch on one. \u201cThe expectation and pressure to provide\u201d For some this can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Friends of CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7032,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/gambling-can-be-dangerous\/","url_meta":{"origin":5418,"position":1},"title":"Gambling can be dangerous","date":"8 June 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A friend revealed to me recently, that although she was a primary school teacher she too had been caught up in gambling. It seemed to her that a trip to the bingo offered a night out to enjoy herself with her friends but unfortunately as time passed those feelings passed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Friends of CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/gamserve_logo.jpg?fit=1200%2C344&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7727,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/a-bit-of-fun\/","url_meta":{"origin":5418,"position":2},"title":"A Bit of Fun?","date":"28 September 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The gambling industry are extremely adept in enticing men to participate in what they claim is only a bit fun. My personal experience causes my opinion to differ but for one moment cast aside my 40 year experience as a prolific gambler. Let's look at the evidence: \u201cWhen the Fun\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Friends of CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/gambling.png?fit=565%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5201,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/who-me-a-gambler\/","url_meta":{"origin":5418,"position":3},"title":"\u2018Who me, a gambler?","date":"7 May 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Following on from his previous blog, Ian Bartlett unpacks his journey to show how God has moved powerfully in his life in relation to the hold gambling had on him. I gave my life to Jesus on 31st March 2010 and I was baptised on May 30th the same year.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Friends of CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/friends-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5139,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/gambling-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":5418,"position":4},"title":"Gambling","date":"16 April 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Ian Bartlett kicks off his first blog on the theme of gambling and shares from his experiences about the danger it can be to us. Growing up I never went to church and my parents were not Christians, My fathers church was the pub and the Bookmakers and like father\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Friends of CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3875,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/gambling\/","url_meta":{"origin":5418,"position":5},"title":"Gambling","date":"19 March 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Have you ever noticed how things creep up on you? (Like Old age or Christmas). A while ago I became aware of all the gambling ads on the TV...Where did they come from?! I have since been in touch with a guy called Ian who was addicted to gambling and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/team-CVM-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5418"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5418"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6681,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5418\/revisions\/6681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}