This is a guest post from @JustynLarcombe, a friend of CARE. You can read more about his story of problem gambling here.

One of the ways in which Government helps problem gamblers is by promoting the idea of self-exclusion.

On a strong day a problem gambler can get round the five betting shops in his town and self-exclude for six months during which time he can get help.

You can effectively cut yourself off from locally available offline gambling opportunities.

This provision does not really work online, though, for the simple reason that after you have self-excluded from five sites there are still hundreds of other sites equally available from your own home.

If rather than being required to self-exclude from each site I had been given the opportunity to just self-exclude once and for this to cover all licensed sites it would have made a huge difference. In fact I would still be with my wife today.

When we discovered the option of self-exclusion I self-excluded from the site I had been using and this gave both me and my wife confidence that I could not gamble.

However, three months later I had seen adverts for other online gambling sites and was sucked back in. When my wife found out that was it.

I am very concerned that a Bill is currently before Parliament that will further liberalise online gambling advertising. At the moment only gambling companies located in a limited number of countries can advertise in the UK. Under the terms of the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Bill, however, for the very first time any online gambling provider based anywhere in the world will be able to advertise in the UK. It is disturbing that the Government should be prepared to introduce this online gambling advertising liberalisation, especially as they acknowledge that online gambling is significantly more addictive than gambling generally.

The good news is that help is at hand.

Lord Browne of Belmont, who I had the privilege of meeting yesterday, has tabled an amendment which would introduce a one stop shop self-exclusion mechanism.

Instead of having to self-exclude from all online sites individually, under the terms of the amendment problem gamblers would only have to self-exclude once to the Gambling Commission. Then all online gambling providers that have a Gambling Commission license would be required to respect the terms of the self-exclusion as a condition of their license.

If this provision had been in place in 2012 I know that I would still be with my wife today. I also know that whilst this provision is not a magic wand, it would massively help many online problem gamblers in the UK. Yesterday I met another problem gambler with Lord Browne. So far he has self-excluded from 25 sites but as he says, there is always another site.

Lord Browne’s amendment is going to be debated this coming Tuesday, March 4th.

Can I ask you to take five minutes to write a quick email to one of more members of the House of Lords between now and Tuesday to ask them to support this crucial amendment?

If you are very pressed for time and are a problem gambler, simply say that you are a problem gambler for whom this would make a difference, that you strongly support Lord Browne’s ‘one stop shop self-exclusion’ amendment to the Gambling Bill that is to be debated on Tuesday and ask them to support it.

If you have longer do tell them something of your story and why a one stop shop would make a real difference for you.

If you are not a problem gambler and find yourself reading this, please join us in supporting Lord Browne’s amendment and write a short note saying that you think this will make a real difference and ask them to support it.

You can find a list of Members of the House of Lords with an interest in gambling here. Click on the name of a peer and it will take you to a speech they have given about gambling. Near the top of the page there is a box that says ‘I want to write to this Lord.’ Just click on this and then you are away!

You can also find many email addresses of peers here

Thanks so much for taking time to read this.

Justyn