{"id":854086,"date":"2026-08-13T18:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T18:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/854086\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T18:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T18:52:11","slug":"i-started-gambling-at-seven-mobile-betting-was-like-vegas-in-my-pocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/854086\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;I started gambling at seven &#8211; mobile betting was like Vegas in my pocket&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The charity is offering free online treatment with trained practitioners using cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The service has funding from the Scottish government, under its share of the UK-wide gambling levy, until March 2029. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Lorraine Hannah, the charity&#8217;s outreach and engagement practitioner, said online prize giveaways and games were a problem in the Highlands and islands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Anecdotally, I&#8217;ve heard it&#8217;s quite a big issue because of social isolation, boredom and more downtime,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;People can pick up their phones and gamble 24\/7.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">She added that gambling affected relationships, finances, and mental health.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The charity provides confidential one-to-one help for over-18s and can also set up software to restrict certain mobile apps and banking blocks for gambling websites.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Recovery is possible for everyone,&#8221; she said. &#8220;There&#8217;s no stigma, it&#8217;s not shameful. Please don&#8217;t suffer in silence.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The charity is offering free online treatment with trained practitioners using cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). The service has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[64,63,137,514,515],"class_list":["post-854086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}