{"id":279837,"date":"2026-02-04T07:01:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T07:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/279837\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T07:01:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T07:01:07","slug":"sheppey-mum-backs-mp-call-for-gambling-regulation-after-son-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/279837\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheppey mum backs MP call for gambling regulation after son dies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Wade later met Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP Kevin McKenna, who has since made campaigning on gambling harms a priority.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He is now one of a number of MPs, including Worthing West&#8217;s Dr Beccy Cooper, who are campaigning for a change in how society &#8211; and the government &#8211; approaches gambling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">McKenna said there were about 500 deaths by suicide related to gambling a year in the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;If it was anything else we&#8217;d be looking at it as a public health issue,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It would shift the focus from individual responsibility to recognising it as a risk to the wider population as a whole.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Treating it as a public health issue could include actions like greater regulation of gambling advertising and removing the most addictive products.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wade later met Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP Kevin McKenna, who has since made campaigning on gambling harms a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[103,61,60,410,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-279837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}