The Responsible Gaming Foundation has taken the initiative to launch a national helpline with the aim of offering support to individuals, as well as their families, suffering from pathological gambling. One can make use of this service offered by Responsible Gaming Foundation through the free phone number 1777, open between 8am and 8pm daily, or an online chat system offered at http://www.rgf.org.mt. This new incentive aspires to provide the appropriate assistance through the Responsible Gaming Foundation to the concerned individuals with the help of professionally trained employees.
Chief Operating Officer of the Malta Gaming Authority, Heathcliff Farrugia, confirmed that the Responsible Gaming Foundation call centre initiative was one of the main motives for the setting up Responsible Gaming Foundation. He discussed that it was worrying to see affected victims of gambling believing that there was no form of help available to them. At present, there are no official statistics with respect to the number of people who seek aid with respect to gambling addictions. This new helpline offered by Responsible Gaming Foundation, the Responsible Gaming Foundation will also collect the necessary data in this respect.
Parliamentary Secretary Jose Herrera claimed that this initiative does not seek to oppose the gaming industry in Malta, and is in line with the Government's intent to actively promote Malta as the jurisdiction for i-Gaming. The Ministry for Education has also collaborated in a pro-active mission to educate children from a young age to be responsible in their daily lives.
Chairman of the Responsible Gaming Foundation Silvio Schembri, added that the only remedy available to individuals seeking help before the help line was launched was that of ‘self-barring’, being an action whereby an individual undertakes to exclude himself from accessing gambling services for a specific period of time or for lifetime. Mr Schembri also added that the number of those players opting for self-barring services had risen from 970 in 2013 to around 1,043 in 2014.
Henceforth, with the introduction of the new help line system, players with such difficulties can actively seek help from a number of services which are readily accessible to them.
