Some Brits Turn to Gambling, Crypto to Make Ends Meet, Charity Warns

A gambling charity warned on Thursday that the rising cost of living in Britain is forcing some individuals to turn to gambling and cryptocurrency investments as a last resort to make ends meet.

According to GamCare, it is increasingly getting calls from assistance recipients who lost money gambling in an effort to pay for skyrocketing food and energy costs.

The nonprofit organization claimed that several of the people it had previously successfully assisted had reverted into gambling as a result of mounting financial stress.

Out of the Group of Seven major countries, British families are struggling with the highest inflation rate, which in May reached a fresh 40-year high of 9.1 percent. The Bank of England has issued a warning that by October, inflation will be higher than 11%.

46 percent of respondents to a YouGov survey of more than 4,000 people conducted on behalf of GamCare and released on Thursday expressed concern about their financial status.

The majority of individuals who had gambled in the previous 12 months had lost money, according to more than half of those surveyed.

According to Anna Hemmings, CEO of GamCare, "our helpline counsellors are hearing that the cost of living is hurting people's gambling behaviors, particularly those gamblers who have recovered."

We are aware that more and more people are contacting our team for assistance with cryptocurrency trading.

In order to protect themselves from the growing cost of living, someone who paid in pound to invest in Bitcoin six months ago would have lost 55% of their money as of Thursday.

According to GamCare, 25% of problem gamblers who had invested in cryptocurrencies claimed they wished to increase their holdings to make up for losses, compared to 7% of all cryptocurrency investors.