Thoughtful today as my term as a Board Member of the Advisory Board for Safer Gambling comes to a close. Time has passed quickly since my first conversation 5 years ago on shaping the implementation of the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harm with the amazing Chair Anna van der Gaag It’s been an honour to serve alongside an array of such talented, courageous and like-hearted people all in the service of creating the conditions for a safer society, reducing harm, and ensuring that people with lived experience have a seat at the table. The current political landscape creates uncertainty in following through on the well evidenced and hoped for gambling policy and practice shifts needed to make a real difference. The words of Seamus Heaney ring clear:
‘History says, don’t hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.’

Anna van der Gaag Gambling Commission Helen Child Tim Miller Ben Haden Tim Livesley Ulla Romild Jane West David Zendle Philip Newall Steve Sharman James Grimes Gambling with Lives Heather Wardle Shane Carmichael David Forrest Louise Baxter MBE FCTSP Hermine Graham Ian Gilmore Rachel Lampard Simon Tanner Georgina Charlton Professor Ian Welsh OBE Sara Redmond William Kløverød Griffiths Jo Evans Ann Conacher Phil Mackie Michelle Gillies Gerda Reith Hannah Gunn Morris Fraser Jules Goodlet-Rowley Garth Reid Public Health Scotland Richard Foggo Graham Leicester