Jack Ritchie: Link between gambling and suicides - inquest hears

There is a link between gambling and suicide, a senior civil servant has said, during an inquest into the death of an English teacher.

Jack Ritchie, 24, from Sheffield, killed himself in Vietnam in 2017 after years of battling a gambling addiction.

A two-week inquest has been looking at the role gambling played in the Hull University graduate's death.

Giving evidence, senior civil servant Jonathan Marron said new gambling clinics were being created.

Mr Ritchie's parents, Liz and Charles Ritchie, from Sheffield, have argued there were no public health warnings about the risk to life posed by gambling products, and that their son was not diagnosed or offered treatment for gambling disorder.

Mr Marron praised the work the couple have been doing as they have campaigned for reform through the Gambling With Lives charity they set up.

The director general of the new Office for Health Improvement and Disparities at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) told the hearing he believed there was no dispute "that there's an association between gambling and suicide".

He said there was still little clear data available about gambling-related suicides in the UK but a recent review suggested an average of 409 people die in England in a year.

Mr Marron added the DHSC took the lead in terms of gambling harms in 2017, and tackling them has since become a significant priority.

Earlier this week, Sheffield coroner David Urpeth heard that Mr Ritchie began gambling on fixed odds betting terminals when he was about 16 or 17 years old.

At the time of Mr Ritchie's death there was just one specialist clinic in England dealing with gambling disorders, located in London, the hearing at Sheffield Town Hall heard.

Now, a network of 15 clinics is being planned nationwide by 2024, Mr Marron said.

Guidelines were also being developed for the treatment of gambling disorders.

The inquest, which is due to last two weeks, continues.

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