COLUMN: The fences at Cheltenham are far from the only hurdles this week...

Gambling and sport is a marriage made in heaven for some, while for others, it’s a marriage made in hell. As we prepare to view the Cheltenham Racing Festival in our millions at home, at the bar, or via sneaky peaks at our phones during work hours, you can be sure almost every Tom, Dick and Harry will place a bet in order to have a vested interest in the races.

All in good fun mostly, but when you sit back and compare the coverage of odds in to the racing itself, you may wonder who is actually racing - the horses or the public to the bookmakers?

From the moment the coverage begins on UK and Irish terrestrial TV, viewers are bombarded with betting odds from various bookmakers, betting offers or just simply the price of horses. It’s unavoidable! You begin to feel like the uncool kid in the schoolyard if you’re not throwing at least some money at a horse. Sure, why not?

A person’s self-control is put to the ultimate test as you’re provided with constant reminders of betting odds, while adverts are plastered across social media. Now, I know some people may simply say, ‘Liam grow up, it’s all just a bit of fun!’ Agreed, in my view, but it’s surely not unreasonable for ministers and those within authority to sit down and evaluate the current state of play.

Rules regarding alcohol and betting advertising are already in place primarily to deter young people from starting such practices too early in life, but surely more measures are needed to protest addicts and those in a vulnerable position. After all, you wouldn’t wave a bottle of gin in front of your alcoholic cousin, so why suffocate TV viewers with one of life’s greatest stumbling blocks? It’s not fair to ask racing fans or general sports fans to switch off a sport they enjoy and suck it up.

Applauding the companies who are holding sports fans hostage in their financially driven world can’t be the answer.  Gambling companies and their PR teams have become masters in the art of advertising in recent years as betting is portrayed as a 'need' rather than a 'want' in such adverts. The quantity of adverts and the tone surrounding them is an accident waiting to happen. It’s crucial to remember the dangers of betting similar to the practices of smoking and consuming alcohol. The warnings are underwhelming to say the least...

The phrase ‘Be Gamble Aware’ is said at such speed in television adverts it’s hardly recognisable, while one would have to squint to get a glance at the message when it appears on TV screens. In my view, it’s nothing more than a box-ticking exercise with no sincerity. Hardly a surprise when their objective is to make money. It’s the job of governments across the globe to control how these companies are expected to behave and the standards they must meet.

On an edition of Claire Byrne Live last year, they sampled a Premier League game between Manchester United and West Ham United and found betting ads in some capacity featured over 200 times during the match. That can’t be allowed to continue! We need to find a balancing act. Betting, like alcohol, is an enjoyment that shouldn’t be banished forever. 

Those with addiction problems must accept self-responsibility, but let’s give those people a fighting chance. At the core of sport is health and wellbeing, a mission that starts from an early age. Unfortunately, the higher you go, the bigger you fall and the treacherous period from adolescents to adulthood where good habits can slip away offers betting companies to pounce. So, for all the well-meaning, positive messages passed on to the stars of the future at an early age, that simply won’t be enough to protect them later in life if the environment in which we all must inhabit becomes colonised by a new set of rulers - the betting companies.