Red Card founder and CEO Tony Kelly has joined forces with West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster. They are calling on payday lenders to stop advancing money to those struggling with gambling addiction.
As reported on the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner’s website:
PCC Simon Foster, alongside his Assistant PCC Tom McNeil, and Coventry born footballer Tony Kelly, who used to play for Stoke City and Bristol City, all agree that lending gambling addicts big sums of money at extortionate interest rates is simply exploiting vulnerable people and forcing them into further debt and potentially fuelling crime.
Given that as many as 1 in 3 prisoners are problem or pathological gamblers – and that up to half have committed crimes to fund their gambling addiction – the policies of payday lenders can play an important role.
For more details, visit the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner’s website.
Elements of the story are also reported in this BBC News Online article.
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