Our mandate is to develop and offer innovative health promotion, prevention strategies, and support services to assist BC residents make the best decisions regarding gambling.
At Gambling Support BC, we're all about helping British Columbians make informed decisions about gambling. Our program, run by the Gambling Supports Division within the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch of the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, offers innovative health promotion, prevention strategies, and support services—all aimed at guiding you toward the best choices for your gambling habits.
We take a neutral stance on gambling, recognizing that it's a personal decision that should be made with full awareness of the facts, myths, and risks involved. Our approach involves three key service streams:
- Prevention and Outreach: The prevention and outreach service stream provides tailored education and training to youth, the public, specific priority populations, and community professionals through information and training sessions, community workshops, campaigns, materials, and social media. This stream also implements the Gambling Outreach Service (GOS) which supports at-risk individuals and helps them to access the support services they need within their community to reduce gambling harms.
- Clinical Services: The clinical service stream delivers free, confidential, multilingual counseling services to British Columbians struggling with their own or a family member’s gambling. Any BC resident can access the free services regardless of age, language spoken, location, or gambling status. The program offers individual counselling and group programs.
- Indigenous Services: The Indigenous service stream provides specialized prevention, outreach, and therapeutic counselling through a land-based healing approach for Indigenous groups – a population known to be at higher risk of experiencing gambling-related harms – that acknowledges how the historical and ongoing impacts of colonization magnify the impacts of gambling on individuals, families, and communities.
Gambling Support BC Program Overview:
