THERE have been calls for more funding to be allocated to helping young people deal with gambling addiction with one community worker describing the problem as a “silent danger” to our teenagers. Fra Stone, Development Worker with the Falls Community Council, was speaking to the Andersonstown News after a student from West Belfast spoke candidly about overcoming his own addiction and revealed that teenagers as young as 15 are now hooked on gambling in bookmakers.
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‘There’s always a queue of schoolkids waiting to use those gaming machines’
A WEST Belfast student who overcame a serious gambling addiction has said teenagers as young as 15 are now hooked on punting. The 20-year-old, who spoke to the Andersonstown News anonymously this week about his gambling problem in order to highlight the issue, said more needs to be done in local schools, sports clubs and youth groups to warn teenagers about the dangers of all types of gambling.
We’ve come a very long way since the Ardscoil
I ALWAYS allow myself a little holiday in the heart when I attend an Irish language event in the Dome of Delight — as I did on Tuesday evening. That’s partly because I was thrown out after ten minutes of my first-ever meeting in City Hall back in the eighties because I spoke Erse, and that’s partly because it’s a thrill to witness the strength and vibrancy of today’s Irish language movement.
Pensioner targeted in phone scam loses out to the tune of £2,000
OLDER people in the community are being urged to be on their guard after an elderly pensioner was conned out of almost £2,000 in a phone scam. The pensioner, who resides in the Andersonstown Fold, was contacted by a person claiming to be from the Ministry of Justice and informed she was to receive £7,000 but needed to pay £1,600 for tax purposes.
Alarm as spies are linked with killer
The families of two men brutally murdered five years ago in Belfast say they are alarmed at reports surfacing this week that indicate British Intelligence services may be protecting the murderers. Eddie Burns was found shot dead at the Bog Meadows on March 12, 2007. A short time later Joe Jones was found in an alleyway off Elmfield Street in North Belfast
Francis flown home and then rushed to RVH
WEST Belfast man Francis McDonald is back home after an horrific six-week ordeal in Thailand. Last week we reported how the Springfield man was left languishing in a Bangkok high-rise flat after he took ill and his family were unable to pay the spiralling costs of his hospital treatment.
