MPs: Weak gambling laws cost lives

MPs have urged the government not to back away from proper gambling law reform, saying that a failure to provide comprehensive regulation will cost lives.

Carolyn Harris, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, and Ronnie Cowan, the chairwoman and vice-chairmen of the all-party parliamentary group for gambling-related harm, wrote to The Times newspaper today.

The group are calling for a statutory levy on gambling companies to help fund gambling addiction treatment and research - a proposal CARE has lobbied for.

They have also stressed that so-called 'free bets' and VIP offers made by betting firms are irresponsible, causing vulnerable gamblers to fall into more debt.

Their letter states:

"In 2019 this government stood on a manifesto pledge to reform our gambling laws. More than 400 people take their own lives because of gambling addiction every year, and many thousands more are harmed by this industry every day. More than 16,000 people responded to the government’s call for evidence, and government departments, academics, clinicians and parliamentarians have set out a coherent, evidence-based set of reforms.

"A business model that targets those who can least afford to lose is immoral. Failing to stop the worst abuses of the online gambling industry, allowing free bets and VIP offers that lure people into unaffordable spending to continue, failing to implement a statutory levy to pay for harm and failing to limit the advertising that our children are continually exposed to is not just a missed opportunity and a rejection of a manifesto pledge, it will mean that more lives are lost."