Gambling
Next Prime Minister must honour gambling reform plan - CARE
CARE has urged the next Prime Minister to honour a pledge to reform Britain's gambling laws as betting industry lobbying intensifies.
Today the Betting And Gaming Council, a group funded by gambling firms, said the next PM should ditch plans for reform altogether.
Playing down widespread harms to punters in the UK, the group described a forthcoming government white paper as "a barnacle that needs to be scraped off the bottom of the Government’s boat".
It added that changes can be brought "without the need for fresh primary legislation" that "will take forever to get through Parliament" but through "voluntary, regulatory and secondary legislative changes".
A spokesman for CARE commented:
"Fearing the repercussions of proper regulation for its profit margins, it’s no surprise the betting industry is begging the government to change course. But with an estimated 400,000 'problem gamblers' in the UK, and one gambling-related suicide every single day, changes to our outdated laws are vital."Problem gambling has reached endemic levels and it's fueled by legislation – the Gambling Act 2005 - that is simply not fit for purpose. The next Prime Minister must respond to the needs of vulnerable people being preyed upon by a greed-driven industry, rather than the wants of those profiting within the industry itself.
Huge gambling-related harms
A UK Government review of evidence in September last year found:
- The annual economic burden of harmful gambling is approximately £1.27 billion.
- The overall estimated excess cost of health harms is £961.3 million.
- Financial harms focused on homelessness is estimated to be £62.8 million
- The estimated excess cost of suicide is £619.2 million
- The estimated excess cost of depression is £335.5 million
- The estimated excess cost of alcohol dependence is £4.7 million
- The estimated excess cost of illicit drug use is £2.0 million
- The excess cost of employment-related harms is estimated to be £79.5 million
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