Gambling shares hit as MPs demand online crackdown

MorE than £1bn was wiped off the value of major betting firms after Mps proposed a crackdown on the ‘public health crisis’ of gambling addiction.

a cross-party group of politicians called for a £2-per-bet limit on popular online slot machine-style games, and a total ban on the use of credit cards to gamble online.

The Gambling related Harm (GrH) all-party parliamentary group added that a duty of care for customers should be placed upon betting companies such as William Hill, Ladbrokes-owner GvC and paddy power’s parent Flutter Entertainment. They also called for them to fund and distribute software that will block online access to addicts who want to exclude themselves from gambling websites. The group’s report said: ‘problem gambling in the uK is now so endemic that it should be treated as a public health crisis.’

Shares in GvC slid 10.5pc, or 94p, to 803.4p, William Hill plunged 12.7pc, or 25.55p, to 176.25p, 888 fell 13.7pc, or 24.6p, to 155.4p, and Flutter edged down 3.4pc, or, 278p to 7932p. according to a study from academic Henrietta Bowden-Jones, pathological gambling affects almost 1pc of the uK’s population.

High Street gambling giants were already reeling from the Government’s attack on fixed-odds betting terminals, labelled the ‘crack cocaine’ of the industry for their highly addictive nature.

Earlier this year, a £2 per bet limit was brought in on these machines, which were dotted around almost every High Street bookmakers. The legislation riled the bookies, who said they may have to close a quarter of their shops. William Hill alone planned 700 closures.

But the GrH group believes that gambling companies must do even more to protect addicted customers, and wants to introduce a levy of 1pc on all the money bookies make from gambling. The proceeds would fund support for those suffering from gambling-related problems and research into the habit. Britain’s biggest betting firms – GvC, William Hill, Bet365, Flutter and Sky Bet – have already committed to pay this levy by 2024, which could raise about £60m a year. But the Mps said they were ‘concerned not all companies will follow suit’, and recommended a statutory levy be put in place immediately.

The group’s vice-chairman, Iain Duncan Smith, said: ‘For too long, online gambling operators have exploited vulnerable gamblers to little or no retribution from the regulator.’

But a spokesman for William Hill said: ‘The recommendations would have significant unforeseen impacts given the black market already attracts over £1.4bn in stakes.’

The spokesman said online gambling firms already used complex computer algorithms to track customers’ play against markers of harm and were developing tools such as deposit limits, profit-loss tracking and partial self-exclusion.

The GrH group also called on the Gambling Commission regulator to ‘urgently improve its standards’ when overseeing online betting.