Call to have alcohol-style warnings on bet machines
HEALTH warnings like those on alcohol bottles could be placed on betting machines and websites to warn users of the associated risks.
Radical plans from regulators could also see customers prompted by gambling firms to set limits on the amount they are prepared to spend.
The Gambling Commission said it was willing to hit betting firms with heavy fines unless they did more to protect users from problem gambling. And it demanded the power to charge a levy on all gambling companies to fund treatment for addicts.
The plans form part of a new ‘public health’ approach to gambling addiction that will see the issue treated more like a ‘disease’.
Part of the plans will involve the public health watchdog carrying out a major review into the effect of gambling on mental health.
The study by Public Health England – the first of its kind – will also examine the scale of gambling harm, and identify the impact of betting on the nation’s wellbeing.
The Daily Mail has highlighted increasing public concern about the impact of betting culture as part of its Stop the Gambling Predators campaign. This week, the boss of Britain’s biggest gambling firm, Ladbrokes Coral, demanded a ban on betting adverts during TV sports broadcasts.
But the Gambling Commission’s ‘ national strategy to reduce gambling harms’ aims to make much faster progress. Launching the plans, the watchdog called on betting firms, health bodies and charities to work together to bring down problem gambling rates.
A spokesman for the Commission said: ‘Our strategy sets out how we would like to see pointof-sale safer gambling messaging. This could include alcoholstyle warning messaging on the risks of gambling, and increasing the take-up of the tools available to stay safe.
‘However, our main focus will be on measuring what works to reduce gambling harms and we are committed to working with public health agencies to do this important work.’
The watchdog said it also wanted to see a levy on firms so more problem gamblers are treated for addiction. Just 2 per cent of the 340,000 problem gamblers in the UK currently receive treatment, while a further 1.7million experience ‘some level of harm from gambling’, the Commission said.
As with alcohol warnings, the Commission wants public health messages to reach people before they start gambling.
The regulator also wants wider use of ‘self- exclusion’ schemes and will consider establishing a national research centre, while work has started on a national data repository for research.
Sport minister Mims Davies said: ‘The Gambling Commission’s strategy reflects our clear expectation that the whole sector must come together to reduce problem gambling and the harm it does to people and their families.’