Call for fresh tax on gambling operators to tackle social problems
A r ad ic al ove r h a ul of ga mbling laws are needed to help tackle the scale of the problem of people addicted to betting and slot machines, academics have warned in a paper published today.
The report said a tax on the g a m b l i n g i n d u s t r y s h o u l d b e i n t r o d u c e d to f u n d p r o - g r a m m e s t o h e l p p r e v e n t g a mb l i n g p r o b l e ms , wh i l e those who have already found t h e ms e l ve s a f f e c t e d b y t h e addiction could be given extra support. It also called for the responsibility of gambling to come under the jurisdiction of the UK government’s health department.
The paper – Gambling and public health: we need policy action to prevent harm – published today in the BMJ by a group of academics including researchers from the Universit y of Glasgow, claims that the extent and cost of gambling has b een significantly u n d e r e s t i mat e d i n B r i t a i n . Last year, less than £1.5 million was spent on prevention activity in the UK, for a population of 65 million. In contrast, New Zealand has an annual budget of over £9.3m for prevention for a population of 4.7 million.
The academics – from Scotland, England, Wales and Australia – say there is no government strategy for preventing gambling harm and said there is a critical need to increase the funding available for prevention if harms are to be reduced.
Professor Gerda Reith, the Universit y of Glasgow’s professor of social sciences and an author on the paper, said: “As a society we need to face up to the broad environment that gambling harm is produced in – the role of the industry, as well as the policy climate that they operate in.
“Gambling doesn’t just affect an individual. The impacts ripple out beyond them to their family, friends, communities and society.”
S h e a d d e d : “G a m b l i n g h a r m s d i s p r o p o r t i o n a t e - ly affect poorer or more vulnerable groups in ways that can exacerbate existing ine - qualities. We urgently need a marked change in approach, and one that is long overdue.”
The Gambling Commission’s n e w a g e ve r i f i c a t i o n r u l e s came into effect earlier this week, meaning people have to prove their age before they can begin betting online.
The paper says there are now 33 million active online gambling accounts in Britain. The authors also point out that 14 per cent of children aged 11 to 16 have gambled in the past we e k , w i t h a r o u n d 5 5 ,0 0 0 reporting problems from their gambling behaviour.
In Britain, conservative estimates of so cial costs range from between £200m and £1.2 billion a year.
jane.bradley@scotsman.com