https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/5XRGKB7
The Open Door blog is today promoting a new initiative by the Beat The Odds campaign to demand radical changes in the way gambling is regulated in Britain. We are launching a public consultation today (see the questionnaire below) to collect your views and opinions.
Gambling addiction is a nationwide problem and demands far reaching and bold solutions. The aim of this questionnaire is to establish what gambling experts, recovering addicts, healthcare and education professionals and wider society would like to see change in the government’s approach to this illness.
At the moment the gambling industry is worth £13 billion per year and has traditionally enjoyed a close relationship with government, which has preferred a light touch approach to regulation. The 2005 Gambling Act saw a dramatic growth in the scale of Britain’s gambling industry and a commensurate growth in the problems of gambling addiction. Recently the government agreed to limit the maximum stake on fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) to £2 from £100, but this change has now been postponed for the next two years.
Professor Samantha Thomas of Deakin University, Victoria, in a recent trip to the UK argued that the gambling industry has now adopted the same model for recruiting new customers as the smoking industry did between the 1950s and the 1990s. This means focusing on young people, who when addicted can offer decades of guaranteed profits to the industry; it also means denying any claim about the risks of gambling and the potential to become addicted. The use of sports advertising and the shift of gambling activity away from betting shops and bingo halls to mobile phone apps has led to astronomical profits for the industry and dramatic increases in related harm.
Loneliness, particularly among female gamblers who are at home during the day is both a product and a cause of the addiction. Other sector of society, such as university students and military veterans are also far more likely to develop gambling addiction, but it is children who are most at risk. Some 25,000 children aged between 11 and 16 are problem gamblers. That represents 1% of children in that age range. The number of 11 to 16 year olds who have gambled in the past week is even more staggering – 370,000, or 12% of the age range. A report by the Gambling Commission into the gambling habits of 11 to 16 year olds in 2017 warned that Britain was “walking into a future public health storm”.
There is still time to act decisively and protect society at large from the most ruthless and exploitative gambling practices, but it will require the participation of all sectors of society in order to make significant change.
Once this consultation process is finished, the Beat The Odds action group will create a list of far reaching demands for action based on the views of all those interviewed and this will form a gambler’s charter. The charter will be a powerful way of unifying gambling pressure groups, health and education professionals, politicians and parents to demand meaningful change.
To participate in our short survey, follow the link below:
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/5XRGKB7