Gambling addiction could be nine times worse than the bookies say
New research has suggested that gambling addiction rates could be nine times higher than the gambling industry claims.
According to a study commissioned by GambleAware, 1.4 million people are being harmed by their own gambling, while a further 1.5 million are at risk.
Surveying 18,000 adults, theYouGov survey found nearly 60 per cent of adults living in the UK participated in some form of gambling in the past year and 46 per cent in the last four weeks.
This equates to an estimated 30 million adults who gambled in the past year, and 23 million in the last month alone.
Crucially, the data revealed that up to 2.8 per cent of the population scored eight or higher on the problem gambling severity index: a figure that is nine times higher than the 0.3 per cent rate found by the Gambling Commission’s telephone survey.
A spokesperson for the Betting & Gaming Council, told the Guardian: “We do not recognise these figures which are not supported by the Gambling Commission’s most recent research which showed rates of problem gambling have been falling, according to the regulator at 0.3% – down from 0.6% 18 months ago. That’s equivalent to a drop of 340,000 problem gamblers down to 170,000 – not 1.4 million suggested by GambleAware.”
Just this week the chief of the Betting and Gaming Council Michael Dughe also warned against the “well-meaning but naive changes” that could come alongside the new gambling white paper, which is expected in May.
The white paper aims at stamping out problem gambling and quashing black markets.
Emphasising how the industry is crucial to the government’s levelling-up programme, and emphasising the addiction safeguards in place, Dughe suggested that the government needed to avoid stringent measures.
“The growth of the unsafe, unregulated black market in online gambling is part of a global trend and it’s foolish to think that there’s an enforcement solution to this”, he said.
He stated that the Gambling Review needed to avoid “intrusive restrictions that drive players to the black market”, and focus on promoting competition instead.
“Anti-gambling campaigners may want to see a smaller regulated industry, but that would be bad news for the economy and the Exchequer”, he added.