Labour announce plans for radical overhaul of gambling regulation and advertising
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Labour calls for a ‘whistle to whistle’ ban on gambling advertising
in live sport Labour will introduce a compulsory levy on gambling
operators of 1% of Gross Gambling Yield New clinical guidelines and
increased resources for the treatment of gambling addiction
New rules to allow addicts to tell their bank to stop online
gambling transactions A ban on credit card betting
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Today (Thursday 20 September)
the Labour Party is publishing its
response to their review into problem gambling and its treatment
that has been undertaken over the last year.
Tom Watson MP and Jonathan Ashworth MP have spent a year
consulting with gambling addiction specialists, charities,
industry bodies and those suffering from gambling problems, to
look at whether existing gambling regulation is adequate and what
improvements need to be made to the treatment of problem
gambling.
In response to the findings, Tom Watson has announced today a raft of
new policies that will be in Labour’s next manifesto and will be
enacted once Labour are in government.
Tom Watson MP, Deputy Leader of the
Labour Party and
Shadow Digital, Culture, Media
and Sport
Secretary, said:
“Problem gambling is Britain’s hidden epidemic and we must
treat it as a public health emergency.
“Current gambling regulation is not up to the job of
protecting addicts and those at risk of addiction. Treatment is
patchy across the country and too often patients are misdiagnosed
and not treated by specialists who can spot the signs of gambling
addiction.
“Gambling companies have to take more responsibility for
harm caused by their products and contribute more to research and
treatment. We must also face up to the negative effect the
explosion in gambling advertising has had and act accordingly.
It’s what any responsible Government looking to address gambling
addiction must do.
“The refusal of the current Government to address any of
these issues is letting problem gamblers and their families down.
Labour’s new policies announced today aim to build a world class
framework for the prevention and treatment of problem
gambling.”
Ends
Notes to
editors
‘Whistle to Whistle’ Ban on gambling
advertising
“At the National
Problem Gambling Clinic many of our patients report that their
relapse into harmful gambling was attributable to gambling
adverts on TV or social media. Children are at risk. It is
our opinion that without gambling adverts there would be a lot
less risk of initiating the young and the vulnerable to gambling
activities by normalising a potentially
harmful behaviour.”
Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones, National Problem Gambling
Clinic
“Evidence suggests that people who are vulnerable to
problem gambling, including people with mental health problems,
are more likely to be influenced by its advertisement.
Adverts with specific offers, like free bets when registering for
an online account, can lead consumers to gamble more than they
intend to…Their frequency and timing, such as late at night when
people with mental health problems are vulnerable and more likely
to respond, can create challenges to gambling
responsibly.”
Money and Mental Health
“We are mindful that young children may be exposed to TV
gambling advertising pre-watershed during live sport and
increasingly aware of the growing social, media and political
concern about this unintended exposure. For these reasons
and to preserve the long-term value of our brands we are
supportive of a reduction in the amount of pre-watershed
advertising. Due to the fragmented and competitive nature
of our sector, we believe any reduction must be policy led as
individual operators cannot act unilaterally”
PaddyPower/Betfair
“an ineffective way of reducing problem gambling”
Professor Rachel Cassidy, Dr Francis Markham, Dr Angela
Rintoul
“probably have little effect on behaviour and might even
encourage a positive image of gambling”
Professor Jim Orford
A mandatory levy on gambling companies to fund
research, education and treatment of gambling
disorder
“Trustees think that the industry, collectively, has yet to
demonstrate that it is sufficiently willing and able to
financially support the National Responsible Gambling Strategy as
it stands, much less that is minded to voluntarily meet the
increased funding that will be necessary to improve research,
education and treatment services to the extent that GambleAware
and others think is appropriate. On this basis GambleAware
supports the introduction of a statutory levy and is working to
assess the scale of annual funding that will be necessary to make
meaningful process in reducing gambling-related harm in Great
Britain”
GambleAware
“The ABB supports an appropriate mandatory levy on the
gambling industry to fund research, education and treatment of
problem gamblers.”
Association of British Bookmakers (ABB)
“We support a compulsory levy to pay for the research,
education and treatment of problem gambling.”
Paddypower/Betfair
“We support the introduction of a compulsory levy on
gambling companies and have called on the Government to move
quickly to introduce one… public oversight of the funding
provided from the industry in this way would ensure that it was
spend in a more transparent, efficient and effective
manner.”
Sky Betting and Gaming
“A compulsory levy would be an improvement on the current
voluntary arrangements".
Cassidy, Markham and Rintoul
“We know from other countries that a mandatory and set
amount removes a lot of the politics and lobbying and provides
adequate funding for the people harmed by a product currently
providing large amounts of money to the gambling industry”
Dr Henrietta Bowden Jones
“A significant increase in its contribution to mitigating
the harm associated with its activities does not seem
unreasonable, even taking into account the tax and gaming duties
it already pays.”
Responsible Gambling Strategy Board
“The UK is a long way behind countries such as Canada and
Australia in terms of gambling research. The UK needs to develop
its own community of top-level gambling researchers, as well as
attracting and collaborating with leading researchers around the
world. Therefore there is a need for a substantial increase
in the availability of research funding which is completely
independent of the Gambling Industry.”
Gambling with Lives
“nearly 1% of adults have gambling disorder and they
contribute 10% of GGY, 0.1% of GGY looks paltry…1% of GGY or
around £140 million might be a more reasonable figure.”
Professor Jim Orford
“The absence of any significant NHS treatment is
striking”
Professor Jim Orford, University of
Birmingham
“There needs to be raised awareness across the NHS of the
impact that problem gambling has on people’s mental health as
well as the impact on their families and local communities.
Time and time again we are told by those who come into our
residential treatment that, on visiting their GP and mentioning
that they have a problem with gambling, the GP does not know
where to send them or what the implications of the addiction may
be…they are aware of addiction issues with drugs and alcohol, so
they should be more aware of gambling addiction too.”
The Gordon Moody Association
“the treatment of problem gambling depends on an
unpredictable process of commissioning from an insufficient
industry contribution or is subsumed within wider IAPT
services”
ResPublica
“There is minimal co-ordination or knowledge sharing with
the NHS. The direct experience of family members is of
confusion, lack of provision and a lack of evidence based
therapy. There has been no provision of follow-up or
suicide prevention crisis management”
Gambling with Lives
“A national programme of specialist treatment for gambling
disorder should be put in place, with ring-fenced grants to local
authorities ensuring that health services in all areas include
facilities for the treatment of those with gambling problems and
help for their families.
Professor Jim Orford
“We would favour specialist gambling treatment services for
non-complex cases and referral to general and specialist NHS
mental health treatment for complex cases. This could serve
to reduce overall demand on IAPT and other NHS services by
diverting some cases to specialist gambling services”
GambleAware
Credit Card betting and debit card
blocking
“Given the well-established principles and evidence in this
regard for other sectors of the industry we believe gambling
online with a credit card should be prohibited as this
significantly increases the risk gamblers will gamble more than
they can afford.”
GambleAware
In the more immediate term, a limited form of
self-exclusion could be achieved by enabling all consumers to
block gambling transactions on debit or credit cards. Most
gambling transactions (with the exception of lottery tickets) are
identifiable by banks using Merchant Category Codes. It is
possible for financial services firms to allow customers to block
these transactions, providing a self-exclusion option that
applies to both online and land-based gambling without the need
to navigate the current maze of self-exclusion regimes.
Money and Mental Health
Other measures included in the
report:
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