The non-governmental charity organisation GambleAware published a special landmark report, revealing that gambling addictions cost the UK over £100 million on an annual basis. According to further details, only gambling-related “secondary” mental health services currently cost the country an amount between £30 million and £110 million per year.
The figure includes various health programmes such as gambling addiction treatment and counselling. About 620,000 individuals who suffer from problem gambling behaviour have taken advantage of the programmes, but other costs, such as A&E admissions associated with gambling issues are not included in the above-mentioned costs. The overall estimate of the annual problem gambling-related costs made by the IPPR is expected to be even higher, due to the fact that other costs such as welfare, housing, homelessness and criminal justice system would be added to the bill.
This is actually one of the most inappropriate moments when such an assessment of the impact that gambling has on UK’s public finances could be made, as the gambling industry in the country has already been put under a lot of criticism. The gambling authorities in the UK have been closely monitoring the situation, while a number of regulators and non-ministerial organisations have shared their concerns on the matter.
As Casino Guardian has reported earlier, the Government, and more specifically the UK Gambling Commission has initiated a special consultation focused on betting machines, including the so-called fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs). The latter’s negative influence on problem gamblers and more vulnerable individuals has been so great, that they have even been called “the crack cocaine of gambling” due to their highly-addictive nature.
Several authorities and organisations have called the Government to ban the fixed-odds betting machines or at least delegate certain powers to local authorities, allowing them to reduce the number of FOBTs in regions endangered by the machines’ increasing influence.
The Campaign for Fairer Gambling commented that the influence of FOBTs on mental health of customers is only one of the aspects of the great amount of costs related to gambling addictions. The estimated of addiction costs made by the IPPR could have a major echo in the industry, especially at a time when the non-governmental charity organisation GambleAware also called for the gambling operators to help it raise funds for some of the initiatives related to problem gambling behaviour.
- Author
Daniel Williams
