The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has been pleased to see a new report posted by the independent charities network Citizens Advice, which is aimed to raise the awareness of the causes and impacts of problem gambling in the UK.
In its report, released yesterday, the charity network has called the local Government to take advantage of its powers to raise the mandatory levy on betting operators, which would require from them to make larger payments to deal with gambling-related harm. Citizens Advice insists that betting companies must not be left to decide how much to contribute to the cause.
The national charity network used its report to reveal the devastating effects that gambling addictions could have on individuals. According to the information included in the report, there are approximately 430,000 problem gamblers in the UK. Citizens Advice also found that up to 4.3 million of their family members, co-workers and friends are also hit by serious issues related to gambling addictions which have harmful effect on their lives.
As revealed by Citizens Advice’s report, more than one third of households with children in which there was a gambling addict experienced family breakdown. In addition, more than 50% of people who had a problem gambler in their lives suffered mental health issues as a result from the gambling addict’s behaviour. The charity network wanted to raise awareness of the fact that gambling-related harm often affects not only the addict, but more people, too.
More Funding Needed for Prevention of Problem Gambling
That was exactly the reason why the UK charity network that currently consists of more than 310 independent charities in the country, urged the Government to make sure that problem gambling-related harm is addressed properly, by putting the Gambling Act’s Section 123 into force. The latter provides the Secretary of State with the opportunity to determine the levy to be imposed on gambling operators.
As mentioned above, there is currently an agreement between the country’s major regulatory authority – the UK Gambling Commission – and gambling companies, under which the operators are the ones who determine the amount of their contributions for supporting various initiatives related to research, education and prevention of problem gambling among local users. The problem is that a large number of operators have pledged to make regular and hefty contributions to support players dealing with the negative effects of gambling addictions, but very few of them have kept their promise.
The Chief Executive Officer of Citizens Advice, Gillian Guy, shared that the voluntary payments made by gambling firms in the UK were not sufficient enough to help the Government tackle gambling-related harm. Ms. Guy confirmed that Citizens Advice has called for the Government to impose a mandatory levy on companies in order to guarantee their contributions are large enough to fund support, education, research and treatment of problem gambling.
Citizens Advice’s call for imposing a mandatory levy on operators was not the only last-minute submission made to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s consultation. ResPublica thinktank also called for an obligatory levy to be implemented especially for local bookmakers and online gaming companies. The charity organisation also called for a ban to be imposed on credit cards usage for funding online betting operations, which according to ResPublica significantly boosted the risk for players to spend more money than they can actually afford to.
- Author
Daniel Williams
