As Casino Guardian wrote a few days ago, a new House of Lords committee is expected to soon be established. As explained at the time, the body is to be created to review and analyse the impact which poor gambling regulation of the Labour Government in 2005 had inflicted on the country’s gambling sector.
The new House of Lords committee is set to begin investigating into the above-mentioned issues later in 2019 and is expected to provide its official report from the investigation by March 2020.
The announcement for the inquiry has been welcomed by Dr Alan Smith, the Bishop of St Albans. As he explained, the measure means that the UK authorities have finally started to meet the gambling addicts’ needs, and have taken into consideration the hopes of the families of the players who have lost their lives as a result of compulsive gambling. According to Dr Smith, the inquiry which is to be carried out is a vital part of the process.
As proposed by the Bishop of St Albans, the House of Lords’ Liaison Committee recommended that the gambling industry should be one of the four areas for such inquiries.
Protecting Children from Gambling-Related Harm Is Important
Dr Alan Smith is known as one of the most eager anti-gambling campaigners in the UK. He has been insisting for such actions to be taken for quite some time now and has now reminded that despite the fact that the inquiry was overdue, it would be able to be carried out as a truly evidence-based investigation.
The Bishop of St Albans further noted that problem gambling has become a serious challenge to the authorities, with the levels of suicide and other gambling-related harms becoming higher and higher. Children are also affected by a gambling addiction, with about 55,000 young people being currently classified as problem gamblers.
That is exactly why the General Synod of the Church of England has been urging the competent authorities to raise people’s awareness and to take care of education, treatment, and of course, with the research of the problem. Dr Alan Smith described the increasing gambling addiction rates as huge social change in the gambling industry and explained that the problem has remained largely neglected for the past decade and a half.
Gambling advertising, which had not been previously allowed, made things even worse, as the large number of gambling advertising materials is “normalising” gambling, especially for children and more vulnerable people. That is why the Church of England and many other anti-gambling campaigners have already called for further measures to be taken in order for social gambling harm to be minimised. According to Dr Smith and other campaigners, protecting minors from the possible negative effects of gambling is a matter of paramount importance, so further measures should be taken to prevent more children from becoming victims of compulsive gambling habits.
- Author
Daniel Williams
