The beginning of the week saw Iain Duncan-Smith, the former leader of the Conservative Party and Work and Pensions Secretary, urge the UK Government to introduce a new Gambling Act that is suitable to meet the challenges of the new digital age.
In an interview for GB News, Mr Duncan Smith criticised the local gambling sector for having what he called “abusive behaviour” in pursuit of larger profits, claiming that they had literally used the most vulnerable members of society, including problem gamblers.
When criticising the country’s gambling sector, the former leader of the UK Conservative Party pointed to the existence of so-called VIP rooms, which are usually preferred by the highest-spending customers, many of whom are also addicted to gambling. Mr Duncan-Smith also noted that the local gambling industry spends about £2.5 billion on marketing campaigns and advertising materials with the only purpose of luring more and more customers and encouraging them to spend larger amounts of money.
According to Mr Duncan-Smith, the last few years have seen gambling operators in the UK behave extremely arrogantly, because the only thing they think about is generating huge profits on the backs of their customers, regardless of the negative impact that the most affected customers would feel. He also warned that the problem would probably deteriorate in the months and years to come, especially amongst young people.
Duncan-Smith Criticises UK Gambling Industry for Taking Advantage of Problem Gamblers
When commenting on his calls for a new Gambling Act, Mr Duncan-Smith, who is currently the vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Gambling-Related Harm, explained that he does not take a stance against gambling. He, however, insists on imposing more restrictions on the gambling companies so that the competent authorities have actual control over the sector and do not let operators dictate the rules of the game.
As previously reported by Casino Guardian, reports say that about 0.5% of the British people can be categorised as gambling addicts, with the category also including about 55,000 children between 11 and 16 years of age. According to Iain Duncan-Smith, problem gambling and gambling-related harm’s economic cost to the country is worth almost £1.30 billion on an annual basis, with the negative consequences for people sometimes going too far to an extent of gambling-related suicides.
According to a study held by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), British problem gamblers account for one-quarter of the overall profits of the local gambling and betting operators. However, the same study states that gambling addicts make up only about 0.8% of the total population of the country, which means that the gambling industry is running pretty much on the backs of the most vulnerable people in society. The investigation also found that regular gamblers were estimated to be 6 times more likely to bet online during the Covid-19 pandemic than before that.
The findings of the CSJ study have been some of the main reasons why Mr Iain Duncan-Smith has insisted on a more restrictive approach to be taken in terms of the local gambling sector and a more suitable new Gambling Act to be unveiled by the UK Government that has been reviewing the country’s gambling law for quite some time.
- Author
Daniel Williams
