Gambling Watch UK will lend its support to campaigning for radical change to the way gambling is regulated. There are many changes that are needed but at the time of relaunching the site in December 2019, our priorities for change are:
- A new Gambling Act that sees gambling first and foremost as a public health issue rather than as a business opportunity
- A National Strategy for Gambling produced by Government
- Funding of prevention, treatment and research to be increased and administered by a body completely independent of the industry
- Greater control of advertising including advertising in association with sport
- A minimum age of 18 for all gambling and measures taken to control the introduction of children to gambling via social media
- The introduction of loss limits
- Banning of dangerous gambling design features
- Reducing the ease or immediacy of accessing funds for gambling
- A proper comprehensive system of NHS treatment for gambling problems and support for affected families.
The case for making such changes is spelt out in greater detail in Jim Orford’s book: The Gambling Establishment: Challenging the Power of the Modern Gambling Industry and Its Allies (Routledge, October 2019).
Gambling Watch UK supports organisations which are also campaigning for radical change. They include the Fairer Gambling Campaign which worked tirelessly between 2012 and 2019 to get the FOBT maximum stake reduced (www.fairergambling.org; matt@fairergambling.org) and Gambling with Lives which has been active since 2018 and has been very successful in raising the issue of gambling’s harm to individuals and families and specifically the link with suicide (www.gamblingwithlives.org; info@gamblingwithlives.org).