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An important report came out at the end of 2016. This was from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), an influential and progressive British thinktank. They have calculated what they think are the excess costs to Government associated with people having problems with gambling. These include the costs associated with mental health care, hospitalisation, providing jobseekers allowances, loss of tax income due to unemployment, and costs associated with homelessness and incarceration. Their best estimate of the total of those costs is somewhere between £260 million and £1.16 billion per year for Britain as a whole.

Because they were careful in making their estimates, the differences between minimum and maximum estimates are obviously wide. Furthermore, they were unable to take into account what most of us would consider the largest ‘costs’ of having a gambling problem – those that are more personal and less tangible, such as effects on one’s state of mind, quite apart from any healthcare that is sought on account of it, and effects on family and other relationships. Nor were they able to take into account the harmful effects experienced by affected others such as partners, parents, children and other family members, co-workers and close friends.

But even so, their figures are frightening. Perhaps even more important than their figures are some of the conclusions that they draw in their report. For example, they call for a national Government strategy to tackle problem gambling and reduce gambling-related harm, involving not only the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, but also other relevant Government departments. Problem gambling, they say, should be seen as a public health issue. That is all music to our ears because we have long argued for a public health perspective and for the Department of Health to start to take an interest in the subject which they have failed to do to date. They go further by calling for Government to ensure that systems are in place locally to tackle problem gambling, including improving training of frontline professionals and regular screening for gambling problems.

The IPPR report also highlights the findings that problem gambling, as well as being more common amongst men and amongst younger adults, is more common in those on lower incomes and amongst black and ethnic minority groups. As they say, problem gambling is helping to entrench and exacerbate socioeconomic disadvantage.

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Ten months passed and the government didn't really do anything meaningful to stop gambling. The gambling-related harm is being more and more widespread because of the internet casinos and black-jacks, which weren't an issue just a few years ago....

Ten months passed and the government didn't really do anything meaningful to stop gambling. The gambling-related harm is being more and more widespread because of the internet casinos and black-jacks, which weren't an issue just a few years ago. Times are changing and the government should act accordingly.

Michael

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Michael
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@Michael - Are you talking about the UK government, or the Australian government? This article is about UK gambling. Regardless, the UK government won't ever put an all-out ban on gambling, as it generates too much revenue and over 100k jobs....

@Michael - Are you talking about the UK government, or the Australian government? This article is about UK gambling. Regardless, the UK government won't ever put an all-out ban on gambling, as it generates too much revenue and over 100k jobs. Plus, and rightly so, we have to accept that the large majority of people that gamble do so responsibly, at their own leisure, myself included, so I wouldn't support an outright ban anyhow.

Pavlos
NoWagering

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Pavlos
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Time and again, estimates of the harm caused by widespread and weakly-regulated gambling dwell only on losing punters and not on their families, adults and children who often lose everything without placing a bet or even being forewarned about...

Time and again, estimates of the harm caused by widespread and weakly-regulated gambling dwell only on losing punters and not on their families, adults and children who often lose everything without placing a bet or even being forewarned about the misuse of money that rightly belongs to them.
We need to think about harm that goes far beyond our comfort zone, ranging from broken homes to kids who are in effect abandoned when one or both of their parents becomes addicted to gambling.

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Ian Harmer
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