GambleAware CEO: Election has “crystalised” gambling as public health issue
Esports betting also highlighted as area of concern for child entry into gambling
The UK general election has “crystalised” gambling-related harm as a public health issue in the UK, GambleAware CEO Marc Etches has claimed.
Speaking at the GambleAware annual conference yesterday, Etches suggested the election had given critical support to the notion that treatment of gambling-related harm requires a public health model, including commissioning treatment services and clinics.
As evidence of this new appetite for change, Etches pointed to manifestos of the three main political parties, all of which have included significant changes to current gambling laws.
Both the Conservatives and Labour have pledged to review the 2005 Gambling Act, which Boris Johnson has called an “analogue law in a digital age”.
The Liberal Democrats have said they will introduce a compulsory levy on gambling companies to fund research, education and treatment of problem gambling in the UK.
“The political response reflects public concern about the extent and the impact of gambling related marketing, the impact of technology making gambling more accessible and the convergence of gambling and gaming,” Etches added.
Earlier this week, the NHS released its annual NHS Health Survey for 2018, in which it included data showing the rate of both problem gamblers and gambling participation had decreased.
Polly McKenzie, CEO of political think-tank Demos, claimed whatever the result of the election, treatment professionals dealing with gambling-related harm could be “incredibly confident” that the UK gambling landscape would change regardless.
Addressing the central theme of the conference, keeping children and young people safe from gambling harms, McKenzie claimed the “leading edge” of innovation in the gambling sector in games like esports was reaching children and needed to be addressed.
A recent research project by the University of Bristol and Demos investigated over 800,000 Tweets from bookmakers, their affiliates and independent tipsters using data analytics and human researchers. Researchers found that 28% of twitter users who had retweeted gambling ads for esports were under 16.
In addition, 800 tweets were scrutinized to assess their compliance with recent ASA advertising code changes in the areas of using individuals under the age of 25 and child-friendly imagery.
Researchers found that 68% of the tweets on sports betting and 74% of the esports betting tweets contravened ASA regulations in some way.