Report warns DTI of Britain’s gambling addiction
Professor Jim Orford submitted a report to the Department of Trade and Industry stating that gambling could be one of Britain’s most serious addictions by 2026 because of the new relaxed gaming laws.
Prof. Jim Orford, teaches clinical and community psychology at the University of Birmingham, said that the laws governing the industy would have problems keeping pace with the technological advances in gaming, which include internet gambling, spreadbetting and mobile betting, and problems associated with excessive gambling would be concealed for some time.
"The problems are not suddenly going to be in the headlines," he told the UK Times newspaper. "The effects on families, in particular, do not get much publicity.
"The Government, strongly pressured by the gaming industry, has gone for a major liberation of gaming and everybody I have spoken to thinks that will increase the number of problem gamblers."
Orford also told the paper that he didn’t think ministers had ‘given enough attention’ to the public health aspect of problem gambling, or to whether the public had in fact wantd the relaxation of laws.
His report, which was commissioned by the DTI to look at the long-term effects of gambling, warned that the increase in gambling addiction would be in line with the greater availability of gambling.
