The white paper on gambling published Thursday suggests new limits and regulations affecting how much an individual can spend gambling.
According to charity ‘Gambling with Lives’, currently up to 1.4 million people are addicted to gambling in the UK and up to 500 people take their lives each year because of gambling in England alone.
What new regulations does the white paper propose?
Gamblers who lose £1000 in a day or £2000 over 90 days will be subject to checks. However, there is no system in place to carry out these checks as of yet.
A new price cap on stakes per spin for slot machines has been put forward, with limits of between £2 and £15 for online slots.
Further limits will be introduced for young people between 18-24. The paper suggested greater protection for young people as they are ‘particularly vulnerable’.
Those who fall into this category will be limited between £2 and £4 spins, or individual risk based assessments.
How do the proposed regulations protect young people?
Emphasis was placed on protecting children. Lucy Frazer, secretary of state for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport outlined that ‘gambling is an adult activity and it must remain an adult activity’.
However, the Gambling Commission has estimated that around 55,000 young people have experienced gambling-related harm.
Effort is going to be made to further restrict children’s access to scratch cards and online platforms as well as their exposure to gambling advertisements.
The government commended the Premier League announcing it’s removal of gambling sponsors from the front of players’ shirts. Reducing children’s incidental exposure.
How are people reacting to the gambling white paper?
Propositions made in the white paper were polarising, some people have said that the new measures do not go far enough.
Liz Ritchie MBE, co-founder of Gambling with Lives, said: “We’ve won the argument against a powerful gambling lobby but this is just the beginning. There’s another family devastated by gambling suicide every day, and we won’t stop until the deaths do.”
Whereas others have criticised the limitations.
Conservative MP, Philip Davies, said: “The Conservative party used to believe in individual freedom and individual responsibility, but that seems to have gone out of the window with these affordability check proposals.”
What is being done to combat gambling-related harm in Sheffield?
The Gambling Awareness Project (GAPS) run by Mind Sheffield is trying to find effective ways of supporting young people who are at risk of or are already developing gambling-related harm.
The GAPS focuses on providing support for people between the ages of 11-25.
Lindsay Doyle-Price, business development manager at Mind Sheffield, told ShefNews about the project: “Our team goes out to schools and colleges and talks to young people about their personal experiences with gambling, it is important that those vulnerable are aware of the risks and consequences.”
They have already consulted with over 800 young people across the city.