Gambling is a great way to entertain yourself. And with online casino gambling, it has become easily accessible to a larger population of people.
However, there are times when this form of entertainment crosses into addiction and becomes a problem. Whether it’s sports betting, scratch cards, or even casino gambling, such an addiction can hurt your relationships, work and lead to severe financial consequences.
What is Gambling Addition?
Gambling addiction is also known as problem gambling, compulsive gambling, pathological gambling and gambling disorder. It is an impulse-control disorder, where you are unable to control your impulse to gamble, even when it leads to serious problems in your life.
Essentially, problem gambling is when you are gambling to the point where you daily life is getting disrupted.
Many gamblers who are problem gamblers also suffer from other disorders such as stress, depression, ADHD, bipolar disorder, anxiety or even substance abuse.
The Guardian recently reported that there are almost half a million people in the UK who were problem gamblers, but there is just one NHS clinic that specializes in treating this disorder.
What is the UK Gambling Commission Doing to Prevent Gambling Addiction?
Since the 1960s, the regulations on gambling have been relaxed in the UK. However, in May of 2018, after waves of criticism from multiple parties, the Gambling Commission under the DCMS (Department for Digital, Cultural, Media and Sport) announced changes to existing gambling laws to combat the issue of gambling addiction.
- Reducing Maximum Bets at FOBTs
The Commission announced that maximum wagers at FOBTs (Fixed Odds Betting Terminals) were reduced from £100 to £2. FOBTs have been labeled as one of the key reasons for the increase in gambling addition, and activists across the board have been pushing for this change for years.
When the government announced these changes, the ABB (Association of British Bookmakers) requested that extra time be given to implement this change could mean as much as £100 million in losses annually. However, the government received a massive protest from activists, which also led to the resignation of Tracey Crouch, the then Sports and Civil Society Minister, a huge campaigner against FOBTs.
Thus, the government was forced to stick to its initial date, and the changes were implemented by April of 2019.
- Increase in Point-of-Consumption Tax Rates
Point-of-consumption Tax was introduced in 2014 as a way to tax players in the UK who were using offshore online casinos. The tax rate has gone up from 15% to 21% for all online gambling casinos.
This increase is expected to be in effect from October 2019 onwards. While players are not expected to bear the burden of the increase in this tax, it is expected that it will have a big impact on the RTP (Return to Player) rate, thereby reducing player chances of winning bigger stakes.
- Local Risk Assessment and Risk Reduction
All land-based gambling operators are now required to reduce risks in their local areas by ensuring that they are not located nears schools or homeless shelters. The Local Government Association, the Commission as well as local licensing authorities are working together to ensure that these new requirements are met by all gambling operators.
The focus of this regulation is to ensure that young children and at-risk gamblers are not protected from live gambling operations in their locality.
- Online ID Verification
The Gambling Commission has now implemented changes to the online ID verification process for gambling sites. Now, all players are required to submit their personal information (name, address and date of birth proof) and other supporting documents before they will be allowed to make deposits or even gamble.
Online betting operators will be required to check this information against self-exclusion databases to ensure that players do not have a gambling problem. What this means is that those who have added their names to self-exclusion lists will be identified and be prevented from gambling.
- Self-Exclusion
All gambling operators in the UK are required by law to provide a self-exclusion facility and ensure that once an agreement has been made with a player for self-exclusion then his or her accounts should be closed and any money in that account be returned to the player.
Furthermore, the player’s name and information must be removed from all marketing databases, so that he or she is not tempted to play during the self-exclusion period.
Self-exclusion the voluntary process of a person banning him or herself from specific gambling sites because he or she has gambling problems. If the gambling operator has been found to keep accounts of self-exclusion players open, then they can be penalized for the government for non-compliance.
There are many other steps that have been taken by the government to prevent gambling addiction, however, at the end of the day, a large part of the responsibility still remains with the player.