Is online gambling the next target?

Flushed with the success of their anti-FOBT campaign, anti-gambling activists and problem gambling charities are now looking for a new target….and it might just be online gambling.

In an interview with the Independent newspaper Thursday GambleAware chief Marc Etches said that attention must be paid to the rapidly growing online gambling sector, pointing out that almost unlimited stakes remain available online and can be taken up quickly and easily through smartphone apps.

The Independent noted that online gambling will soon account for half of all money wagered in the UK and is far more prevalent than betting on FOBTs. Just 1 percent of adults gamble at a bookmakers while 18 percent do so online, the newspaper claimed.

Etches opined that the characteristics that make FOBTs so addictive also apply to online gambling.

“With mobile phones, online gambling is instantly accessible,” Etches said.

“For those people who have a problem controlling their gambling behaviour, accessibility, speed of play and the ability to lose a lot of money very quickly become particularly dangerous.”

Etches also claims that gambling is being normalised due to the rapid growth of advertising and promotion, particularly at or around sporting events. And nine out of 20 Premier League football clubs currently play with a gambling company logo emblazoned on their shirts, whilst half-time ads promoting betting firms are pervasive.

He also feels that gambling advertising should be the subject of more careful consideration regarding where and when it is placed and the likely audience –  a reference to his assertion that children are being exposed to this type of advertising.

“We have 11-year-olds self-reporting for problem gambling. That can’t be right,” Etches said.

Gambling firms invested GBP 1.4 billion on TV ads between 2012 and 2017, with online operators doubling their marketing budgets in that time.

The UK government announced earlier this week that Public Health England is conducting a review into the harm caused by gambling, an indication that Etches hopes illustrates that attitudes towards gambling are belatedly beginning to change.

“Across the whole House of Commons you can see a recognition, at last, that gambling-related harm is a health issue. To actually have confirmation that work is being done in cooperation with Public Health England and the Department for Health and Social care is a really positive outcome.”

Labour’s shadow minister for culture, Tom Watson, called on his Conservative opposite number Tracey Crouch to follow the FOBT ban with the implementation of a levy on all gambling firms in order to fund addiction treatment, education and research.

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