Over the weekend there was a myriad of different articles around the new gambling Act which as we all know came into force this past Saturday.
A long while ago I posted the Gambler's Anonymous questions on blonde. I had another look this morning and I think I fall into their definition of problem gambler. I certainly answered "YES" to more than half of the questions. Although the one "Do you lose time from work due to gambling" was a bit tricky. The one "Have you ever felt remorse after gambling?" left me chuckling having spoken to a fella last night literally agog with his failure to collect on Spurs at Fulham on Saturday thanks to that stunning/flukey last minute overhead kick. I myself prevented myself from ever attempting to hit an up and down straight draw ever again about six months ago due to the harm it was causing me. However that's Poker. Not gambling. Or Skill. Somewhere in between.
As far as I am aware my acquaintance didn't pinch his grandmother's pension, pawn his girlfriend or re-mortgage the house to double up on Chelsea at Villa yesterday, so he's presumably not a lost cause yet. Or maybe he just wasn't about to blurt that out to me across the felt.
However reading various newspapers this weekend it is this sort of behaviour that most commentaries seek to warn against. With the Act allowing betting adverts on television, a blackboard full of academics ("Professor Jones of Media Studies at Aberwystwyth University" being a popular one) were trotted out to warn that the incidence of problem gambling will accelerate. Well actually thats a self-fulfilling odds-on prediction (Get on at Evens ) as it becomes easier to bet over a variety of medias and technologies on an ever greater variety of events. What the anti-gambling lobby think is that this is reversible. It is not.
The situation in the UK with regards the new Act is that it is a response to the widespread move offshore by providers to avoid punitive taxation. The punters moved with them, at better value prices unhindered by such taxation and rules. The solution, missed by successive governments, is to put in place a tax regime to attract providers to the UK and use the tax revenues earned to provide resources to help those that cannot control themselves.
That would be a better long term response than hand wringing about the damage gambling can do. In their own way, the nannies are themselves addicted. Addicted to telling us how to stop, without giving the punter the framework (both in terms of regulation/taxation and problem support ) to do so should he/she require it.
By the way, have you checked
www.blondesports.com yet?
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