Gambling White Paper a ‘huge miss’ that won’t stop hurt, MPs informed
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n NHS professional has described the Government’s playing White Paper as a “huge miss”, telling MPs he doesn’t imagine it’s going to stop hurt or result in a drop in referrals.
Dr Matthew Gaskell, medical lead for the NHS Northern Gambling Service, additionally informed the Culture, Media and Sport Committee that policy-making must be insulated from the affect of the playing trade, including: “And that’s a major concern for all of us.”
Asked if he expects referrals to his clinic to fall because of the playing White Paper, Dr Gaskell stated: “No, I expect them to increase.
“In part that’s due to the NHS expansion, but I don’t see a change as a result of the White Paper.
“When I reflect on what we see across the NHS clinics, we expect to see a continuation of the culture of high frequency continuous gambling. Unaffordable losses look set to continue.
There seems set to be a continuation of the business model of the industry which relies on disproportionate profits coming from those harmed and addicted from gambling
“As my colleagues have expressed, a huge miss on advertising, very weak on marketing and sponsorship of our national sports – the current voluntary arrangement for the front of football shirts is a case in point, with recent research showing that only 5% of gambling logos would be addressed during a live Premier League football match by that measure.”
He went on: “There seems set to be a continuation of the business model of the industry which relies on disproportionate profits coming from those harmed and addicted from gambling.
“There seems to be little incentive for operators to comply – we could draw upon the Gambling Commission record fines as well as examples in our clinic of systemic and continuing failures.
“The ease of access to addictive content looks set to continue.
“Overall this is not a prevention-of-harm White Paper.
“The priority has to be to safeguard our citizens, to have a zero tolerance to gambling-related suicides, to create an industry where people can enjoy a night at the bingo, a day at the races, a fiver on a football accumulator at the weekend, but to stop this culture of intensive consumption that is leading to the harm that we see in the clinics.”
He added: “And we need to insulate policy-making from the influence of the gambling industry, and that’s a major concern for all of us.”