Gambling operators 'should be forced to pay 1% of their profits to help tackle addiction to betting'

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May 8, 2018
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south east england
Not sure if this is the right thread for this new article I read on the mail online tonight:

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Very sad story about the young man, Jack Ritchie, commiting suicide. I think the £2 maximum stake could come in as logically it makes sense if fobt's are going to be limited to £2.
 
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I notice the moral mail doesn't say how much it is donating to the charities.

I'm sure it made a lot of money from its pages and pages of extremely misleading affiliate links it had onsite until earlier this year when the ASA made them remove them. It also had media buying deals in place and numerous other adverts at the same time.
 
I notice the moral mail doesn't say how much it is donating to the charities.

I'm sure it made a lot of money from its pages and pages of extremely misleading affiliate links it had onsite until earlier this year when the ASA made them remove them. It also had media buying deals in place and numerous other adverts at the same time.

I was surprised to see it was only posted this evening at 10.46pm, I don't know if it was embargoed until that time, not sure if it was in the sunday mail printed paper today.

Just seen there is an accompanying article/comment piece by dominic lawson :
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I didn't realise the bookies had been given a two year grace period before the fobt £2 limit came in, kind of defeats the purpose.

Thinking more about the issues, the online casinos will probably argue they can do income level checks on their customers and enforce responsible gambling that way rather than the stakes being limited to £2 for everyone. It wouldn't bother me if stakes were limited online but I know many players, especially on the table games, would object massively as you can't really play roulette with a £2 limit per spin, maybe £2 per number would be more feasible.

The gambling industry have repeated the idea that gambling is all about having fun and that when the fun stops stop, so the question could be can most people have fun gambling at £2 stake?
 
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How can you play roulette with a £2 max bet? It can't be done.

whats that system in roulette where you double your stake on your numbers until it lands?

edit: martingale system, Knowing my luck if I tried it, it would cost me thousands and then before it paid out the game server would crash ruining the sequence.
 
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From the OLG website:

$38.0 million Directed by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to problem gambling prevention, treatment and research***

***Based on government policy that directs 2% of forecasted OLG slot machine gross revenue (excluding OLG Slots at Great Blue Heron Charity Casino) to problem gambling funding.​

Note that that is based on GROSS slot machine revenue.

So a call for 1% of profits to be donated does not seem out of line.
 
Rinse and repeat then the 1% donation for the alcohol, tobacco etc. producers/sellers/industry. And dare to ask the heroin/meth etc cartels to donate 1% as well. :D

Or maybe sell beers in max. 0.1l cans/bottles, liquor in shot-size little bottles and never more than 3 / customer / day. Set-up a central database were all is entered to avoid people going over their daily allowance, which would also stop underage purchases. In pubs, cut down the size of a pint to 2 ounces and allow people to only smell on vodka/whiskey bottles. :rolleyes:

Alcohol and tobacco cause just as many addiction related problems.

Questions that will always remain: How much nanny state do we want to have? And when do we start to take responsibility for our own actions?
 
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I think most, if not all, online casino operators under a UKGC license already pay a minimum 0.5%-1.0% to the Responsible Gambling Trust. Some of the bigger operators pay around 2.5%. Not sure if Coral / Betfred for example include this on high-street shops already.

Since February 2017, I have donated 15% of all monthly affiliate income to UK responsible gambling charities. Having been invited to the offices of GamCare and the like, the money they receive alongside the Responsible Gambling Trust really makes a difference in training staff, keeping the phone lines open and research into addiction.

Personally, I don't they should raise existing 'recommended annual donations' as operators are already feeling the pinch after the recent bonus tax and licence fee increases. Any more, some of the casinos will be losing money!
 
The treasury were really crafty with the fobt tax, they pressured the government to put the stake limit back by another
year meaning they will get 2 more years of blood diamonds along with an online gaming tax supposedly to offset
the loss of fobt revenue coming in next year.Sneaky gits
 
I think the helplines for gambling addicts are essential bit like samaritans and also meeting groups like gamblers anonymous. On occasion when I felt I needed to stop playing slots due to a big loss I've gone over to the gamcare forum to read other peoples stories, and it is an eye opener some of the tales on there. The gambling impulse whether its sports bets or casino games is so strong in some people, mine is more of a boredom/distraction process, but when the losses mount up then the 'chasing' mentality can take over which then causes problems.

You could have a 5% levy and still not solve the looming 'addiction crisis' as they term it, staying in control is more useful to me than total abstinence.

I don't think I would object if the ray winstone style adverts at halftime were stopped, I laugh at them but in some people they must act as a huge trigger, and sports betting has gone on for donkey's years without the need for heavy advertising on tv.

 

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