In February, the U.K. National Health Service cut ties with GambleAware over the addiction organization’s relationship with the gaming industry. Now it’s pushing for a levy to fund prevention and treatment of gambling addiction.
Henrietta Bowden-Jones, the director of the National Problem Gambling Clinic, and Dr Matt Gaskell, clinical lead for the NHS Northern Gambling Service, have asked for a new independent health board to handle gambling addiction.
The statutory levy on gambling revenues would be based on the “polluter pays” principle, under which the most harmful parts of the industry pay the most.
The new board would oversee the levy fund, which could collect tens of millions of pounds a year, with a target to reduce gambling-related harm by 50 percent within five years, beginning in 2024, according to the Guardian.
“The current system has no integration of NHS services, no consistency in funding decisions, no independent evaluation of long-term impact or regulation via the Care Quality Commission, no coordinated oversight from research councils over research into harm, and serious questions have been asked about the independence of this voluntary system from the influence of the gambling industry,” they wrote.
A clinical professor who specializes in addiction treatment has said it is “imperative” for the gaming industry in Ireland to change swiftly after the Government proposed measures to address problem gambling.
The Gambling Regulations Bill would create a betting authority to supervise the industry and oversee licensing, sanction businesses that break rules, and work on tackling problem gambling, according to the Independent.ie.
Professor Colin O’Gara said gambling has “proliferated rapidly and is now normalized in certain age groups” throughout Ireland. Between 50,000 and 250,000 people are affected by gambling problems, with multiple family members also directly impacted.
“This work cannot feasibly happen without strong backing from the government,” he said.
The appointment of a new gambling authority is a “positive move,” but the authority “must be vested with enough powers to make a real difference”, he said. “A meaningful levy must be obtained without delay. This will allow much-needed services to be developed to help those harmed by the gambling product.”
The consultant psychiatrist, who heads up addiction services at St. John of God Hospital in Dublin, said Ireland had a “huge need in the area of service provision for gambling disorder. We have no dedicated inpatient units, and a major shortage of outpatient treatment facilities,” O’Gara said.
He said allowing the gambling industry to grow here had proved “detrimental to some” and caused severe mental disorders and even death.
O’Gara said the proliferation has led to normalization of gambling in certain age groups. “Some groups of young men in Ireland are unable to watch sport without gambling on a smartphone. “Some young children in Ireland are unable to differentiate between gambling and sport, believing that they are the same thing.”
In his submission, he said the betting authority must have “actual power to revoke licenses” and be “sufficiently resourced and supported to carry out this function. Fines of a minor nature will not in my view make any impact on operators that are making large profits.”
