Glasgow City Council expects to bring together academics, health professionals, youth workers and individuals who have suffered with gambling problems for a summit to examine challenges and more important, develop a new framework for action.
Council’s Wellbeing, Empowerment, Community and Citizen Engagement City Policy Committee approved the plan after specialists spoke about their ideas to reduce gambling harms.
The committee discussed the changing landscape of the industry, associated health and financial problems, the rise in online gaming, increased marketing and advertising spend, and the impact on young people.
Councilor Bailie Annette Christie said Glasgow has a longstanding problem with gambling and as the more traditional approaches are not working, more must be done.
“The gambling sector has changed over recent years and therefore how we tackle the problems that arise from gambling addiction and how it impacts other areas of a person’s life,” Christie told iGaming Business.com. “We need a new approach and to look at all the different policy areas including health, education, planning, licensing, and financial inclusion that could be used to treat and support people and prevent the harm in the first place.”
Other discussions recommended exploring best practice examples from across the UK and internationally.
The committee also called for closer work with partners to ensure appropriate care pathways that meet the needs of users, and to consider the actions required to facilitate partnership working across a range of agencies to explore the further development. In addition, the committee said both the Council and Licensing Board should continue to work with the Gambling Commission, as well as the Scottish and UK governments, to look at what more could be done to counteract the impact.
Meanwhile, SBCNews reports that a Northern Irish government department will seek public input on the creation of a new gambling policy and the effects of problem gambling. The consultation will form the basis for advice which will be given to the next minister for communities, who will form new policy once the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly reconvenes.
“The Department for Communities is responsible for policy and legislation relating to gambling and keeps all legislation for which it is responsible under regular review,” a spokesperson said. “The preparatory work will ensure that an incoming minister can make a decision on the way forward on gambling as soon as possible after he or she takes up post.”
Industry operators across the country have voluntarily agreed to implement the £2 maximum stakes on fixed-odds betting terminals. Northern Ireland is currently regulated under the Betting, Gaming, Lotteries and Amusements (Northern Ireland) Order 1985 and not the Gambling Act 2005.
On a national scale, the Industry Group for Responsible Gambling has outlined plans to bring the UK and Irish gambling industries together as part of this year’s Responsible Gambling Week 2019.
The aim of the campaign, which will take place from November 7 to November 13, is to promote an industry-wide conversation regarding safer gambling methods, as well as the promotion of tools, advice and help.
John Hagan, chairman of the IGRG, told SBCNews, “We are confident that Responsible Gambling Week, now in its third year, will be our biggest campaign yet, but this is not just about one week in the year, it is about promoting safer gambling all year round. We want to make this an open and inclusive conversation, connecting with the widest possible audience, including those who do not think messages about responsible gambling are aimed at them. We want to take the message about safer gambling even further this year, through our own social channels, with the support of our partners inside the industry and beyond.”
The week will involve over 120,000 staff from across the gambling industry, with further backing from gaming machine operators and pubs across the UK and Ireland. In the UK, the IGRG will spearhead the campaign while the Irish element will be led by the Irish Bookmakers Association.
Neil McArthur, chief executive of the UK Gambling Commission, added, “The week’s strapline, ‘Let’s talk about safer gambling,’ is an important message not only for customers but also for the staff and industry leaders whose role is to look out for their customers.”
Meanwhile, neuroscience findings from the University College London Queen Square Institute of Neurology in England may help explain the biology behind such risky behaviors. Research could lead to new interventions for gambling addition, said the Addiction Center.
The study pointed out those fluctuations in human brain activity, linked to changing levels of dopamine, impact whether or not people make risky decisions. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study indicates human behavioral variability may not be random, but instead coupled to internal brain states.
Researchers focused on people who were in a state of rest—awake but not doing anything. When a person is at rest, their brain is not occupied with anything in particular, but it remains alert and active.
Co-lead author of the study, Dr. Tobias Hauser said, “Experts have long struggled to explain why people are so erratic, making one decision one day and the opposite decision another day. We know that the brain is constantly active, even when we aren’t doing anything, so we wondered if this background activity affects our decision-making.”
The study focused on activity in the dopaminergic midbrain region, which contains the highest amount of dopaminergic neurons. These are the brain cells that release dopamine, a “feel-good” chemical messenger that helps regulate self-motivation-related behaviors.
Each of 43 young participants completed a set of experimental gambling tasks while lying down in an MRI scanner so researchers could observe brain activity. They were asked to simply choose between a safe option of gaining a small amount of money and a riskier option of gaining a larger amount of money. If they chose the risky option and lost, they would receive nothing.
Researchers only asked the participants to make a choice when their brains showed either a spike in activity in the dopaminergic midbrain or when activity in that area showed a sharp decline. When the midbrain was in a state of low activity before participants were asked, they were more likely to choose the risky option than when their brains were in a state of high activity.
The outcomes suggest that these natural fluctuations in resting brain activity appear to have similar effects to other factors that influence risk-taking behaviors, such as drugs and age.
The study illustrates the importance of not rushing into decisions. Co-lead author Benjamin Chew, a doctoral candidate at the institute, said the findings stress not making split or rash decisions due to the inherent invariability of human behavior: “Our findings underscore the importance of taking time when making important decisions, as you might make a different decision if you just wait a few minutes.”
Researchers hope to better understand how these fluctuations in resting brain activity influence decision making on a daily basis and to assess whether the variations could be related to other disorders and perhaps come up with better treatments for conditions such as compulsive gambling.
