Online Gambling Drives Addiction Rates in the UK
The major success of online and mobile gambling has caused the number of people with gambling addictions and debts to rise in according to a report recently released.
Because of the unregulated online and mobile phone gaming services, these pose the greatest threat to those with problems, said a chairman of gambling addiction charity. This is the growth market where people are falling into difficulties with their vulnerability to weakness.
The gambling addiction charity claimed that there are now up to 350,000 people in the UK alone with a gambling addiction. The charity added that over six years ago nearly two per cent of those seeking help were women, compared with the increase to nine per cent of those seeking counseling today.
The number of women with gambling problems was attributed to the ease of gambling online, as women generally would not have visited traditional betting shops.
He also said that its help forum has grown from fewer than 10,000 users nine months ago to more than 90,000 today an increase in less than a year of 900 percent.
The Culture Secretary told the BBCs Today program that recent changes in the gambling laws were designed to help regulate the industry.
She agreed that the increase of online gambling has brought particular risks. As it stands it is an explosion over which anybody has very little control and that is why online gambling will be regulated under the new gambling act. The minister added that the government hoped to persuade offshore operators to move their businesses to the UK and become properly recognized.
