Thu 15 Aug 2019, 13:44 PM | Posted by editor
LETTER FROM Andy Ford, Warrington Labour Party
The BBCs Panorama on August 12th looked at the phenomenon of gambling addiction in Britain. We met Tony, who stole millions of pounds to fund his gambling habit and who at one point was spending £60,000 a day. He was facing prison. The gambling companies just helped him on his way.
The programme interviewed a woman who spent £633,000 gambling with Jackpot Joy. She was going through the death of her father at the time and gambling felt like solace to her. And yet she had tapes of the Jackpot Joy advisors enticing her to carry on with petty bonuses of £1000, £150 or £100, while she gambled away her house then her father’s house.
Suicides are not an infrequent consequence when men particularly have gambled everything away. The programme featured a mother was campaigning for restrictions after her son Daniel committed suicide as a consequence of problem gambling.
The law on problem gambling is weak, no doubt as a consequence of lobbying by the industry. The Gambling Commission is supposed to regulate the industry but only take action on the most blatant cases. All the companies have to do is to have a ‘policy’ on problem gamblers. In practice all they do is make a quick phone call.
Meanwhile they have ‘VIP Managers’ who take ‘mug punters’ to race meetings and sports matches and coach them to send their money from VIP Suites with free champagne and buffets. Profit is king, and 78% of revenue comes from just 4% of gamblers. So no wonder they cultivate this 4%, all the better to separate them from their cash.
So what should a socialist position be on gambling? It is an addictive behaviour. People are not rational about gambling. Even the Tories stand for “regulation”, but they make sure it’s ineffective. Labour stand for regulation and maybe even effective regulation. Historically gambling used to be illegal in the UK except at racecourses but all that did was drive it underground and put the business in the hands of criminals.
The only answer is a state monopoly of gambling with an aim of minimising the harm to gamblers and communities and the profits made available for investment in healthcare, public services and education.
