Labour Party Concerned with Problem Gambling Levels in the UK

The Conservatives Party may have legitimized gambling in the UK with the introduction of the National Lottery in 1994, but it was the Labour Party which took matters to a whole new level after deregulating the gambling industry with its Gambling Act of 2005. This includes the proliferation of fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) at High Street bookmakers, but Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Labour Party member Tom Watson, has now acknowledged a pressing need to combat the rising tide of problem gambling in the country.
As a result, Watson has said that the Labour Party would introduce a compulsory tax on gambling operators in order to fund problem gambling programs if his party is elected to power in the future. According to Watson, there is a big problem with the industry when out of the £13 billion in gross gaming revenue (GGR) that was generated in 2016, just £8 million was given to the problem gambling charity known as GambleAware.
Tom Watson further stated that gambling addiction treatments should be available via the UK’s National Health Service, and following an analysis of the current gambling addiction situation in the country, a thorough review would be carried out, together with the shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth, to determine “how to best fund NHS treatment and help free problem gamblers from the destructive cycle of addiction.”
One of the most contentious gambling products in the UK is its fixed-odds betting terminals, which enable gamblers to stake up to £100 per spin, a figure that concerned parties would like see reduced to just £2. Furthermore, Watson has criticised gambling operators for targeting vulnerable people with their products, including the number of Premier League soccer teams sporting gambling site logos on their shirts, and as he stated at a recent Labour Party conference in Brighton:
“Start acting properly. And meet your obligation to help those whose lives have been blighted by addiction. You can do it now, because it’s the right thing to do. Or you can wait for the next Labour government to do it for you.”
In response to his comments, the Association of British Bookmakers said that it would welcome a proportionate levy to fund gambling addiction programs, and that “combatting gambling related harm” remained a top concern for the gambling industry as a whole.