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Editorial – Opinion The World Cup starts next week, a truly global festival that unites bookmakers all around the planet in pursuit of gamblers’ cash. Whichever team wins on the pitch, the firms which advertise on the virtual hoardings all around it and in the commercial breaks will profit. Sports gambling is...
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Editorial – Opinion (Fixed-odds betting terminals) The government’s promise to slash the maximum stake for fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) from £100 to just £2 is both welcome and long overdue. Matt Hancock, the digital, culture, media and sport secretary, was right to describe the UK’s 33,000 machines as a “social blight” preying...
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Editorial – Opinion The fine of £6.2m levied on the bookmakers William Hill today by the Gambling Commission represents a small victory in the constant struggle against the abuses of a system that lends itself to exploitation. In this case, the firm was found to have been astonishingly trusting about where...
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Alex Hern Opinion In a tale of gambling addiction posted to Reddit shortly before Christmas, the numbers were as shocking as they were unsurprising. First the anonymous addict frittered away $200 (£149), in November 2016. Then $700 more, later that month. Then $300, $400, $1,500 … eventually, by December 2017, a credit...
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Editorial | Opinion The worlds of late childhood and early adolescence are absorbing, often overwhelming, and at best partially accessible to the adults orbiting them. So it is shocking, but not perhaps surprising, to discover that around 25,000 11- to 16-year-olds are problem gamblers, according to new research. Another 36,000...
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Editorial | Opinion The record fine levied on 888, an online gambling company, today, is a sign that Britain has a gambling problem. A technical failure meant that 7,000 customers who had chosen to bar themselves from the firm’s betting terminals were still able to gamble. The public is starting...
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Editorial | Opinion The UK Treasury has cold feet about the department of culture, media and sport’s review of fixed-odds betting terminals, expected to recommend swingeing cuts to the maximum bet. The chancellor is said to be alarmed about losing a lucrative tax stream. Absurdly, FOBTs, which seduce gamblers to play...
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My 25-year-old son is depressed and in the habit of gambling. His manual job seems to get him down and he feels worthless as in our family both parents are graduates, as is his younger sister – he feels the only way out of his “inadequacy” is going to...
Editorial – Opinion The World Cup starts next week, a truly global festival that unites bookmakers all around the planet in pursuit of gamblers’ cash. Whichever team wins on the pitch, the firms which advertise on the virtual hoardings all around it and in the commercial breaks will profit. Sports gambling is...
Editorial – Opinion (Fixed-odds betting terminals) The government’s promise to slash the maximum stake for fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) from £100 to just £2 is both welcome and long overdue. Matt Hancock, the digital, culture, media and sport secretary, was right to describe the UK’s 33,000 machines as a “social blight” preying...
Editorial – Opinion The fine of £6.2m levied on the bookmakers William Hill today by the Gambling Commission represents a small victory in the constant struggle against the abuses of a system that lends itself to exploitation. In this case, the firm was found to have been astonishingly trusting about where...
Alex Hern Opinion In a tale of gambling addiction posted to Reddit shortly before Christmas, the numbers were as shocking as they were unsurprising. First the anonymous addict frittered away $200 (£149), in November 2016. Then $700 more, later that month. Then $300, $400, $1,500 … eventually, by December 2017, a credit...
Editorial | Opinion The worlds of late childhood and early adolescence are absorbing, often overwhelming, and at best partially accessible to the adults orbiting them. So it is shocking, but not perhaps surprising, to discover that around 25,000 11- to 16-year-olds are problem gamblers, according to new research. Another 36,000...
Editorial | Opinion The record fine levied on 888, an online gambling company, today, is a sign that Britain has a gambling problem. A technical failure meant that 7,000 customers who had chosen to bar themselves from the firm’s betting terminals were still able to gamble. The public is starting...
Editorial | Opinion The UK Treasury has cold feet about the department of culture, media and sport’s review of fixed-odds betting terminals, expected to recommend swingeing cuts to the maximum bet. The chancellor is said to be alarmed about losing a lucrative tax stream. Absurdly, FOBTs, which seduce gamblers to play...
My 25-year-old son is depressed and in the habit of gambling. His manual job seems to get him down and he feels worthless as in our family both parents are graduates, as is his younger sister – he feels the only way out of his “inadequacy” is going to...
