make gambling illegal

Gonzo, I AGREE WITH YOUR POST 100%

The UK would be a MUCH BETTER place with NO GAMBLING. Don't care what anyone thinks.

End of...

Gonzo,

Did you know that this website, Gamcare, is funded by bookmakers? If not them this website wouldn't be exist ... what do I think about it? I think they control how much the media dedicates to "gambling addiction" ... I've been to France and Italy, they have gambling establishments there but not like in the UK (a betting shop every corner, every city, everywhere, literally) ... in Paris you have to look hard for a betting establishment and it's only for horses, and online gambling is forbidden, same in Italy ....

Only the UK is full of gambling, and no wonder why the results are devastating.

Gonzo,

Good post but the government won't ever allow this to happen. The betting industry alone in the UK is worth around 7 billion a year and supports around 100,000 jobs. Just imagine what amount of tax they are raking in per year from the betting industry.

It is easy money in the government coffers and unfortunately they don't really care what damage it causes.

I agree 100% that the Uk Govt should do something to ban gambling especially online gambling. After 15/20 years gamble free I have become hooked on online slots. We must safeguard the next generation from being drawn into this.

Mo

I'm sort of half and half on outlawing gambling. Having did quite a bit of research on it, the problems for most came when the gambling act of 2005 came into force in 2007. It meant a lot of change, and was enforced to amongst others things protect vulnerable gamblers (i kid you not). It has failed in that, I believe. Change is needed, yes. Gambling will always be about though, we must accept that.

You just have to choose not to gamble. However hard that may be, that's the key.

Hi

Yes i agree that its getting out of hand and it can be frustrating when you are bombarded with it day in day out.

Im a compulsive gambler and have been in recovery for the past 18 months.

I have learnt from attending GA that I must focus on my own recovery and if i were to get involved with the government/excessive advertising issues then this would distract me from my primary goal - to stay away from a bet. I put all my effort and energies into waking up each morning and having a productive, busy and happy day with no gambling and slowly trying to address all the underlying issues in my life that caused me to become a problem gambler in the first place.

I dont have an alcohol problem so i dont have any problems wih drink advertisments.

Like the average bloke on the street who can gamble responsibly wont have an issue with gambling ads. I respect that everyone has there own opinion and yes i do agree with some of the above comments but its not my problem. thanks

Some good points raised in this thread, good work everyone.

I'm not necessarily convinced that making gambling illegal is the right thing to do, but I believe very strongly that people should have the right to say enough is enough, and that a failsafe self-exclusion system should be in place - you can do it online, so you should be able to do it in the high street.

Not only that, staff have no rights to say the same - a landlord can refuse to serve someone if they have had too much; if someone is pumping thousands at a time into a FOBT terminal, then they should have the right to say the same.

I suggested a password system a while back. Some Bookmakers have reward cards, which you hand over with every bet; why can't they be issued to everyone that places bets in the Bookmakers, and then install the ability for someone to self-exclude themselves for up to five years? The cards would be issued upon presenting Photo ID, so it would be almost foolproof, and most of the technology is in place already.

The reason they don't, is because they are very well aware that 70% of their profits comes from people with compulsive gambling problems - they will make a token effort as they have with a very poor self-exclusion method, but they know how hard their profits will be hit - this generation has not taken to horse/greyhound racing at all and most sports bets are placed online; the high street Bookmaker survives because of FOBT's and nothing more - if they were banned, then 55% (a conservative estimate) of all shops would close.

The government most certainly needs to act; the money they make through FOBT's is certainly a factor, so they would likely reach for a compromise, which could be the password system which I mentioned above.

JamesP

Some really great viewpoints coming across,

it seems that to make gambling illegal is a bit unrealistic, it simply will not happen.

A harder line on helping a compulsive gambler is more reasonable. And especially to make gambling less attractive to the younger ones.

What about increasing the age from 18 to 21?

Got to help a bit surely?

The self exclusions should I believe become more effective,ok, so none of us are made to gamble initially, we all do it either out of curiosity or boredom or whatever it may be, BUT, none of us choose to become addicts and throw our entire life away due to gambling.

I like the idea from James of a self exclusion card. Great idea!

but would it be practical?

should the bookmakers be made to accept it?

There seems to be a growing consensus that the bookmakers should take problem gambling more seriously, without wishing to advocate a nanny state, but gambling is as damaging as hard drugs. Hard drugs also are a choice of the individual, they are illegal!

I think James' idea of having those cards is a good idea for those addicted to betting shops, but the vast majority of addicts are those who gamble online.

I can testify on myself, I self excluded myself so many times from different bookmakers, but I always managed to find another bookmaker to place bets with ... I even had hard times with one bookmaker which I considered s***g (for not honoring self-exclusion) but I gave it up knowing it would be time and money consuming which I'm not guaranteed of getting anything in return.

I am actually reading the book "Gambling Facts and Fictions" now and I'm quite happy I found that book (thanks to one member posting here in another thread text from the book which is available online) ... you can buy this book online for immediate read ... I got hooked up on it once I read it ... it's a very helpful tool, at least for me ... and like gambling I know I have patience issues and don't want to wait for the post from Amazon, so I installed a Kindle in my Windows 8, very easy and so simple to do so (takes seconds, literally) and then bought the book for 2.60 GBP, and that's it ... I can read the book anytime from my PC ... and just as I was smart enough discovering how to remove Gamblock, I am also glad I used my abilities to convert the book to PDF and make it accessible from any device!

Anyway back to the main issue:

I don't think self-exclusion is enough, but of course it's useful and helpful and better than nothing ... but gambling should not be described as fun, it's not fun!

It's not fun when someone comes to your house and steal your money and other stuff without your permission ... the gambling industry does the same thing, and I would be reluctant to call it or refer to it as something that is being done with permission.

I think laws will help restrict the number of people who access gambling ,the important thing is to reduce the people who first gamble. I don't think there is a lot that can be done for already addicted people.

I would however draw a hard line against advertisement in things like Football, where it is endemic. I noticed through my travels many bookmakers and gambling establishments have their premises hidden away, or with no glaring advertisement. In a similar way that we treat cigerettes, I believe we should treat gambling in the UK the same

People have a right to gamble, and it is a minority that has gambling addiction, and the population should not have their free right to gamble taken away because of us.

There could be restrictions on gambling, I know places lke Germany have a law that doesn't allow a person to lose any more than x amount per hour, and offer cooling off periods, but these can be circumvented very easily

urgh,

I don't think the society is "suffering" from "us", not at all ... Britney Spears, Jeremy Kyle are famous people who also had gambling problems.

Gambling is destructive and should be eliminated completely ... it shouldn't exist, just like the tobacco companies shouldn't exist - the fact people smoke or "enjoy" it (call it in its right name - they are very much addicted to it) - that doesn't justify the means for killing people.

My dad is suffering so much now because he used to smoke when he was young, thank god I never smoked not even one cigarette in my life - and not only that, I wasn't affected by those who smoke, I am part of that society you're referring to which is not affected by smoking ... so that means I want it to be available? I don't have children yet but hopefully I do, do I want them to have the availability to smoke? NO NO NO.

I don't.

Same thing with gambling.

You treat gambling in a very gentle approach - this is not a gentle industry, this is an industry that ruins people's lives!

Those who are not "affected" are either not gambling at all, or do so in small amounts that hurts them but not too much. There are no "winners" here, there is the gambling industry and the rest of society who's losing money, guaranteed, just the scale of losses is different between one person and another.

That is my opinion anyway ... the title of this topic is to make gambling illegal, I agree with the OP that it should be illegal ... perhaps lottery is the only allowed form that should be allowed but heavily regulated if the rest of gambling is illegal ... that's the most I can give to the gambling industry if it was up to me.

An outright ban is not the answer, why should those who can bet responsibly have that taken away from them. An outright ban would also push gambling into the more shady areas of life with underground gambling dens popping up with their own way of dealing with problems.

I don't agree with JamesP's comment about landlords being able to say no to someone who has had too much drink and applying the same to bookies staff stopping someone who's bet to much, especially on a fobt. This could lead to all manner of problems with potential confrontations between staff and punter and also stopping someone who's fed a machine just to inform a friend to then try it and go for a big win payout cos it's been on the take and ready to pay.

The card system seems to be the best idea. You need a card to play Fobts/place a counter bet and if you want to self exclude then your card is blocked with your details noted so that further cards cannot be taken at a later date. Not sure how this would work online but there is software to block those sites.

Problem gambler myself so I know the difficulties but banning is not the answer in my opinion.

Lancer,

I quote you:

"why should those who can bet responsibly have that taken away from them?"

I think you believe in the myth that people can gamble responsibly, but the truth is no one can ... Wayne Rooney, Britney Spears and Jeremey Kyle are great examples to people with money who also succumbed to gambling.

Gambling is not something that can be dealt with responsibly, it's something that should not be taken at all ... it's like a poison, whether you take a few bits of it or whether you have it everyday for breakfast.

If you look at gambling as something that can be done responsibly, then you would never quit, you would always find that day telling yourself "I can win, I can make it today", but the truth is you can't, no one can, the fact is no one wins money out of gambling, it's a destructing operation ruining people's lives.

I do not see gambling as something that should be among our society, it should be banned and banned completely, same thing with smoking, but that's only utopia I guess ... the world doesn't like living without some poison products these days.

Hi Lancer,

You are quite correct about the potential problems if you give staff the power to stop someone gambling excessively.

I do believe they should have some power though rather than none at all; I have seen people lose, then walk out into the high street asking people for money, then come back in and lose again. That is a situation that shouldn't be allowed to happen.

I remember handing over £7000.00 in notes - no-one batted an eyelid, no-one said a word; they do in Casino's, they often ask how you are, and whether you should think about whether you can afford to lose what you are spending - I don't see why that shouldn't be applied to High Street Bookmakers.

A sensible way forward would be for them to have a better customer care policy, as well as having the power to stop someone before they start if they are losing huge amounts of money on a daily basis. You could argue that some people can afford to lose large sums - it wouldn't be straightforward by any means.

Another idea would be to scrap targets for individual shops - problem gambling is great news for staff and management so they are less inclined than ever to see if someone is ok. I have seen people literally dancing behind the counter and high-fiving each other after I have lost all I have - that kind of mentality is completely wrong.

This topic is great reading and it is very interesting to see other people's thoughts and feelings on the subject. I hope it continues.

JamesP