Shortly after calling for an increase in Category B Machine Gaming Duty, the Social Market Foundation (SMF) is now suggesting major reforms to the UK’s public health policies where problem gambling is given the same priority as alcohol-related harm, substance abuse and smoking cessation.
According to the think-thank, current problem gambling services are a post factum phenomenon in their majority across the UK. Therefore, the central government and local authorities as an extension to that central power must take a different approach, equipping first responders with questions on gambling in patient questionnaires as standard.
SMF’s proposal follows years-long debates in the UK where health experts and politicians have pondered whether gambling should be treated as a public health concern. So far, this rhetoric has failed to find solid ground, as only 2.7% of the adult population has been identified as problem gamblers.
Nevertheless, SMF believes that prevention is key to maintaining that rate level or even bringing it further down, with frontline services being integral for future efforts – but remaining underequipped as things stand.
“Frontline services across health and the third sector can play an important role in identifying gambling harms and supporting those experiencing them,” SMF added.
“However, the systems and processes of these services do not always enable the identification of harms, which means opportunities to identify gambling related harm are missed. Other barriers included a knowledge-action gap, lack of expertise, and long waiting lists creating pressure on services.”
To really get its point across, the SMF highlighted several international jurisdictions where gambling harm reduction has been incorporated into the public health legislation mandated by the respective government health authorities.
New Zealand’s Ministry of Health for example has been enacting a public health policy that includes a dedicated gambling harm strategy on national and regional levels since 2003. The provisions include problem gambling screening, assessment and intervention in general health screening and day-to-day delivery.
Closer to home, Norway – which is still a state gambling monopoly – recently adopted a four-year national action plan to modernise its gambling harms prevention services, responsibility for which is spread among the gambling authority, media authority, and the Health Directorate.
In four years’ time, Norway will have problem gambling training in place not only for those in health services, but also in community settings, including employees of banks, leisure clubs, sports clubs, as well as debt, child welfare and family counsellors.
With the UK seemingly finding itself at a major regulatory crossroads, with legislation changing by the day – most notably the increase in Remote Gaming Duty and the introduction of FRAs, together with a gambling regulator in the middle of a leadership change, perhaps SMF is sensing there has been a shift in the air, and that it might not get a more perfect opportunity to be making calls like that.