Claire Murdoch, NHS England’s National Mental Health director, calls for a tax to be introduced for gambling companies. The money collected through this levy would be used to fund treatment for people with gambling addiction.
Murdoch stated that gambling companies have profited during the pandemic, as restrictions and fear have kept people shut in their homes and vulnerable. While the companies accumulated rich revenues, the NHS is left to “pick up the pieces” and use its already strained resources to try and help an increasing number of people with gambling problems.
According to Murdoch, 750 people have been referred to specialist clinics for gambling addiction treatment since April 2020. There are plans to open more clinics, as the current infrastructure reaches only a small portion of the afflicted population. A report from 2020 indicates there are between 300,000 and 1.4 million problem gamblers in the country. Only 3% of them seek specialist help, while the majority turn to industry-funded helplines.
The gambling industry generates £11 billion a year but only contributes slightly to help solve a problem it profits off. In the current voluntary system, gambling companies can determine how much they want to contribute to the treatment of problem gamblers. At the same time, gambling industry higher-ups pay themselves enormous bonuses. Denise Coates, the chief executive of the online platform Bet365, paid herself £421 million for 2020, with her rewards for the last four years amounting to over £1 billion.
Both Conservative and Labour MPs, health experts, and officials from the UK Gambling Commission have previously called for a tax to be imposed, but to no avail. The voluntary system has been raising very modest amounts of money since its introduction - between £10 million and £15 million per year. Some operators go so far as to give out only £1 to be included on the list of donors.
The funds gathered through this channel arrive too slowly and are disbursed to a select number of organisations and charities, mostly non-NHS services. However, the new tax is under discussion by the government in the ongoing review of gambling regulation.
