Author: Daniel Williams

Gaming machines across New Zealand will be “paused” in an initiative aiming to raise awareness of the harmful effects of gambling. More than 70 pubs and clubs will join the Gambling Harm Awareness Week by “pausing their pokies” for an hour every day from September 3 through September 9. The majority of the adult population in New Zealand gambles in one way or another and according to the latest statistics, presented by non-profit organization Problem Gambling Foundation, 77 per cent of them participates in some form of gambling. More than…

Ireland’s Department of Finance is considering the renewed calls for doubling the betting tax in the budget, in order to get more money for funding gambling addiction services. John Halligan, an Independent Alliance Minister, has urged the country’s Government to make sure the betting tax is increased from 1% to 2%. According to him and other proponents of the measure, such an increase would bring an additional annual revenue of €50 million for the exchequer. Mr. Halligan noted that there must be a guarantee that the extra €50 million would…

Australian researchers and psychiatrists have said that video games which encourage players to purchase so-called “loot boxes”, saying that such special items were very much like addictive poker machines. Experts also warned that video games offering such items could be quite addictive and could lead to massive losses. Today, a Senate inquiry initiated by the Greens Party senator Jordon Steele-John is set to start in Melbourne after being unanimously passed in June. The inquiry has already resulted in written submissions from both proponents and opponents of this form of gambling,…

The fact that Glasgow City Council would not have the power to enforce new rules about the maximum stakes allowed at high-stake betting machines has been confirmed by a new report into the controversial fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs). Problem gambling has been one of the most-discussed issues in the sector, especially considering the fact that gambling addictions have sharply increased in certain parts of the country. As previously reported by Casino Guardian, Scotland, and the city of Glasgow in particular, have been considered one of the areas with the largest…

A staff member of one of the British leading bookmakers who acquired more than £40,000 himself from a gambling scam could be facing an imprisonment sentence. The former Coral worker Gavin Thomson, who worked at the company’s betting shops in Dundee and Forfar, found a certain malfunction in the gambling operator’s computer system which allowed users to place bets after sports events finished. Thomson took advantage of the system’s failure, coming up with a scheme which eventually brought him a total amount of £40,300. He gave friends so money to…

Part of a special initiative set to prevent young people from getting addicted to gambling is expected to be released in Aberdeen. The amount of £750,000 has been secured by the Scottish charity organisation Fast Forward to back the major scheme which is to be carried out across the country over the next three years. The sum was provided by the independent charity organisation GambleAware, which has been working to prevent problem gambling from spreading on the territory of the country and will also include the establishment of a Scottish…

Lancashire gamblers could lose an amount of approximately £3 million on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) this summer, with no further proactive measures taken by local MPs. According to estimates, the gamblers in the county could lose a total of £2,952,551, despite the fact that anti-gambling campaigners are still calling for the Government to bring further measures into effect in order to protect gambling addicts. It seems that Blackpool would be most affected by the increased spending on the high-rates gambling machines, with its residents’ spending on FOBTs expected to amount…

According to a recently released report, the large number of poker machines on the territory of Christchurch has led to an increasing rate of problem gambling among local citizens. As mentioned above, the massive number of pokies in the city has been blamed for the quickly spreading gambling addiction among local residents. According to some, the problem with rising gambling addiction has been “over-represented” in Christchurch. The above-mentioned report, called “The Economic Impact of NCGMs on Christchurch City”, has revealed that levels of problem gambling have been slowly falling in…

A charity organisation has revealed that football players from the Scottish Premiership often tend to turn to loan sharks in order to lend money at extremely high interest rates to fuel their problem gambling. The Chief Executive Officer of Sporting Chance, a charity which is especially oriented towards gambling addicts, Colin Bland, commented on the matter after media reports that Ladbrokes has banned a Scottish Premiership star from all its shops after the football player had asked for some help. As reported by Casino Guardian, the British bookmaker, which is…

The UK bookmaker Ladbrokes has banned a top football player from using its betting services due to his serious gambling problem. Bosses at the gambling operator sent a note to the company’s staff to warn their employees that the footballer who plays in the Scottish Premiership should no longer be served in the brand’s betting outlets. The decision came after the international football player’s 12-month agreement which has prevented him from betting was brought to an end. The British gambling giant has initiated an internal check after a screenshot of…