Author: Daniel Williams

An addiction expert has warned that more Irish women are put at risk of getting hooked on gambling due to the rising popularity of online gambling. According to Austin Prior, a leading counsellor, the fact that online gambling could remain hidden for quite some time has made it possible for more women to remain in the dark, as they have been gambling in the privacy of their homes. As explained by counsellor Prior, gambling addiction rates in Ireland have grown dramatically over the years, along with the popularity of gambling.…

The Government of the United Kingdom is inclined to impose an outright ban on gambling with credit cards, which is established as a risk factor for developing problem gambling behaviours and fueling a gambling addiction. Following calls by the Labour Party for stopping the practice of gambling with money that you do not actually have, Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright commented that the Government intends to take action on this issue. Gambling with credit cards, which according to estimates amounts up to £8.6 billion every year, was pointed out as one…

Members of Parliament have urged Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright to raise the annual sales limit for charity lotteries to £100 million. Motions tabled in Westminster and Holyrood call for a reform in the charity law that was proposed last year by the Gambling Commission and has received support by most political parties. If the changes are implemented, charity or society lotteries will be able to raise up to £100 million a year, which would have an immediate positive impact on the funding of charitable organizations, according to proponents of the…

Gambling has long been considered a major problem for societies, as it has ruined the lives of people who get addicted to it. Online gambling, betting and gaming, however, are becoming much more dangerous, according to experts. The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) has shared a major concern related to gambling and its impact on British people’s lives, especially when it comes to younger individuals. The chief executive officer of RSPH, who is also a chair of the End High Cost Credit Alliance, Shirley Cramer, has shared that the…

The City Council in Brimbank, a municipality within West Metropolitan Melbourne, is said to be seeking funding from gambling operators to build a planned AU$58 million health and leisure centre. The news sparked controversy among the community mainly due to its unlikely timing – the city is now introducing a more stringent policy on EGMs that aims to minimize the harm from problem gambling. The strange partnership was proposed at a private meeting of councillors, according to The Age, one of the major websites in the Fairfax Network. The site…

UK gamblers who play popular roulette-style games available at local brick-and-mortar betting shops are now able to get an instant result by choosing a so-called “turbo” option. Despite the calls of anti-gambling campaigners that such an option can seriously hurt more vulnerable players, the British high-street giant Ladbrokes has even reduced the length of time it takes for the electronic ball to stop moving by half, from 14 to 7 seconds only. The move has come only days after the UK Government rolled out its latest crackdown on high-street bookmakers’…

Betting and gaming operators in the UK are already seeing the negative impacts from the recently introduced cut to the maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals. Gambling group GVC Holdings PLC has just published its financial update for the first quarter of the year, reporting a 17 per cent rise in its online net gaming revenue, whereas earnings from its retail business in the UK for the same period are flat. GVC, which is one of the world’s largest gambling groups and owns brands like Coral and Ladbrokes, posted growth…

A new specialist clinic for treatment of gambling addiction and other gambling-related issues is set to open in Leeds this summer. The new centre, which will be the first one to open outside London, will serve Northern England and will operate with an annual grant of £1.2 million from the independent gambling support charity GambleAware. The NHS Northern Gambling Clinic will be the second gambling treatment facility in the country and is expected to serve hundreds of people in the north who are struggling with gambling disorder and other issues.…

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) revealed that the two high-street bookmakers Paddy Power Betfair and Betfred have withdrawn the products they have recently launched following a warning issued by the major gambling regulator. In addition, the watchdog further explained that the gambling operators could face regulatory action, as the investigation held by the Gambling Commission is still ongoing. The third operator that was reported to be preparing a launch of a similar new roulette-style product, William Hill, has also been warned by the regulator. It also became clear that key…

Gambling regulators are investigating the introduction of new virtual roulette-style games which are allegedly used by British bookmakers to circumvent the newly-imposed restrictions on fixed-odds betting machines (FOBTs). Now, bookmakers have been accused of deliberately trying to cheat the stricter regime on the machines after they reportedly launched the high-stakes roulette-style games on the same day when the crackdown restrictions on the FOBTs came into force. Yesterday, UK gambling operators saw the reduction in the machines’ maximum stakes from £100 to £2 finally take place, after a long-running campaign against…