Gambling prevalence survey announces quarter of a million problem gamblers
19 September 2007
The Government’s new Gambling Act will now be on trial, says the Evangelical Alliance in response to today’s Gambling prevalence Survey which has confirmed that there are still over a quarter of a million problem gamblers in the UK.
The Act came into force this month allowing for liberalisation and expansion of gambling in the UK. The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and the Gambling Commission will now be working towards their next survey promised in three years time.
Tessa Jowell, when steering the Gambling Act through Parliament, said that any increase in problem gambling brought about by the new act would be unacceptable. The Evangelical Alliance pressed the Secretary of State for a baseline survey, during a meeting in February 2004.
Gareth Wallace, Parliamentary Officer for the Evangelical Alliance said: “Now is the time to prove whether or not the new Gambling Act will indeed increase problem gambling. The importance of this comprehensive survey must not be allowed to be undermined by the gambling industry and must act as a baseline from which the Government’s Gambling Act will be held to account.”
Wallace continued: “This is no time for complacency. Problem gamblers are not mere statistics. Both the Gambling Commission and the Dept for Culture Media and Sport have said that these figures are nothing to be proud of. With no reduction in problem gambling since the GamCare report in 1999, the Government need to urgently provide more resources to assist those whose lives are being blighted by problem gambling.”
The Evangelical Alliance is on the Gambling Commission Advisory Group and will continue to speak out for the need to reduce problem gambling.
Notes to editors:
Today the Gambling Commission announced the long anticipated Gambling Prevalence Survey 2007 published by the National Centre for Social Research and the Gambling Commission.
The Gambling Prevalence Survey is a large-scale nationally representative survey of the nature and scale of gambling in Britain. It builds on a major survey previously undertaken in 1999, commissioned by GamCare and will be used as a baseline study to measure the social impact of the Gambling Act.
The Gambling Commission set up an advisory group comprised of problem gambling organisations, industry representatives and faith groups. www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk
The Evangelical Alliance, formed in 1846, is the largest body serving evangelical Christians in the UK, and has a membership including denominations, churches, organisations and individuals. The mission of the Evangelical Alliance is to unite evangelicals to present Christ credibly as good news for spiritual and social transformation. There are around two million evangelical Christians in the UK.* For more information, go to www.eauk.org.
* Statistics taken from “Churchgoing in the UK”, April 2007, (Tearfund survey).
