Salvation Army Concerned with Gambling Act

The Salvation Army is concerned with the Gambling Act 2005, which has gone into effect as of September 1, they as well as other charity organizations fear that the advertising and easier access may cause a rise in citizens having gaming addictions.

One group by the name GamCare has appealed to the U.K. government asking that the officials set in place certain guidelines, one of these is that any online gaming corporation that advertises on U.K. television must also have a phone number for a gambling help line. These groups feel that with the advertising of land based and online casinos the amount of addicted gamblers will rise.

The U.K. Gambling Commission has hired has group of academics from Brimingham University to provide them with a study of what percentage of the population may become problem gamblers. The findings of this study are that up to two percent of citizens gambling may become addicted or problem gamblers.

One newspaper, The Observer, reported that this study predicts an increase in online gambling that may rise to one million and that these gamers will spend close to two thousand dollars a year, this in total will be over two billion pounds a year. This will place the U.K. as having about one third of the gaming population in Europe.