This afternoon, the livelihoods of 40,000 people who work in high street betting shops will be used as a political football by some MPs and anti-betting shop campaigners. There is certainly a lot of scaremongering about betting shop gaming machines, but very few of those claims are actually true, and indeed the latest statistics prove many of those claims are wrong.
As John Adams said in 1770: “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
The Health Survey for England, 2012, was published on 18th December 2013 and sets out a lot of facts and evidence about betting, however much that goes against the inclinations of anti-betting shop campaigners.
It shows that 64% of the population gamble in one form or another, so this is a leisure activity which many people choose to do, and enjoy doing.
It also shows that just 2.5% of the adult population in England gamble on a gaming machine in a betting shop, that is a reduction from 2010 and compares to 19.5% of people who gamble on scratch cards and 10% who bet on horse-racing.
It is claimed that betting shops target the poor or deprived areas, yet the Health Survey shows the opposite - that there is no overall variation in gambling participation according to area deprivation, as measured by the Index of Multiple Deprivation.
Further, it proves that gambling prevalence is highest among the most affluent and is the lowest prevalence among the least affluent, with the exception of scratch-cards and bingo, where the least affluent are more likely to gamble.
The Health Survey also reveals that the numbers of problem gamblers has declined significantly by 40%, so alarmist claims about gaming machines causing an increase in problem gambling are now also proved to be false.
It is an issue we take seriously though which is why we have introduced our new
Code for Responsible Gamblingwhich puts in places a range of new, and world-leading measures to minimise harm. Not only will a player be able to set their own limits on the amount of time they play for or money they spend, but mandatory limits will also be imposed on all customers.
They are measures introduced after researching the issue with gambling charities and academic experts in helping problem gambling. That is the way to help problem gamblers, and simply banning random products for political ends will not stop problem gambling in any way.
MPs are elected to debate issues make decisions on the basis of facts and evidence, and the 40,000 staff and eight million customers expect their MPs to do just that this afternoon.
Dirk Vennix, Chief Executive,
Association of British Bookmakers