Andrew Castle: Distracted Government Led To Rise In Problem Gambling In Children

25 November 2018, 16:21

Andrew Castle accuses the government of missing the 'big gambling problem' that has "flown under the radar".

A Gambling Commission audit reveals that the number of child problem gamblers rose to more than 50,000 , with at least 450,000 children playing a bet regularly.

But Andrew Castle thinks the issue may have been put aside while the government deal with other things.

"We've had a problem with this for years, and I think it's one of these things that's flown under the radar," he said.

"Because either the political will is not there, or the revenue raising is so good and the government can't resist it, or because people have been so busy with Brexit they're not really doing anything about the gambling problem in this country."

"the big problem going forward, and the reason why 80% of the marketing spend by these big gambling companies is spent online, is because they're nailing people.

"We've got 55,000 children in this country who have a gambling problem."