What is responsible for gambling addiction?

The UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport is this week set to announce plans to open 16 large regional casinos.  This follows Prime Minister Gordon Brown's decision to shelve controversial plans to build a so-called 'super casino' in Manchester, on the grounds that it was unlikely to be the best way to facilitate regeneration of the area in which it was to be built.

UK government plans on casinos elicited concern from church leaders and other public figures, including leading members of the House of Lords at the prospect of the government sanctioning gambling.  Indeed, the announcement of regional casinos follows one compulsive UK gambler's attempt to sue leading bookmaker, William Hill, for the 2 million pounds that he lost gambling, after he claimed to have asked William Hill to prevent him using their services.

These news stories highlight the dilemma gambling poses to government, and societies more widely, over the extent to which gambling can and should be legislated against.  Gambling counselling service GamCare, which the gambling industry itself funds, insists that it can help those with gambling addiction, but it is the responsibility of individual punters to acknowledge a problem and seek help.  Moreover, the gambling charity Responsibility in Gambling Trust (RIGT), has pointed out that even if one gambling company stopped someone using their services, this information is not yet shared with other bookmakers.

The now well-established phenomenon of internet gambling exacerbates the problem, making it even easier for problem gamblers to feed their addiction.  Indeed, in a recent study the UK Gambling Commission pointed out that while the scale of gambling problems has changed little since 1999, numbers using online services had risen. Recognising the dangers the anonymity of online gambling present, governments have been quicker to legislate in this area:

• The UK government last year banned advertising of online gambling services.
• Authorities in the United States have implemented various measures on online gambling, which vary by jurisdiction, though throughout the country it is difficult for individuals to carry out banking transactions involving gambling websites.
• Germany has banned non-German online gambling services, and Sweden has restricted online betting services, which has led to criticism from the European Commission European single market rules are being contravened.

Online gambling will continue to be the main target of attempts to curb the practice, or at least restrict access for minors and other vulnerable individuals and groups. 

However, the relatively unregulated, international nature of the internet will mean that determined gamblers will find ways to circumvent bans, be they on the use of online gambling services, or of banking services to fund online gambling.  In the meantime, while major bookmakers are likely more readily to share information about 'problem' gamblers, governments will be far more tolerant of other forms of gambling, from national lotteries to casinos, which are important sources of revenue, and more socially acceptable.