Jim - I know I said I was dipping out, I'm not trying to pick a fight or imply anything, and I'm saying this with all due respect, but your defence of gambling to the extent you are doing is really worrying - others will be closer to the issue than me, but in my work I come across many instances of addiction (in the widest sense, and a mental health context) and one common theme is the denial that there's a problem, either personally or the with system that enables that addiction.
Could I just ask that you take a step back and consider where you are with this
As I said, not mentioned to get a bite or provoke a continuation of the argument, and with the best intentions
Yep fair enough. I’ll address your points and I’ll be on my way.
My worrying defence of gambling - I’ve been involved one way or another with gambling for over thirty years. I have no vested interest on behalf of bookmakers I’m a punter and matched bettor. In a post above I put forward the controls that I would implement based on my experience of punters both good and bad and how to limit any damage whilst not overly infringing on free will. The most important of these I feel is maximum stakes of £2 on casino games as already implemented on high street FOBTs. Also a maximum stake on sports bets at 1/20th of available balance.
Your work with people suffering addiction- I have lost one dear family member and one close friend to alcohol. The latter also crossed over into mental illness so I’m fully aware of the perils of addiction. I would not however seek to implement draconian measures on drinkers, I’m one myself, because I see it as unfair to penalise people that can drink socially without falling To alcoholism. I apply the same logic to gambling.
As a footnote we have had some comments on here, well meaning though I’m sure they are, that highlight just how ill informed some people are on the subject.
We have people saying there’s a lack of tax contributions despite them being abolished by the Labour Party on the punter side 20 years ago and collected from the books via a gross profits tax at 15 percent raised to 21 percent for online.
We have a widespread condemnation of the industry and even one poster saying he wish it could be banned altogether despite it supporting tens of thousands of jobs both directly and indirectly. It has also put in place deposit limits and the option to self exclude. These will not be there on the dark side.
We have a poster somewhere or other saying matched betting seems to good to be true despite thousands of people successfully using it for over 15 years to both provide and supplement incomes.
We have one poster completely ignorant of the mechanisms of the market and how the bookmakers frame an over round on each participant in sports markets in order to gain a margin. But I suppose all are entitled to there opinion no matter how little grasp they have of the subject.
So that’s that I’ll be off and hope common sense prevails because take away the big boys with the licences and you will find a lot of vulnerable people moving on to the sharks without.
I’m off to study tonight’s card at Newcastle.