A night of gambling

Tonight a Green party planning meeting then a Policy Panel at Ebley Mill - this one on the new Statement of Principals re Gambling. Stroud District will be taking over various aspects of licensing and enforcement.

The government has produced much to welcome with their look at gambling - local councils should have a larger role - but sadly the government seems to have also failed in too many respects - powers for local Councils seem to be virtually non-existent outside the Government guidelines - it seems we are again doing the work of government rather than making decisions for and with our communities.

The policy is also only half written - the rest comes out next summer yet 1st September 2007 the Council fully takes over - there is also an assumption that gambling is a legitimate business that should not be refused a licence. Indeed? I am also not convinced that Councils have been given sufficient resources to take over this role that will require staff, training and much more.

We are rapidly becoming a nation of gamblers. Virgin Money says it has seen a rise in the average online gambling transaction on its credit card from £130 last year to £200 now. Britons spent £50bn on gambling last year, which works out at more than £800 per person on average. This is seven times what was spent in 2001, before the Government started revamping - and relaxing - gaming legislation.

The Government also plans to open a super casino with hundreds of slot machines and no-limit jackpots. Some 27 councils are competing for the licence. Still more are in the running to host smaller casinos - thankfully Stroud is not amongst them and Greens argued strongly in our RSS submission that the South West was not suitable for a casino. Tewkesbury Borough Council however has looked at this and made many supportive noises for developing a casino locally.

My grandfather - never met him - was a gambler and I've heard too many tales and know too much from members of my family to know what that can mean. We have 370,000 ‘problem gamblers’ at the moment, a figure that’s predicted to rise to 700,000 in the next five years.

30 million people regularly buy UK Lotto tickets in the second largest of the 192 lotteries across the world. Official figures tell us that a mere 1% of these have developed out of control gambling habits, Gamblers Anonymous are finding that they ve had an increase of 17% in calls for help. GamCare has also seen an increase in requests for their counseling service.

Worryingly with broadband access to the internet we are likely to see more on-line gambling. Not surprisingly, problems are expected to increase.

It seems to me that the Government and the big gaming corporations can only see a big jackpot ahead, instead of the accompanying social harm. At the meeting this evening I raised the issue of enforcement of the licensing regulations - it is something we should all keep our eye on when Stroud takes over.