1.4m Britons have a gambling problem

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/oct/02/landmark-study-shows-14m-bri...

how menni have a gambling/alcohol/drug/smoking addiction?

So many addicted to driving after a sniff…..

gambling/alcohol/drug/smoking/got no life outside of the forum

how menni all 5?

I think that 1.4M do indeed have a gambling problem.It is not being able to get a bet on with the Firms

I’ve never had any problems with anything in life tbh….

Laid back individual……

Enjoy my punting and tasting a beer or nice wine…

As for the dirty stuff i leave that to the silly people…..

My pleasure is a good old tumble under the duvet…..

a problem if you cant control it !

Like people spending online or the high street on things they don’t need….

david its well documented ewe suffer from penile dysfunction.

There’s a person here who would strongly disagree tbh….

Contentment is good.

it,ll probably be right if losing what really cant afford to lose is considered a problem,just likes been said buying to many clothes,eating out to much etc
but wouldnt people actually visiting a casino, playing cards/poker for example have much deeper gambling problems

How many of them are gambling on the National Lottery/Euro Millions/other Lotteries and online Bingo, online Roulette and the likes? All games of chance.
Free spins should be banned as should free bets to attract new customers etc.

Bingo is a dreadful scourge

Not sure why you consider attending a casino as a deeper problem. I no longer do but for a while I did go most weeks and kept a careful record of my results as I do on horse race bets. I lost a small amount in the long run but made a profit in one calendar year after about 30 visits. It is a pleasant enough way to spend a couple of hours on a winter evening if you see it as relaxation. And as a regular you got a very nice steak meal on the house-even if you were winning!

Depends what game you play, most of them have the odds stacked against the player. And random, not skill based.

A wider question is why would anyone pay attention to anything published by the Guardian.

Personally I'd be up for banning any form of gambling where the player can't win using skill or research.

I used to play the National Lottery every week for a bout 12 months from inception; I scratched 20 cards (max) the very 1st time as fact-finding eg winning odds and degree of addiction, but none after. The odds were stratospheric and insurmountable.

In horseracing I was "hooked" post winning easy money on Shergar. But, horseracing has a "recess" between races and required a mega amount of fact-finding yet picking a winner was far from easy esp the prestigious handicap eg Ebor and Steward Cup.

Fobt is a no-go for me. It's boring as hell akin to listening to two old-foggies talking about mundane stuff in a cafe.e Even the free spins her and other gambling joints are pathetically boring and uneventful.

However, 1.4m is a mega number. I'd like to know what percentage is for fobt, horses and football; where, ethnicity and social class. But, it is a concern for everyone esp the families and relatives concerned.

Gambling is badly misunderstood by those with power to do anything about it.

FOBTs should never be legal.

Every bookie should be subject to scrutiny - they get away with outrageous behaviour.

Online fruit machines would be difficult to ban, but they are trying with pr0n, so why not slots?

could easily be done, like it's not permitted to deposit using credit. they wouldn't need to prevent online gaming, but they could stop payments being processed to them. of course there would be workarounds, but the vast majority of people would be put off.

the reality is that they still want the duty and tax revenue

first they would need to detach regular gambling from fixed odds losing.

Yes. After understanding the difference.

racing/bookmaking   lost another argument when they tried to conflate betting in bookmakers with people doing lottery,and started their own lotto,s and took irish lottery etc, ive never ever seen the link between using some of your horse racing punting £ for betting on the lottery,
if your floating between FOBT,s,racing,lottery,etc i,d say your a problem gambler even if you could afford to lose 10 grand a day

worked with a young lad fopr 10 yrs never mentioned betting,horseracing,football betting nothing and i,d talk to him everyday,about 15/20 yrs ago,i heard a bit of chat among a group of young lads    about going/doing bingo,thought it strange till another lad said they were playing online bingo, and within 6 months the lad who,d never mentioned betting ever ,had lost his flat and owed over 30 grand in loans etc, frightening stuff

Duty and tax revenue from bookies is easy and quick to extract from the bookies' satchels; easy come, easy go from bookies to Exchequer, to claimants and back to the bookies. This is an assured roundabout without the coppers in attention.

The previous head honcho at the Gambling Commission was spineless, clueless and in cahoot with bookies and the BHA; the tripartite of the demise of horseracing UK.

Personally, I missed the option of using a credit card here. I think it was free when use to manage a position here.

The Labour Party Mr Blair who deregulated gambling which initiated the increase in problem gamblers and fobt addiction has a lot to answer for.

My gambling involvement (in order of cash at risk) would be:
Stock and other market investments 40%
Property owning (own house) 55%
Sport betting 4%
All other (online games) 1%.
I have not included bank deposits as the risk below £80k per bank is negligible.
I can understand why FOBT and the Lottery are seen as the easiest ways to lose money quickly but for most people the amount at risk is way less than their pension fund or house.

Putting capital in your own domestic property isn't gambling in my opinion.

I would argue saving instead of investing is a gamble due to inflation risk. But this type of discussion would need its own thread!

The problem with lottery, bingo et al is that they prey on the dumb who can't contextualise probability accurately, ie selling the 'impossible' dream. I personally label the national lottery a chav tax. Won't be too many playing it in Windsor.

We've experienced a very rare period of time where the 'risk free' rate was significantly higher than the prevailing rate of inflation. They are more or less par now, and likely to flip into the more usual dynamic, cash savings erosion due to inflation. Even then, so many people don't keep cash savings where they can achieve the best rate, and/or where the yield is protected from tax.

All these surveys are utter nonsense. The people doing the survey have a list of 'regulars' who they

know will reply. I've never filled out one in my life and I'm sure millions of others likewise.

So they get results from a tiny handful of the population and extrapolate from that. Meaningless!

Also if you read these survey questions they as often as not have a clear agenda

Irons   

Also what do they define as 'a gambling problem'? It's like the modern definition of poverty.

If the kids don't have smart phones and the parents don't have Sky TV they are in poverty!

well he,s the 1st ? ,my survey says 90% of punters would like if their Mrs/girlfriend asked them how much they,d lost today
Barry the bookie to Terry how do you do,Terry I do ok come out about even I reckon,Barry you mean your a loser

Surveys and TV Viewing Figures?

Take 'em with a....

The survey is just one of many that has been brought about by the left, for the left but will affect everyone! Same warped data has been thrown their way and that is being believed in the mainstream. We've seen this movie before...

affordability checks, exclusions, identifying problem gamblers were all brought in by Tory gov and so called free libertarians like Johnson,like everything else they just kicked it down the rd for someone else to pick up

I think it’s higher than this,but it’s not your classic racing,footy type punter.

Loads of women,play spins and bingo etc on their phones,nothing to do with the big bookies that we all know,

I looked at a couple of chapters in the survey/report that caught my eye. They claim that betting on elections/tv shows is the biggest cause of problem gambling, by a considerable margin! They also lump together betting on virtual sports events/racing with real sports events racing in the same category.

how menni IYO over 21yr olds have NOT got either of a gambling/alcohol/drug/smoking addiction?

yes I have a gambling problem...all my accounts have been gubbed!

....or overeating

People get sick of being lectured

Problem =  addiction?

Of the generation, say mid 20's upwards, nephews, cousins, mates families etc. I don't know a single person who regularly punts on horse racing. We have a family get together in on course hospitality every few months and they love having a few drinks, a cheeky ket or Charlie  livener perhaps but very little interest in betting let alone actually watching a race or heaven forbid going to the parade ring. Once us lot depart this mortal coil there's going to be empty racetracks, even more so than now.

I think it's prudent and correct to monitor gambling of any kind. Any excessive indulgence must be stamped on quickly; the bookies will take you to the cleaners without batting an eyelid or with an ounce of conscience between them.

I thought betting on election results would be more a game for the professionals. I guess the compulsive gamblers will do so too just as they will on virtual racing or fobt or anything that will satisfy their craze or addiction.

But, fobt and remote gambling are the banes of society. They are so easily accessible and available on most modern pda or mobiles something the government will need to be very aware of and monitor closely. The costs to society is humongous, unpleasant and painful to those affected.

Same with me Slippy but even more so - my sister would love to see the end of horse racing because in her opinion it's just cruel. 'How would YOU like it if someone hit YOU on the backside with a whip in an attempt to make you run faster' was the sort of thing she would say to me. As far as my elder brother is concerned, he objected to me holding my 70th birthday celebration with friends at Salisbury racecourse. 'Can't you just have it at an ordinary restaurant in your hometown instead?' he would ask. As it happened I abandoned the whole thing as that particular race meeting was abandoned due to waterlogging on the day!

how menni IYO over 21yr olds have NOT got either of a gambling/alcohol/drug/smoking PROBLEM?

I enjoy horseracing but I'd never celebrate my birthday at a race track. Just the thought of being the unintentional catalyst to a possible gambling addiction is too much of a burden to bear. It's awful if an innocent day out could instigate an addiction to a form of gambling.

That is some statement 123

unintentional catalyst to a possible gambling addiction

Especially frum one so well educated

This is the nonsense you get when companies extrapolate from such a small sample size. It’s why the election opinion polls are usually way off the  mark.

Roughly, there are 40M adults registered to vote in this country. Are you telling me that 1 in 40 of those adults have a gambling problem?
I wouldn’t have thought 1 in 40 adults in this country even bet!

If my circle of friends & family are anything to by, none of them bet on what I would call traditional sports like HR & football etc. Not even the GN these days.

Now, as for buying lottery tickets, scratch cards or playing bingo well…who’s to know? And that’s probably where most problem gamblers can be found.

That's a bit OTT isn't it 'impossible123'? My racing friends and I go racing purely for social reasons. We have a dabble on some horses for a bit of fun. We have a good laugh, meet some great people, made some new friends, one of which is disabled and I help out with him occasionally, We socialise at non-racing events such as eating out at restaurants, visiting museums and other points of interest.

So, that's my personal situation as far as horse racing goes - a bit of fun and excitement occasionally backing horses plus many other activities at non-racing venues. If you call all that an addiction, then maybe I do have an addiction, but I really can't see it as that tbh.

He doesn't go to the pub for drinks on his b'day as it could be an unintentional catalyst to a possible alcohol addiction

'He doesn't go to the pub for drinks on his b'day as it could be an unintentional catalyst to a possible alcohol addiction'

:)