Government and watchdog ‘are totally failing problem gamblers’

MPs say regulator is toothless and torpid and needs to focus on prevention of harm not treatment

The government and the gambling watchdog have an “unacceptably weak understanding” about the harmful effects of gambling and how to tackle them, a parliamentary committee has warned.

A report from the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee offers a critique of the failures by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Gambling Commission to help an estimated 395,000 problem gamblers in the UK and a further 1.8 million people who are considered at risk. The Gambling Commission, a non-departmental public body, took £19m in licence fees from gambling operators last year, less than 0.2% of the £11.3bn gambling yield that year.

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