Scots Gamble £7.5bn in Betting Epidemic
STEPHEN MCGINTY

GAMBLING in Scotland has hit record levels, with the average adult now spending almost £1,900 a year on games of chance - three times as much as four years ago.

Research has found that Scotland spent an estimated £7.5 billion on games of chance in the past financial year as the gaming revolution, led by a massive expansion in internet gambling and casinos, hit home.

Critics claim the rise is having a devastating effect on society, with Gamblers Anonymous reporting a 200 per cent rise in the number of addicts attending its Edinburgh meetings.

According to one estimate there are now as many as 35,000 problem gamblers north of the Border. And with credit easier than ever to obtain, some are running up tens of thousands of pounds of debts.

Professor Leighton Vaughan Williams, director of the betting research unit at Nottingham Trent University, said he expected gambling across the UK to have risen to £76 billion in 2005-6, more than triple the £25 billion spent in 2001.

Scots will have contributed about £7.5 billion to this figure, equivalent to £1,890 for every adult. In 2001, it was £594.50

The most explosive rise is in the form of sports betting, on which the government abolished a tax of 8 per cent in 2001. Since then sports betting in Scotland has risen from £700 million in 2001 to an estimated £5 billion in 2005. This is the equivalent of a rise per person from £172.40 to £1,258.

According to a Gamblers Anonymous spokesman, individuals are now betting tens of thousands of pounds.

"In the past it was rare for people to come in with debts of £40,000 to £50,000 - but it is becoming increasingly common," he said. "Those who previously bet hundreds now bet thousands, and those who once bet thousands are risking tens of thousands. The problem is easy access to credit and the arrival of online gambling sites that allow you to play for days."

Cases include a middle-aged office worker from Edinburgh who spent £24,000 on six credit cards on internet poker and digital roulette, and a teacher from Glasgow who forged her husband's signature, remortgaged the family home and lost the proceeds on online games.

Last night the Church of Scotland said the dramatic rise in gambling was a cause for concern. Morag Mylne, convener of the Church and Society Council said: "The Church is aware that gambling patterns are changing in Scotland, and a working group in the Kirk is looking into these issues."

Poverty Alliance Scotland also said the rise in gambling was a worry and that it would hit the poorest in society.

Rachel Jury, communications officer for PAS said: "We are already seeing the knock-on effects of easy access to credit and we will have the same concerns about the rise in gambling. It is the most disadvantaged who will be most affected."

As well as the cut in tax, the extraordinary rise is put down to the proliferation of sports satellite channels, which allows punters to follow the progress of the sport on which they are betting, and the internet, which has increased ease of access.

The arrival of internet betting on games such as poker, which was unavailable in 2001, has created a market in Scotland worth an estimated £500 million.

Prof Vaughan Williams insisted the growth in gambling would be beneficial. He said: "Those who wish to bet have never had it so good. The 8 per cent tax has been removed and the increase in bookmakers on the web has improved odds by offering greater choice.

"Recent policies designed to deregulate the industry are likely to realise significant gains for the wider economy in terms of economic productivity."

An analysis of Prof Vaughan Williams' figures illustrates how the culture of betting in Scotland has changed over the past five years in the seven categories of betting activity: sports betting, football pools, casinos, lottery, slot machines, internet gaming and bingo.

Sports betting remains most popular, but while it accounted for 29 per cent of money bet in 2001, this has risen to 66 per cent in 2005-6. Meanwhile the football pools has dropped from 0.5 per cent of annual spend to 0.1 per cent, or £1.89.

Casinos are less popular in Scotland than in the rest of Britain, producing just 5 per cent of the national sum spent. In 2001 the annual amount spent per Scottish head of population in a casino was £42.50. This has risen to £51. This is expected to change as Glasgow, West Dunbartonshire and Midlothian all bid for new casino licenses.

It is known that 7 per cent of gamblers generate two-thirds of a casino's turnover, so a small proportion of Scots are responsible for the nation's giant increase in gambling. It is estimated that only 3 per cent of the population use casinos and 14 per cent use bookmakers.

ANNUAL revenue from casinos, lotteries and bingo in Britain is worth £6 billion to the Chancellor of the Exchequer each year.

It is estimated that there are 15,000 jobs alone in Britain's 122 casinos with a further 75,000 more employed in the nation's bookmakers, bingo halls and all other betting and gaming activities.

In Scotland it is estimated that there are 10,000 jobs in "betting and gaming" related activities, of which 2,500 are in Glasgow.

The shake-up of government legislation on gambling and the creation of one super-casino, eight regional casinos and eight smaller casinos is expected to generate hundreds of millions of pounds of fresh revenue for the government and an estimated 100,000 new jobs.

In its bid to host a new regional casino, Glasgow City Council said that it would create up to 2,500 new leisure jobs and increase tourism by 600,000 per year. The gross annual spend of casino visitors to the city is estimated at £21 million per annum.

Since its creation in 1994 the National Lottery has dispensed more than 237,000 grants, totalling £18.5 billion. It is also in the process of helping to fund the 2012 London Olympics.

TODAY Martin, 33, a self-employed businessman from Glasgow, tends to avoid newspapers and turns the television off after the news, before the sport. He has agreed with his wife that he will only use the computer when she is in the house and will never shut his study door. The reason: an addiction to gambling that has driven him to the verge of divorce and bankruptcy.

When his gambling habit was at its worst a promising tip in the newspaper or the prospect of a big football match would send him off to the bookies, while he often burned the midnight oil playing internet poker and roulette while pretending to be hard at work. He ran up debts on numerous different credit cards. He will not give the total figure, saying only that "it was under £100,000". Two years ago he had to remortgage his house to clear the debt.

Unlike many problem gamblers, Martin refuses to go to Gamblers Anonymous, preferring to try and avoid gambling on his own.

"It's hard to explain to people who don't have a problem with gambling. Some people can take it or leave it, but when I win, this feeling that goes through you - it's wonderful and you chase the feeling. It's not really about the money, it's about that feeling. And when you lose, and lose, and lose some more, you never seem to lose hope; you keep thinking the next time I'll be lucky."

Martin began, like so many others, playing coin games at school and then progressed on to slot machines and then the horses.

The website of Gamblers Anonymous in Scotland is filled with stories such as that of Ken, 24, who wrote: "I have been gambling for seven years, a couple of pounds here and there in the 'puggys' [slot machines], but it then shot up to a lot more, then I got into video roulette and things became worse.

"I have come out to my partner and she is doing her best to help, but really she can't understand what I'm going through. I am going to go to my first GA meeting this week and I'm going to beat this curse and then in turn try and help others."

On the subject of internet gambling one contributor wrote: "I can't really remember when I started internet gambling - I can't remember why I started either. At the beginning it was completely manageable: £20 at a time once or twice a month. That went on for a long time and then I found another, more exciting site - stakes went up to £100 a time, once or twice a week. That soon escalated and at the end I sat all day every day spend, spend, spending."

Source: http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=716012006

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