UK Media Says Problem Casino Gambling Has Risen By 0.2 Percent In Recent Years

The media in the UK has this week reported that problem gambling has increased by 0.2 percent in the past couple of years. This fact follows a survey that was carried out by United Kingdom’s Gambling Commission (UKGC), which said that problem gambling in 2012 was at 0.6 percent but rose to 0.8 percent in 2015.

United Kingdom Casinos Stop Problem Gamblers At The Door

Following that report that was released early this week, various top media house across the UK ran news, depicting that the rise is a cause for alarm. Among the top media houses that discussed problem gambling in the UK thus indicating that the casino industry has a profound negative impact on the society was The Guardian Newspaper. According to the Guardian, more than 2 million people in the United Kingdom who have attained gambling age are either problem gamblers or at risk of addiction.

Why Gambling In The United Kingdom Has Lead To Addiction

But after indicating that a staggering figure of UK citizens risks being problem gamblers, the newspaper went ahead to assert that the actual figure for the prevalence of problem gambling among a population of around 54 million United Kingdom citizens aged 16 and above was approximately 430, 000 and not 2 million as the headline.


The Sun on the other hand said did not concentrate on giving any finer details about the exact number of those that are either affected or at the risk of the vice. However, it also ran the headline that said, ‘More than 2 Million People May Be Problem Gamblers’.  The two leading newspapers were reporting verbatim on what the report by UKGC released, which said that the last time a survey was conducted in 2015, it was found out that the number in percentage of problem gamblers had risen from 0.6 in 2012 to 0.8 in 2015.


But the United Kingdom Gambling Commission is not happy with what it calls ‘hysterical’ headlines, which show might indicate that the casino industry in the UK is ‘rotten’ and that it has profound negative impact on the people. In fact, according to UKGC and this resource, problem gambling rates are not that wrong in the UK when compared with other countries where the casino industry is as vibrant as that in the UK.



The commission feels that by running such headlines, the media went overboard thus problem gambling rates in the UK are at a fair price or has fallen since the last survey in 2015.
In part, the UGC's report said, “That’s not to say there hasn’t been a rise, it’s just that problem gambling rates remain, in the UGC's own words “statistically stable” thus there is no need for alarm.”



The commission concedes that it is the first time the country has experienced a rise in problem gambling for eighteen years since the debut survey involving 16 age and over in 1999.
In many other countries including those that have not legalized gambling, the number of those that are affected by problem gambling is not that bad.  Australia, for instance, has problem gambling rate at 1.7 percent.