ABSTRACT
Gambling Act 2005 1 The pernicious outcomes of this Act include the following: ● Modest community events run by charities (qv) and voluntary and community sector organisations (qv) – the very activities which governments of all stripes constantly assure us are the lifeblood of a healthy society – are being closed down. These bodies cannot cope with the onerous record-keeping, or afford the substantial application and annual licence fees (£1 900 and £1 500 respectively, in a case known to the author), that are now required under the Act. ● Eight large and eight medium-sized commercial casinos, plus perhaps in due course 88 smaller ones, will be enabled to open (if local authorities so wish) in locations including some of Britain’s poorest boroughs. This widely criticised outcome is a scaled-down version of what the Act was intended to bring about. Initially Secretary of State Tessa Jowell talked approvingly of around 40 supercasinos, each with up to 1 250 unlimited-jackpot slot machines. This grotesque proposal generated intense opposition, and warnings of grave social consequences by government advisors such as Professor James Orford (who teaches clinical and community psychology at the University of Birmingham) and Professor Mark Griffiths of Nottingham Trent University (who has been studying gambling addiction for 20 years). Her first plan was then replaced by the one above, announced in February 2008. Dr Emanuel Moran, a specialist advisor on pathological gambling to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, called Ms Jowell’s latest decision ‘totally reckless’ and ‘shamefully irresponsible’ and predicted that these casinos would bring misery to poor people. 2 As of 2008, useful websites include: ● Directgov www.direct.gov.uk/ ● Office of Public Sector Information www.opsi.gov.uk/
See also: Over-regulation ; and Voluntary and community sector .
