Cut out this cancer that destroys families

MAIL COMMENT: Cut out this cancer that destroys families

By Daily Mail Comment
PUBLISHED: 5 August 2012

As the scale of Britain’s gambling addiction is laid horrifyingly bare, the Mail has one question for the Government: do ministers propose just to sit back and watch this social cancer grow?
Shocking new figures show Britons stake tens of billions – and fast rising – on high-stakes gambling machines each year, netting bookmakers over £1billion.
Even more disturbing is that these machines, so addictive that critics call them the ‘crack cocaine’ of gambling, are overwhelmingly concentrated in the poorest areas of highest unemployment.

Disgraceful: Slot machines, so addictive they are called the 'crack cocaine' of gambling net bookmakers over £1billion

This means much of the money staked (and lost) comes from benefits and family budgets for essentials, while addiction grows among the young.


This is exploitation of the cruellest and most immoral kind. It is also a direct affront to the Coalition’s aim of weaning Britain off the ‘something for nothing’ culture, which has done such incalculable harm to our economy and society.
Even Labour’s Harriet Harman admits her party was wrong to relax restrictions on gambling, saying: ‘If we had known then what we know now, we shouldn’t have allowed this. It’s not just ruining the high street, it’s ruining people’s lives.’
Well noticed, Ms Harman. But the last government was repeatedly warned – not least by this paper – about the pernicious and wholly predictable effects of its liberalisation measures.
With gross irresponsibility, MPs on the Commons culture committee suggests lifting curbs on the number of high-stakes machines each betting shop may operate, arguing that this will mean fewer clusters of gambling outlets on high streets.
Do they seriously believe this is the only problem and ruined lives don’t matter?
The Coalition’s urgent task is to cut out the cancer, so cynically nourished by Labour, before it can spread any further. Doing nothing is not an option.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2184199/Cut-cancer-destroys-families.html#ixzz22lk8pXaP