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    More than five million Britons want to reduce or quit gambling
    United Kingdom

    More than five million Britons want to reduce or quit gambling

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    42 Comments

    1. FamousInMyFrontRoom on

      Good for them for recognising the problem. Can’t be easy with all of these adverts surrounding sport.

    2. Mr_Rockmore on

      The UK government has a lot to answer for by letting gambling become as problematic as it has in this country. It netted £11.5bn last year and only raised £2.5bn in tax. Gambling firms are absolutely getting away with it and the level of marketing and adverts designed to draw people in and get addicted is just ridiculous.

      Either tax it more or introduce more restrictions on bookies and online casinos.

    3. Professional-Bat4134 on

      If only Britain wanted them to reduce or quit gambling too.

      Instead it would rather allow adverts to be plastered at every turn.

    4. Dissidant on

      Alot higher those are just the ones seeking help
      And these articles only look at conventional gambling like betting shops/apps, machines, lottery etc and don’t consider non tangible stuff like gaming related (micro transactions, loot crates, cards etc) which are targeted at the young

      Don’t realise just how many adverts are hammered at people till you forgot to update your ad blocker one day either. Absolutely horrendous on YT and I don’t even gamble, like 3 in a row all casino stuff

      I’ve been to alot of different areas for work purposes and the amount of physical shops you see too, its probably the only thing you’ll see more of in the little high street than barber/vape/charity shops

    5. Slobberchops_ on

      Gambling is a cancer on our society. When I was a student in the 90s I had a job at Billy Hills. There was one guy there who’d always bet hundreds on the horses, he was a really nice guy and always friendly. One day he won big — I can’t remember exactly how much, but it was thousands. He was absolutely furious and kept calling himself an idiot not to have staked more on the horse that he knew was going to win.

      Even winning doesn’t make hardcore gamblers happy. So sad.

    6. Metalsteve1989 on

      I mean whenever i watch youtube or tv I am spammed with gambling ads. It’s totally out of control and it certainly wont help addicts.

    7. LungHeadZ on

      That’s like 10% of people, not even. 1 in 10 people.

      I’m not opposed, I don’t gamble excessively anyway but it’s not shocking. There are always going to be people who dislike something that others like.

      Though, 1/10 chance of someone not* liking my product, I’m gonna sell it. That’s a viable risk

      Edit: I based it off 60million people. Probably a few more than that nowadays, I haven’t checked the population since circa 2010 but won’t be enough of an increase to detract from my point,

    8. ermCaz on

      How do people actually get in to gambling? I was taught from a young age that it’s bad, so have never once put money down on anything..

    10. InternationalTie4784 on

      As society becomes more and more alienated, inflation and unemployment force some people to gamble to earn money.The government needs to care more about the people than thinking about taxes and profits

    11. 3bagsfull-Sir8282 on

      I allways remember playing fifa with my son, it was loot based and you bought rewards, and won items in packs with packs bought by the rewards you purchased

      I remember him saying how he never got good rewards, no ronaldos, no messi cards ect ect.. he was pretty young boy at that time,

      Fifa in it’s simplest form is a game for kids & adults but the deeper and more financial rewards (profit wise) for EA / Fifa is the money spent on people gambling for rewarding packs, it taps in to peoples psyche, Its based on hopium, based on aderenilin & dopamine, and the more you spend the better chances you have of owning messi, ronaldo ect.. the industry literally tapped in to young peoples minds and planted the early seeds of gambling and all the varioius feelings it come with, excitement, anticipation, the feeling of being rewarded.

      This is how these corporations work & make billions they tap in to human emotions and take your money.

      Pretty widespread now and not the usual form of gambling, bingo type draw, win apps, facebook draws all types of gambling aswell

    13. Jensablefur on

      Start by banning the adverts.

      Smoking ads banned, but between every sports game we’ve got wall to wall:

      “MONEY FUN FREE BETS FREE BETS MONEY GET RICH MONEY FREE MONEY BET BET BET MONEY FUN MONEY GET RICH EASY!!!!

      *Rapid whisper* : whenthefunstopsstop”

      We’ve all seen them.

    14. Vdubnub88 on

      I love spending £10 a week on a football accumulator, you have more chance than winning on sport than you do the national lottery. i’ve had some big wins,

      There are ways to restrict your accounts to cap your weekly spend or monthly spend, i think alot of people just dont know how to control themselves…

    15. Scary-Spinach1955 on

      Russell Howard said it best …

      PUT A BET ON!!!
      PUT A BET ON!!!!!!!
      PUT A BET ON!!!?!!!!!!!??!?;!!!!!?;
      PUT A BET ON!!!!!!!!((!!!(!(!)!)??/?/!((!!!!!

      … when the fun stops, stop.

    16. Wadarkhu on

      Ban the bet shops from the streets and above betting websites behind the “online safety act” filter.

    17. VegetableTotal3799 on

      Tax these parasites out of existence .. its a cancer .. its mugs game and only the bookies win… nige thinks they are a great bunch of lads .. so lets go woke and make them go broke

    18. rev-fr-john on

      It’ll take a brave or different religious government to fix this problem, I had an employee ask for an advance on his wages a few years ago, I assumed it was for something remotely sensible, but on the following day he was almost suicidal, he’d put the £1,200 on a horse that didn’t win, his grillfiend went fucking mental at me!

    20. dr_barnowl on

      I mean, it only took 17M Britons to vote us out of the EU, this sounds like a substantial democratic movement to ban gambling to me.

    21. ciphd on

      Every time I turn on my ignition and the radio kicks in it’s either jet2 holidays or virgin games adverts

    22. Discopants180 on

      It’s not ideal but any other subject Reddit would be tearing apart the methodology of that survey.

    23. greenpowerman99 on

      This is an opportunity for the chancellor to raise serious taxes on the gambling industry and on individual gamblers.
      She would be doing the country a favour and it would raise a significant amount of additional revenue.

    25. Wilkomon on

      It’s crazy the amount of ads I get for gambling
      It should be like cigarettes where the advertising is banned

    27. therealstrongwoman on

      Johnny Vegas and all the other gambling supporting celebrities and sports “stars” won’t be happy about this.

    29. ron_mcphatty on

      And immediately below this post on my feed, an ad for bet365. The internet is such an awful place.

    30. J1mj0hns0n on

      I mean it’s obvious it’s happening with all the stop gambling adverts and shops around the place, but I just can’t get my head around it at all, I’ve never been in a Betfred or William hill and the least mainstream lottery I’ve ever done is the postcode lottery.

    31. Jimmysquits on

      Gambling ads seem absolutely inescapable, and personally, even a bit of fictional gambling in a tv show or film gives me the itch. It’s almost like it’s addictive.

    32. bobblebob100 on

      I agree something needs to be done about gambling, but its interesting people want the Government to step in for this, but when kids see suicide and voilent stuff on social media they say its not the Governments job to step in its parents

    33. andimacg on

      I left the UK in 2008 and came back in 2019. I was absolutely stunning by the amount of gambling ads on TV. It was like every ad break had at least 3 gambling ads.

    34. PMMEGDDD on

      I don’t even gamble and I keep getting bombarded with gambling ads.

      Banning the ads could be a right step?

    35. Psychosociety on

      Can’t go down the high street of even villages anymore without finding at least one bookie. Shut them all the fuck down.

    36. Efficient_Sky5173 on

      I bet a fiver that they won’t quit. One in a billion, the chance of the government scrapping the fool’s tax.

    37. throwawayreddit48151 on

      You know what would make this easier? if every single TV channel/streaming service wasn’t filled with gambling ads.

      I am not someone who gambles, but I am absolutely livid about every single stupid Bingo ad I see (not to mention the even worse ones). How can someone who’s trying to stop gambling do so when these are shoved into every single damn thing?

      These should be outlawed or at the very least restricted to 18+ programmes/times.

    38. Mgtks on

      Stop the constant fucking adverts then. No promotions, no deals, no ‘free bets’, nothing at all to encourage extra betting.

      Just promote their existence and their features. Done.

      And tax the crap out of it.

    41. richardbaxter on

      Vice really should carry a high rate of tax. The harm it does and ultimately costs the state is reason alone. They’re a scar on the high street and a scar on our towns. 

    42. umtala on

      Commercial gambling should be banned. It’s a parasitic industry that preys on the poor.

      Yes it’s part of our national culture, but not all cultural heritage is worth keeping.