English: Betting shop, Formby Ladbrokes is a national gambling company. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
In the past decade, a multitude of new forms of gambling have sprung up. As well as going to a racetrack, betting shop or casino, punters can wager against one another on online betting exchanges, use high-speed fixed-odds betting terminals, or visit any of thousands of sites to gamble online or on mobile phones. There are scratchcards in corner shops, countless TV and online ads for online bingo, slots and sports betting, and Channel 5 regularly runs live roulette tournaments through the night, and boasts of hundreds of thousands of users.
Gambling is now a 24-hour pastime. And a growing number of problem gamblers are finding the temptations available to be overwhelming.
- Ron Turrell, gambling counsellor
There are an estimated 451,000 problem gamblers in the UK according to the 2010 Gambling Prevalence Survey - 0.9% of the population, and a rise of over 90,000 in the three years since the previous such study. A further 900,000 are believed to be at risk: young men, ethnic minorities, students and the unemployed are especially vulnerable.
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