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| Gambling Research/News U.K. |
6/29/2006: British Medical Association speak on on gambling
At the annual meeting of the British Medical Association doctors called for more research into treatment and prevention into the social poisoning of gambling. This comes as Glasgow Scotland shortlists for one of the UK’s proposed super casinos.
Dr David Sinclair, a GP in Leven, Fife, said doctors felt “like bunnies in the headlights of the gambling lorry” and were expecting more patients to come to them addicted to betting while they lacked guidance on how to treat them.
He called for the BMA’s board of science to look at gambling addiction and its treatment in the NHS in Scotland and across the UK, a motion passed by delegates. He said he and colleagues in Fife had been unable to find information on how to treat and refer gambling addicts.
“Gambling addiction is as corrosive as drug addiction and alcoholism in terms of family break-up and financial ruin. It is a social disease,” he said. “For those who become hooked on gambling, we need to know how to help them.”
During it’s annual conference in Belfast the British Medical Association spoke out about the rise of gambling venues. The conference was in Belfast and the ’supercasinio’ shorted-listed for Glasgow was addressed
Dr Jan Wise, a consultant psychiatrist in London, told the conference the consequences of problem gambling could be “catastrophic”.
He said an estimated 275,000 to 350,000 people in the UK were gambling addicts. Figures also show that 75 per cent of 12 to 15-year-olds have played on slot machines, and five per cent show signs of addiction.
A spokesman for Gamblers Anonymous Scotland said the charity was seeing more and more people addicted to internet gambling and roulette.
“They do not see it as hard cash. They are playing with chips or online money and it is not until the statement arrives that they realise they are in trouble,” he said.
“There are all these financial institutions throwing money at people. The TV in the afternoon is wall-to-wall adverts offering loans of £15,000 or more and it makes it too easy to get into debt. And it is not just the gambler who suffers, it is everyone around them.”
Dr Peter Terry, chairman of the British Medical Association’s Scottish wing disagrees saying it is not a health problem because gambling addiction is not a physical addiction. He sees it as a social problem.
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