© Provided by The Telegraph Close-up on man holding a cell phone while winning an online bet on a football game
Lucy Frazer, the Culture Secretary, told MPs yesterday that gambling ruins lives and indeed it can. The laws were eased in 2005 under Tony Blair and triggered a rapid expansion of the industry, fuelled by the move online. It is at least debatable whether Labour would have gone ahead had the ubiquity of smartphones been apparent at the time, making it possible to bet without visiting a casino or bookmaker.
Gordon Brown stood against further liberalisation when he became prime minister and sundry reviews have subsequently tried to balance individual freedoms to gamble against the harms that might ensue. Ms Frazer, who has only been in the post a few months, inherited at least three unpublished iterations of the latest bout of reforms finally outlined in a white paper yesterday.
She said the new laws were designed for a digital age in which people could lose serious amounts of money almost unhindered by brakes applied in formal gaming environments. There are to be tougher affordability checks to prevent huge losses, though how these will be enforced is unclear and will require unacceptable intrusions into people’s private lives. Caps are to be tightened on online slot machines while curbs on special deals are proposed. Some proposals are subject to further consultation.
Opponents of gambling liberalisation argue that the measures do not go far enough, and complain that change is too long in coming. But others are uncomfortable with what amounts to yet another regulatory intervention by a Conservative government into the free economy. Certainly, the assumption today appears to be that the state is capable of solving every social ill.