Gambling companies are exploiting addicts and disproportionately hitting poorer communities, the culture secretary said as she announced curbs on the industry to tackle addiction.

On Thursday the government will publish its long-awaited gambling white paper which includes plans for a levy on gambling companies; maximum stakes for online slot machines; and affordability checks to stop problem gamblers.

Writing in The Times, Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary, says that gambling apps on mobile phones have for some become “a trapdoor to despair and isolation”. The losses to the families of addicts who have killed themselves are “unimaginable”.

“The rise of the smartphone means gambling is ubiquitous,” Frazer writes

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“We live in a freedom-loving democracy where, for the overwhelming majority of adults, betting is a bit of fun and it doesn’t come with ruinous consequences,” she writes. “But