Agenda item

To receive a report from the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health and the Director of Public Health, briefing the committee on problem gambling and the issues involved in tackling this in Kent, and seeking the committee’s comment and suggestions to strengthen future delivery.

Ms J Mookherjee, Public Health Consultant, was in attendance for this item.

1.            Ms Mookherjee introduced the report and Members then made the following comments:-

a)    data on the number of people addicted to gambling was not systematically collected in Kent, and there was no agreed definition of a ‘problem gambler’ other than the national guidance.  It was agreed that addiction to gambling needed to be understood in the same way as addiction to drugs or alcohol;

b)    large professional gambling outlet chains seemed to target the most deprived areas of the county in which to set up shops. Traditional bookmakers were being replaced by larger companies which had little relationship with their clientele;

c)    fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) were a cause for concern as they took so much money from users while offering very limited pay-out. Tracey Crouch, MP for Chatham and Aylesford, had submitted a report to the Treasury seeking to have the play limit on FOBTs set at £2. It would be useful to be able to access the data used by Mrs Crouch;

d)    the Leader, Mr P B Carter, supported the comments made and added his concerns about the prevalence of gambling, as well as other addictions, including targeting workers in the construction industry.  He suggested that gambling should have a higher priority among public health work streams; 

e)     there was a huge difference between someone who could afford to enjoy an occasional ‘flutter’ at the races and those with a daily habit of spending their pay in betting shops instead of spending it on food and bills. The potential impact of gambling addiction on family life was huge;

f)     concern was expressed that the advertising campaign ‘When the fun stops, STOP’ was insufficient to convey the dangers and potentially-destructive nature of a gambling habit;

g)    online gambling sites had no upper stake limit and players could spend, and lose track of, a lot of money very quickly. Younger teenagers with good computer skills could access these sites illegally by making themselves appear older;

h)    reference was made to a planning application submitted for a betting shop in a small and mostly-affluent rural town in Kent which was approved despite much local opposition. In another location, a betting shop had been established next to a post office, surely encouraging people to spend in one the money they had just withdrawn from the other; and

i)     use of betting shops and gambling apps was now seen as a ‘normal’ and acceptable recreational activity, whereas visiting a betting shop used to be clandestine, and not something one would wish to be seen doing.  Members agreed that online gambling sites were advertised on television as being glamourous and fun, and a way of making like-minded friends. Advertising of such sites was currently run throughout the day but could be limited to after a ‘watershed’, in a similar way as adult content in television programming.

2.             Ms Mookherjee thanked Members for their comments and said that, now the County Council had responsibility for public health work, it could promote and move forward on work streams to achieve its aim of integrated, person-centred services in which addictions of all kinds would have a greater focus. A good source of localised data, specific to Kent, would support this, as could the insights and experience apparent from Members’ comments.  She advised the committee that approximately 1.5% of the adult population were believed to have compulsive behaviour patterns, with those who had had negative childhood experiences being more at risk of developing such behaviours.

3.            It was RESOLVED that:-

a)    the briefing on problem gambling, the issues involved in tackling these in Kent, and Members’ comments on the issue, set out above, be noted; and

b)    the work being undertaken to address these issues be endorsed.