Gambling Commission in the UK suggests an increase in problem gambling

A recent survey suggests that problem gambling in the UK is on the increase and new regulations that were introduced in 2005 are to blame but it also suggests that the figures are not exact and a change in testing methods could also influence the result which according to us at casinos.ie makes it all pretty pointless. The Gambling Commission of the UK published the report having surveyed less than 8000 people and concluded “The survey indicates that a small but probably growing proportion of the population have serious problems with their gambling” which at www.casinos.ie is no surprise but the problem is how do to judge that somebody is a problem gambler. Most folk will agree that asking somebody directly if they are a problem gambler is unlikely to provide a true result as those do have a problem are mostly either not going to admit to it or indeed they do not realise that the problem exists or nobody has defined what constitutes a problem gambler. Some would say that a problem gambler is one who chases their losses which we assume to mean somebody who increases stakes on a regular basis to try and recuperate previous losses and if this is the definition we would agree that this is not a good policy. It is estimated that 73% of the adult population gamble which includes all forms of gambling including lotteries and Bingo where we suspect most people will not increase their stakes on a regular basis and less than 1% of those might have an issue so fortunately the problem is not as widespread as it might be. These are all figures for the UK but at casinos.ie we suspect that a similar survey for Ireland would probably produce very similar results; the point is, do not chase your losses and do not become a problem gambler; play for the pure enjoyment and if you happen to win so much the better..