UK Labour Party: gambling operators should foot gambling addicts’ health bill

Gambling operators may be compelled to fund treatment for gambling addicts under new plans from the UK Labour Party.

Deputy party leader Tom Watson’s office released excerpts of a speech which he intends to deliver at the party’s annual conference, which kicked off in Brighton today

Watson will call on UK gambling operators to pay the National Health Service bills for problem gamblers in the speech.

The plans come weeks after the Gambling Commission published a report estimating that the number of British over-16s deemed to be problem gamblers had grown by a third in three years, suggesting that about 430,000 people suffer from a serious habit.

The speech is also expected to apply pressure on the Conservative-led government, which is set to publish its own findings from its triennial gambling review next month. FOBT stakes and potential curbs on gambling advertising are expected to be within the government’s crosshairs.

This article originally appeared on coinslot.co.uk