Ban on scratchcards for under-18s to fight gambling ‘epidemic’

A BAN on the sale of lottery scratchcards to 16 and 17-year-olds is being considered by the Government to combat an emerging “epidemic” of gambling among young people.

Mims Davies, the minister for sport and civil society, said she was considering outlawing the sale of scratchcards to anyone under 18 because “we need to be very clear that gambling starts at 18”.

“It’s not to stop people from having fun, it’s to protect those most vulnerable. That’s where the Government needs to step in,” she said in an interview with The House magazine.

Three-quarters of children have bought lottery tickets or scratchcards. Even though it is illegal for under 16s, the Gambling Commission found that 17 per cent of 11 to 15-year-olds had bought scratchcards.

Ms Davies also indicated the Government was prepared to clamp down on gambling advertising in sport if the industry failed to take action to protect children and the vulnerable. She said: “The over-reliance of particular sectors on gambling in itself is unhelpful. Those sports know who they are, and it means that they need to self-police to a degree.

“It’s definitely something that we need to keep under review. Sport needs to recognise what is a healthy relationship between the type of sponsors that they’ve got.

“This is a matter for the football authorities as well. This is a matter for the Gambling Commission where they’re concerned about children. If there is evidence, then the Government has made no bones that we will act.”

The Church of England synod is this weekend expected to back a motion calling for betting firms’ logos to be banned from football teams’ shirts. Nine of the 20 Premier League teams have such deals.

Dr Alan Smith, the Bishop of St Albans, who has led the Church’s campaign on gambling, welcomed Ms Davies’s move against the “arbitrary and illogical” age limit of 16 on scratchcards when all other gambling was banned until 18.

He said the Government needed to go further as there was the risk of an epidemic of gambling among the young. The Gambling Commission says 450,000 children aged 11 to 16 bet regularly, more than those who have taken drugs, smoked or drunk alcohol.

It comes as new research by Aston University suggested that gambling on smartphones presented a greater danger to people prone to addiction than fixed odds betting terminals where the Government has acted to slash maximum stakes from £100 to £2.

Prof Richard Tunney, the university’s head of psychology, pointed to the ease with which people could access betting games on their phones.

“For people psychologically disposed to addictive behaviours this means an outlet for that addiction is now just a tap away,” he said.

The remote gambling sector is now worth £5.4billion.

The study was published in the journal European Addiction Research.