Gambling addiction is a widespread problem and all countries take urgent measures towards limiting the access to gambling activities namely with the aim of reducing the percentage of addicts. The authorities of Wales are now trying to do their best to reduce the negative impact of the gambling activities in the region.
According to the latest reports, every Welsh resident spends £700 on average on high stakes gambling machines annually. It was also said in the report that the total amount of money, spent on betting terminals is £1.6 billion.
The local experts have recently came up with a new campaign, intended to deal with the complicated problem.
The high stakes gaming machines are widespread. They are available at betting shops where other gaming activities such as roulette are offered. The opponents of these machines claim that they encourage the players spend a great part of their time making stakes and all of a sudden they get involved in the constant battle of winning the high payout the stake machines provide.
The organizers of the campaign proposed a maximum stake of £2 to be introduced.
Another report claims that the machines, available in Wales, cost the players millions pounds in stakes every year. The situation is a bit more optimistic in Cardiff, South Wales Valleys and North Wales but yet the problem exists and it requires the urgent attention of the local gambling regulators.
As far as the gambling addiction in England and Wales is concerned, 2% of the males can be described as Pathological Gamblers. It is a well known fact that the gambling addiction leads to financial, social and emotional issues and sometimes it takes years to the player to overcome the problem.
Given the fact that the gambling activities are so accessible, dealing with the gambling addiction issue becomes even more complicated.
One of the Welsh gambling regulators added that the popularity of the gambling activities is rapidly growing. The total quantity of FOBT machines, located on the territory of Wales, is 1,500. The daily sum of stakes is £3,000, the annual was estimated to be £34,000.
The project that is about to be launched pretty soon is encouraging people who have gambling problems to share them with experts and work towards solving them.
The organizers said that their utmost goal is ensuring high quality services and supporting the players who find it difficult to resist making stakes.
A representative of the local Centre for Action on Dependency and Addiction commented that the organisation is delighted to see that they have reliable assistants for fighting the gambling addiction problems and expressed their hopes for expanding the area they cover with the aim of helping more and more problematic players in the region.
