Gambling - "a public health emergency"

[Uncle Mort]

FFS   

The National Disaster Medical System Federal Partners Memorandum of Agreement defines a public health emergency as "an emergency need for health care [medical] services to respond to a disaster, significant outbreak of an infectious disease, bioterrorist attack or other significant or catastrophic event.

Bloody nanny state interfering as usual.

[Barman]

FFS   

The National Disaster Medical System Federal Partners Memorandum of Agreement defines a public health emergency as "an emergency need for health care [medical] services to respond to a disaster, significant outbreak of an infectious disease, bioterrorist attack or other significant or catastrophic event.

Bloody nanny state interfering as usual.

Sickening isn't it...?

They've been trying to ban Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (the crack cocaine of gambling) for years and having achieved it are they happy? Are they fuck.

Same as with any other single issue campaign group, be it gay rights, anti-smoking, anti-booze, etc. when they achieve their stated goal they just crank it up and move on to another target.

These groups never give up because their livelihoods depend on it, there will never be enough restrictions or bans to satisfy them... 

[Uncle Mort]

I used to bet on most days but decided it's a mugs game and gave it up. Addiction? no way. I now bet a few pounds on Saturday's televised horse races just for fun.

Also alcohol addiction, haven't had a drink for three years.

[Barman]

I used to bet on most days but decided it's a mugs game and gave it up. Addiction? no way. I now bet a few pounds on Saturday's televised horse races just for fun.

Also alcohol addiction, haven't had a drink for three years.

There will always be people that do have a 'problem' or addition to gambling, booze, drugs, etc.

Punishing the entire population instead of focusing on those that really need the help is not the correct approach though. Why, it is almost as if they enjoy punishing people... 

[Steve]

I used to bet on most days but decided it's a mugs game and gave it up. Addiction? no way. I now bet a few pounds on Saturday's televised horse races just for fun.

Also alcohol addiction, haven't had a drink for three years.

There will always be people that do have a 'problem' or addition to gambling, booze, drugs, etc.

Punishing the entire population instead of focusing on those that really need the help is not the correct approach though. Why, it is almost as if they enjoy punishing people... 

Exactly

[Grumpmeister]

I used to bet on most days but decided it's a mugs game and gave it up. Addiction? no way. I now bet a few pounds on Saturday's televised horse races just for fun.

Also alcohol addiction, haven't had a drink for three years.

There will always be people that do have a 'problem' or addition to gambling, booze, drugs, etc.

Punishing the entire population instead of focusing on those that really need the help is not the correct approach though. Why, it is almost as if they enjoy punishing people... 

Exactly

I agree but with a significant caveat. Gambling practices which are aimed at children need to be dealt with. Specifically I mean loot boxes in computer games. Basically with these you can 'earn' them in game but need to pay for the keys required to unlock them, this can be even more insidious when you have to buy game specific currency in order to buy the keys as you can find that the amounts you can buy are just under what is needed for a pack of keys forcing you to spend more. The boxes themselves will have a range of random virtual items in them, some purely cosmetic but others that have a significant effect on the game, but in order to get the rarer ones it isn't uncommon to have to go through 50-100 boxes. Now you may think that this isn't real gambling, it's just a few kids playing games so it isn't a major problem but to give you a sense of the scale we are talking about in the more popular AAA franchises, EA's FIFA Ultimate Team is on course to make between $800m and $1bn dollars this year, most of that coming from in game microtransactions and that is just one title. I suspect that if greed hadn't got the better of them in how they pushed lootboxes their Star Wars game would have made at least double that.

The situation has reached the point now that 15 countries signed up to a declaration stating their concerns about these practices:

Austria: Alfred Hacker, Director, Federal Ministry of Finance
Czech Republic: Karel Blaha, Director of the State Oversight Over Gambling Department
France: Charles Coppolani, Chair of the French Online Gaming Regulatory Authority
Gibraltar: Andrew Lyman, Executive Director, Gambling Division, HM Government of Gibraltar
Ireland: Brendan Mac Namara, Principal Officer, Gambling Policy Division, Department of Justice and Equality of Ireland
Isle of Man: Steve Brennan, Chief Executive, Gambling Supervision Commission
Jersey: Jason Lane, Chief Executive, Jersey Gambling Commission
Latvia: Signe Birne, Director of Lotteries and Gambling Supervisory Inspection of Latvia
Malta: Heathcliff Farrugia, Chief Executive Officer, Malta Gaming Authority
The Netherlands: Jan Suyver, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Netherlands Gambling Authority
Norway: Henrik Nordal, Director Deputy General, Norwegian Gaming Authority
Poland: Paweł Gruza, Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Finance
Portugal: Teresa Monteiro, Vice-President of Turismo de Portugal, I.P
Spain: Juan Espinosa García, CEO, Directorate General for Gambling Regulation
Washington State: David Trujillo, Director, Washington State Gambling Commission
UK: Neil McArthur, Chief Executive Officer, UK Gambling Commission

Plus earlier this year The Netherlands banned them outright and Belgium has recently followed suit. Although unsurprisingly EA is taking them to court over the decision.

[Uncle Mort]

The question there is "how are children accessing money?"

[Nick]

 

[Grumpmeister]

The question there is "how are children accessing money?"

You can link Paypal to bank accounts and most of the game companies accept payment that way.

[Uncle Mort]

The question there is "how are children accessing money?"

You can link Paypal to bank accounts and most of the game companies accept payment that way.

Children have Paypal and bank accounts? I think I'm inclined to blame the parents.

[Barman]

The question there is "how are children accessing money?"

Precisely!

I remember when we were kids like they had those 'collectable' cards like football teams and stuff... You bought a pack of them, stuck them in an album and then swapped duplicate cards with others. Inevitably, certain cards were limited so kids ended up buying 100s of cards to finally get the last one to complete the album...

I never did it, we simply couldn't afford such things... 

[Nick]

And how did The Boy get through £5K in his first 6 weeks at university?? 

[Grumpmeister]

The question there is "how are children accessing money?"

You can link Paypal to bank accounts and most of the game companies accept payment that way.

Children have Paypal and bank accounts? I think I'm inclined to blame the parents.

Child bank accounts are available from 11 upwards but you do need parental permission to open up a Paypal account if you are under 18. The problem is that given the amount of online purchase protection you get with the account it's seen as a popular option.

The other option, one which is a lot harder for parents to keep track of, are the cash/gift cards. There are plenty of places that sell them and I've seen them go for anything between £15 and £50 depending on the company/platform they are for.

[Grumpmeister]

And how did The Boy get through £5K in his first 6 weeks at university?? 

Replacement mobile phones? 

[Nick]