Anti-gambling measures for new Supercasinos

The Times reported on Monday 13 March 2006 that far from there being one new Supercasino in our cities, there could be as many as 1000 within 10 years, a with a smaller casino on every high-street. This is bad news for those who cannot control their gambling habits and have a money-losing addiction. In fact, if you are registered as a gambling addict you could be barred from casinos under strict new guidelines being drawn up by the Gambling Commission. The Commission is proposing that online casinos question their customers to find out if they are gambling within their means, and to provide warnings to players who may have a problem. If it persists a customer will be asked to sign a self-exclusion form banning them from playing at that casino.

Once they have the go-ahead for opening, new land-based casinos have already been told to put in place such anti-gambling measures as clocks (so you know how long you've been playing); windows (so you can see if it is day time or night time); no free drinks at the gaming table (so you have to leave the table to get a drink) and gambling guidance leaflets to be freely and obviously available.

Online casinos can't have the same rules applied about windows and drinks, but they are to be forced to check on the age of players, who must be over 18. However, the guidelines are for new UK sites, not ones in existence or who are based overseas.

And the gambling Commission is looking at reversing other areas of contention in casinos. At the moment punters cannot tip staff, nor can staff form relationships with members, because of fears of collusion and favouritism.

The Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice indicates that it will monitor problem gambling and do research into combating it and detecting the problem signs. But even government departments can't agree on how many gambling addicts there are. One says 1% of the population, another says 0.6%. However scare stories over how many addicts there will be and how many casinos there will be to lure them will continue. New casinos were supposed to help in regeneration of city areas, but many fear that 24 hour opening may bring associated problems of drunks and late-night anti-social behaviour rather than more shopping, eating and entertainment as had been hoped.

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