A man from Birmingham, UK has gambled away £300,00 betting on the Internet. A report from icBirmingham gives few details except that the man is an office worker who kept his gambling addiction secret from family and friends until finally he sought help from a counseling group, GamCare. GamCare currently receives more than 600 calls a year from people in the West Midlands, the area that the unlucky punter comes from.
A GamCare spokesman said: 'He could end up spending the rest of his life paying off this amount. We are working with him and the internet company to try to resolve this and bring the debt down.'
No details of which online establishments the man gambled at were available.
The UK government is planning legislation to regulate Internet gambling from the UK. Gambling experts welcome the increased regulation of sites if the reforms make it through parliament, but there are also concerns that more online gambling will lead to more problem gamblers. A spokesman for self-help group Gamblers Anonymous, said: 'Internet gambling is beginning to manifest more and more problems. Legalising sites in the UK may enable better regulation of the industry.”
'There is evidence to show that in other countries where the gambling laws have been relaxed, such as Australia and Canada, the number of problem gamblers has increased.'
The UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) set out proposals for the regulation of Internet gambling in April as part of a paper on the future regulation of remote gambling.
'Effective regulation is by far the most important consideration,' it concluded.
'But as long as that is not undermined, every effort should be made to appreciate the commercial pressures faced by licensed gambling operators and to help them compete with their competitors.'@@@
A GamCare spokesman said: 'He could end up spending the rest of his life paying off this amount. We are working with him and the internet company to try to resolve this and bring the debt down.'
No details of which online establishments the man gambled at were available.
The UK government is planning legislation to regulate Internet gambling from the UK. Gambling experts welcome the increased regulation of sites if the reforms make it through parliament, but there are also concerns that more online gambling will lead to more problem gamblers. A spokesman for self-help group Gamblers Anonymous, said: 'Internet gambling is beginning to manifest more and more problems. Legalising sites in the UK may enable better regulation of the industry.”
'There is evidence to show that in other countries where the gambling laws have been relaxed, such as Australia and Canada, the number of problem gamblers has increased.'
The UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) set out proposals for the regulation of Internet gambling in April as part of a paper on the future regulation of remote gambling.
'Effective regulation is by far the most important consideration,' it concluded.
'But as long as that is not undermined, every effort should be made to appreciate the commercial pressures faced by licensed gambling operators and to help them compete with their competitors.'@@@
