To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of children who are living with parents who have problems with gambling.
Answered on
3 October 2018
The Government does not hold data on the number of children living with parents who have problems with gambling. The Gambling Commission recently published Gambling behaviour in Great Britain 2016, which reports participation, at-risk gambling and problem gambling rates. The data, drawn from combined Health surveys, shows that the rate of problem gambling in Great Britain was 0.7%, a figure which has remained relatively stable over many years.
The Government's response to the Review of Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility set out a number of initiatives to improve understanding of gambling-related harm, how to prevent and reduce it, the need for treatment and the most effective means of delivering it. This was part of a wider package of measures designed to protect those vulnerable to harm, including reducing the maximum stake from £100 to £2 on B2 gaming machines and strengthening protections around gambling advertising and online gambling.