NHS Calls for Gambling Treatment Levy

The NHS has called for a mandatory gambling treatment levy to support the organisation in treating gambling addicts.

According to the Claire Murdoch, national mental health director for NHS England, the NHS has been left to ‘pick up the pieces’ of gambling-related health issues, believing the current voluntary funding system to be inadequate.

Murdoch tells that more than 750 individuals have been sent to clinics since April of last year. 

“After seeing the destruction the gambling industry has caused to young people in this country, it is clear that firms are focused on profit at the expense of people’s health, while the NHS is increasingly left to pick up the pieces,” she said.

“In a year when the NHS has dealt with our biggest challenge yet in Covid-19, the health service’s psychologists and nurses having been treating hundreds of people with severe gambling addictions.

“The gambling industry must take more responsibility, as the nation has come together over the last year to support the NHS, whether it be volunteering as vaccinators or showing their gratitude to staff. The bookmakers must also step up and agree to a mandatory levy to pay for dealing with the harms of problem gambling.”