I received a standard acknowledgement from the Prime Ministers Office to this letter on gambling issues.
Anthony Franklin
address deleted
Rt Hon Gordon Brown
MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
SW1A 2AA
22nd
October 2008.
Dear Prime Minister,
I would like to apply
to Her Majesty’s Government for a £100,000
loan to offset against highly toxic investments that went wrong in the casino.
I am in the process of stepping down from my position as a problem gambler and
do not expect any payoff for doing so.
In all seriousness your leadership is needed to tackle
issues related to gambling and maybe in the midst of the global financial
crisis is the right time to address an issue that in some way draws a parallel
to the worst excesses of the city trading floors around the world.
I would ask for your leadership to work with the banking
industry to discontinue a highly irresponsible lending practise of allowing
gambling to be funded through borrowing, in particular the use of payment cards
linked to any form of credit. (credit cards, debit cards linked to overdrafts)
The UK
should lead the way in setting world class business ethics and responsible
lending practises.
As you state in your personal note on the Number 10 website,
the digital world has undergone a revolution in recent years and is continuing
to develop at a tremendous pace. The gambling industry has taken advantage of
this revolution and now offers possibilities to gamble through a variety of
handheld digital mediums. E.g. Mobile Phones, Notebooks, PCs, Blackberry etc.
Unfortunately there does not seem to be the same innovation
in respect of safeguards for problem gamblers. In fact most gambling operators
pay lip service to ‘responsible gambling’ and/or know how to circumvent
existing gambling legislation by for example locating key equipment offshore. I
would ask for your leadership to work with the new gambling regulator to
investigate the use of technology to introduce a database similar to that of a
credit bureau but that holds a list of gamblers who have requested self
exclusion. And that through legislation you require all gambling operators
providing a service to UK citizens to check the database before opening an
account and at regular intervals thereafter.
It is extremely difficult to sum up the destruction that
gambling can cause in the context of a letter. My own personal experience is
such that I would not want anybody to go through what I or my family have and
continue to suffer. In particular gambling through digital mediums seems to have
no limits to the amounts one can lose. If you have £100,000 in credit then you
can spend it within hours, there are no safeguards to prevent you from doing
so.
Worrying signs already exist that we are developing a nation
of problem gamblers. Stronger legislation is needed to protect those
vulnerable people, in conjunction with educating the young about the dangers of
gambling.
Sincerely,
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