Online stake limits of between £2 and £15 per spin and
restrictions on bonus offers are among reforms proposed by the Department for
Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in its white paper, ‘High stakes: gambling
reform for the digital age’, published last week.
Other proposals include a mandatory levy on betting firms to pay
for addiction treatment, new player protection checks, a horseracing levy and
tougher powers for the Gambling Commission to enable it to tackle black market
operators through court orders and work with internet service providers to
block illegal gambling sites.
The DCMS said the UK has 30,000 problem gamblers. In March, the
Gambling Commission fined bookmakers William Hill £19m for failures, including
letting a customer spend £23,000 in 20 minutes.
Culture secretary Lucy Frazer said: ‘We live in an age where people have a virtual mobile casino in their pockets.’
