Innovative scheme to combat gambling addiction in Catalonia

Categories

Addiction Treatment
Alcohol
Drugs
Gambling
In the papers
On TV

News Archive

Home » News » Gambling » Innovative scheme to combat gambling addiction in Catalonia

by Change | 4 Jun 2010

Bookmark

E-mail

Warning messages will be displayed on Catalonian fruit machines in an attempt to curb the rise of gambling addiction.

A new initiative by Catalonia's regional government is aiming to halt the rise of gambling addiction by including health warnings on the autonomous community's fruit machines.

Owners of slot machines have been told to re-programme them so that, in the instance of someone playing on one too long, they are able to switch themselves off, the Guardian reports.

Now, Catalonian slot machines are required to flash messages to the person playing every 30 minutes, with signs attached to them warning of the dangers of addiction.

Mercedes Claramunt, the Catalan interior ministry's director general of gambling and entertainment, said it is the only scheme of its kind on the continent.

"The only similar projects we have seen are in parts of Australia and Canada," she explained to the newspaper.

Ms Claramunt went on to say that players can carry on having a go on the fruit machines later and that the warning messages are merely designed to get them "to think about what they are doing".

Fruit machines were initially installed across Spain in 1981 to cater for tourists, four years after gambling was legalised in the country.

Bookmark this: