New fund for gambling addiction treatment

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by Change | 12 Jun 2009

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The gaming industry has established a new fund that will help improve gambling addiction treatment services throughout the UK, it has been revealed.

rehab clinics designed to help people with their gambling problems are set to benefit from a new fund that has been established by the gaming industry, the Financial Times reports.

According to the newspaper, Britain's gambling industry has chosen to provide £15 million over the next three years that will be ploughed into addiction treatment services.

The move has been designed to head off a government threat to create a statutory tax on all gambling bodies, which would have been used to fund research and treatment programmes aimed at helping people with gambling addictions.

Sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe warned the industry that if the voluntary scheme fails to raise the money required, the government will return to the idea of a mandatory levy.

"The protection of vulnerable people remains my number one priority and I will not be giving the industry a second chance to put this right," Mr Sutcliffe told the newspaper.

Meanwhile, in the US, there are concerns that there is not enough money coming from casinos to help rehab centres treat problem gamblers.

DodgeCity.com reports current legislation is unlikely to provide much money from the region's casinos to help fight gambling addictions in the state.

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