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Online gambling industry is using Big Tobacco's playbook, health experts warn
Online gambling has become big business, gaining record numbers of users over the pandemic and becoming a common sight on Twitch. Now, an international group of public health experts have accused the gambling industry of employing the same tactics used for decades by Big Tobacco in an attempt to steer the public and academic debate to their advantage and weaken government oversight of the quickly burgeoning industry.
The experts, who work at universities in Australia, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Tanzania, together published an editorial in the peer-reviewed journal Health Promotion International this month arguing that the gambling industry has become “one of the most innovative health-harming industries of recent times,” in part by operating “from a similar playbook” to the tobacco and alcohol industries. The experts say the development poses “widespread threats to global public health.”
In the editorial, the experts express particular concern with the gambling industry “co-opting the production of research” about its own industry and otherwise controlling the conversation around gambling’s consequences and effects. Specifically, the authors criticize the industry’s large role in the academic debate around gambling, which includes direct and indirect funding of academic research on gambling, as well as sponsoring and attending “industry-friendly” academic conferences.
Similarly, the authors express concern about the way the industry has been able to aggressively lobby “all levels of government with few constraints.” The authors note that industry representatives have even become regularly involved “in government advisory groups” and consult on regulations that would impact their own industry.
This has allowed them to steer the conversation about how to solve “problems they have caused” while appearing only to promote a sense of corporate responsibility, the authors argue.
To reverse these trends, the authors argue that governments around the world should adopt a similar framework to that created by the World Health Organization in 2003 to curb the tobacco industry’s influence on public policy.
Back then, 183 countries recognized the “fundamental and irreconcilable conflict between the tobacco industry’s interests and public health policy interests” and decided to “protect their public health policies” from “vested interests of the tobacco industry. Now, the authors state, the same idea should be applied to gambling.
Source: Vice, 25 September 2023
See also: Health Promotion International - Global public health action is needed to counter the commercial gambling industry
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Number of Scots receiving alcohol abuse treatment drops by 40%
The number of people in Scotland receiving treatment for drinking problems has dropped by 40 per cent in the past eight years as calls increase for a legal right to treatment.
A total of 19,617 people accessed alcohol treatment programmes in 2021-22, compared with 32,556 in 2013-14, according to figures obtained by the Scottish Conservatives.
Figures published last month showed that there were 1,276 deaths in Scotland as a result of alcohol misuse last year, the highest annual number recorded in 14 years.
Miles Briggs, a Tory MSP, said the figures were “deeply alarming” and argued they underlined the need for the Right to Addiction Recovery Bill, which was first proposed by the party leader, Douglas Ross, in 2021, before the Holyrood election.
If passed, the bill would give a legal right to receive treatment to everyone with a drug or alcohol problem.
Last week Elena Whitham, the SNP minister for drug and alcohol policy, put forward proposals to increase the minimum unit price for alcohol in Scotland to 65p, up from 50p at present. This will raise the price of a bottle of whisky to more than £18, and the cost of a bottle of wine would go up by at least £1.35.
The term for the present minimum unit price will come to an end on April 30 next year. It was introduced in 2018 to reduce the consumption of alcohol and to prevent problems caused by drinking. However, critics argue that it has been ineffective.
Research published by the University of Sheffield last week suggested that inflation and the pandemic have weakened the effect of the policy. The study found that heavier drinkers had increased their alcohol consumption during 2020, cancelling out some of the impacts of the policy. People drinking within the guideline of 14 units a week had tended to reduce their drinking.
Source: The Times, 26 September 2023
See also: University of Sheffield - Inflation and the COVID-19 pandemic have eroded the effectiveness of Minimum Unit Pricing for alcohol in Scotland
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Illegal vapes worth over £95k seized in shop raids
Illegal vapes worth more than £95,000 have been seized in Greater Manchester.
Shops in Stockport and Burnage were found to be selling the disposable vapes which also had packaging and flavouring to "appeal to children", police said.
There are strict rules limiting nicotine strength and the amount of liquid in disposable e-cigarettes.
Sgt Stuart Farrell said increased use of "cheaper illicit and unregulated vape" was "extremely concerning".
Greater Manchester Police worked in partnership with Trading Standards to seize vapes worth £80,000 at three stores in Stockport and £16,500 worth of vapes from an outlet in Burnage.
"These results will have made a dent in the pockets of these traders," he said.
"Many of the disposable vapes seized had packaging and flavouring aimed specifically to appeal to children and young people.”
Source: BBC news, 26 September 2023
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