Petition Stop Children Gambling

Stop children gambling. The Gambling Commission in 2008 found that almost 1m children had gambling problems, and Ipsos MORI research in June 2011 reported that 1 in 4 children aged 11-15 had gambled the previous week. Everyday our children will see advertising enticing them to gamble with offers of free bets luring them in, and though internet gambling and bingo websites claim to ban children under the age of 18, in reality it is all too easy for children to access them from their PCs and mobile phones. Most have a simple verification process - just ticking a box saying that they are over 18. Gambling can lead to serious debt, crime and long term addiction, resulting in devastating problems for the children and their families. This growing problem will continue to get worse unless the website operators are required to introduce age verification processes which actually work. We call upon the Government to require them to introduce effective controls and hold them to account.