The Government is clamping down on young people's ability to gamble, but fears remain about access to online betting. In measures announced last week, it revealed its intention to ban fruit machines from unlicensed premises such as takeaways from 2006, and to make social responsibility a condition of gambling licences.
The UK gambling industry has a turnover of 42bn a year and it is estimated that three-quarters of 12- to 15-year-olds have played fruit machines, while nearly half have played Lotto scratchcards.
Andrew Poole, young people's education officer at Gamcare, said: "Around a third of all calls to our helpline come from under-25s, many of whom have had a gambling problem for some years."
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