Wednesday, January 10, 2007

A Scottish MP has called for credit card companies to place a limit on the
amount that online players can spend on Internet gambling. Mike Weir, the
Scottish National Party (SNP) MP for Angus, called for a limit to be set at
£1,000 a week, and also called sites to limit players to using one credit
card each. The plea comes after a spate of cases where players, suspected to
have a gambling addiction have spent thousands of pounds using other
people's
cards. APACS, which represents the card industry, and Partygaming, say there
are significant problems with the idea and see the solution in treating the
player's addiction at their source.
The average online gambler in the UK is in debt to the tune of £25,000,
while the gambling industry already pays £3 million a year into a trust to
deal with the issue of problem gambling.