Glasgow councillors will look at what powers the authority has to crackdown on “ubiquitous” gambling advertising.
Dr Michelle Gillies, a consultant for the Scottish Public Health Network, told elected members how gambling is more prevalent among adolescents in the UK than smoking, alcohol and drug use.
It has been labelled a “significant public health issue” – and councillors backed calls for a summit in the city to draw up plans to tackle the problem.
Bailie Annette Christie, convener for the Wellbeing, Empowerment, Community and Citizen Engagement committee, said: “Research into gambling marketing campaigns, online gambling advertising and the increasing conflation between gambling and gaming, reveals the complex nature of exposure to gambling for children, young people and vulnerable individuals.
“It has been identified that specific measures to ensure that children, young people, their parents and carers are aware of risks and harms associated with gambling, and how to keep themselves safe, need to be developed.
“The whole sector must come together to reduce problem gambling and the harm it causes and our aim is to put Glasgow at the forefront in tackling this issue.”
A UK-wide survey by industry regulator The Gambling Commission, carried out last year, found an estimated 14 percent of 11 to 16-year-olds were likely to have gambled at least once over the last week.
Depute leader David McDonald said gambling is a “hidden epidemic” and the council should explore how it uses its powers and what scope it has to “work around advertisement on our estate”.
Ms Christie revealed researchers, from the University of Edinburgh, are planning to conduct a study in some Glasgow schools over the next 18 months to embed information about gambling harms.
Dr Gillies said: “Children’s exposure to gambling advertising is just ubiquitous now. The impact that’s having, in terms of their vulnerability, is very difficult to say but we can apply precautionary principles to that.”
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