Island caught in the grip of gambling

There are 29 licensed bookmakers in the Island, compared with up to 12 for areas with a population of 100,000 in the UK.

In the UK, bookmakers are more common in the most deprived areas, which have up to 12 per 100,000 people, compared to rich areas which have as few as five. By contrast, affluent Jersey has more than twice as many as the poorest parts of the UK.

One Jersey gambler – who estimates that he has lost the value of a house over a life-time of gambling – says that gambling addiction in Jersey is a bigger problem than people realise and that the number of people getting help at Jersey Gamblers Anonymous is just ‘the tip of the iceberg’.

• See today’s JEP for his story

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