SOURCE: news.bbc.co.uk

(London, England) — The Gambling Commission survey of the prevalence of gambling and problem gambling suggests there has been little change since 1999. But online gambling and other new forms have higher rates of problem gamblers, sparking concerns about liberalizing gambling laws. Politicians, campaigners and church groups give their views on the findings:

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Spokesman

While the report shows that problem gambling still only affects a small minority of people, it does remain a serious issue and something that has to be addressed. The prime minister said in July that the issue relating to a super casino is whether or not this is the best way of meeting our regeneration objectives. He is obviously skeptical about that.

Jeremy Hunt, Shadow Culture Secretary

The biggest growth in problem gambling is on the newer types of gambling, left virtually untouched by the new legislation that came into force this month. Nearly one in 10 of online gamblers has an addiction problem that can lead to indebtedness, family breakdown and crime. So what has Gordon Brown done? He has liberalized gambling advertising, and in his last Budget created a fiscal environment that massively deterred overseas-registered sites from registering in the UK.

Don Foster, Culture Spokesman, Lib Dems

While I welcome the fact that this survey shows little change in the overall number of people gambling, we desperately need to deal with the quarter of a million people who have serious gambling problems. The report does raise some serious concerns about the dramatic rise in the number of online gamblers and that's before we've seen the expected increase as a result of the recent liberalization of gambling advertising.

Page 1, 2