Hours after the U.K. Secretary for Culture Tessa Jowell announced the new Gambling Bill, the British media have labeled it the 'most bizarre creation' and a 'recipe for disaster', since the new law could trigger an outbreak of gambling addictions, fuel a rise in teenage gambling and plunge already pathological gamblers into deeper holes.

New Gambling Bill – 'the most bizarre creation'

Hours after the U.K. Secretary for Culture Tessa Jowell announced the new Gambling Bill, the British media have labeled it the 'most bizarre creation' and a 'recipe for disaster'. According to Scotsman.com the new law could trigger an outbreak of gambling addictions, fuel a rise in teenage gambling and plunge already pathological gamblers into deeper holes.

The Guardian called it the most bizarre creation of the Labor government.

Punters would be allowed to play for unlimited jackpots in mega-casinos which will spring up across Britain as big US operators fight to cash in on the new legislation.

Caesars Entertainment, which owns Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, has unveiled plans to open an “entertainment resort” at a re-developed Wembley leisure complex named Caesars Wembley. There has also been interest in the UK from other major US leisure operators including MGM Mirage.

Former welfare minister Frank Field has warned there would be “no turning back” once the door had been opened to the US giants.

"How dare the government crow about new jobs in regional casinos as a result of its gambling bill when it has failed the manufacturing sector," asks the Guardian writer Victor Keegan.

"The party that pledged in opposition to boost manufacturing industry but which presided over the loss of another 750,000 manufacturing jobs is now poised to give a big boost to casinos in the regions," the article reads.

Under the new bill gambling is to be a lifeline for former manufacturing centres such as Birmingham, Coventry and Leeds.

The bill certainly has a number of new and commendable protections, like the establishment of the Gambling Commission to the removal of fruit machines from more than 6,000 takeaways and minicab offices. There will also be a limit of 1,250 fruit machines in each casino.

But the new law also facilitates the construction of large new casinos – many of them to be built with US money – and lifts restrictions on the amount of payouts. Jowell said the bill should remove some of what she calls "draconian" restrictions, such as the rule that membership is needed 24 hours before entering a casino.

Megasized “regional casinos”, which ministers believe will regenerate run-down areas, would no longer have to be sited in “permitted” areas and will be open to the public rather than operating as 24-hour membership clubs.

The poor are seen as the main victims as they are likely to turn to gambling in order to fight poverty.

Local authorities are among the first to profit from the bill since new casinos could generate local revenues.

The bill would also authorize the first time racecourse betting on Good Friday and Christmas Day.

Dr Emanuel Moran, chairman of the National Council on Gambling and gambling advisor to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said it has grave implications for society.

“There will inevitably be an explosion of excessive gambling and an outbreak of pathological gambling. I'm not saying the whole country will fall in to the abyss, but the number of people not gambling will fall dramatically and those doing it moderately will start to do it to excess. It's a recipe for disaster,” the psychiatrist said.

More than two thirds of people in Britain have gambled in some way over the past year, according to a recent government NOP survey – 71% of the 2,945 adults quizzed.

There are 131 casinos currently operating in Britain – more than in most European countries – and some 250,000 gaming machines with an estimated £10 billion fed into them each year, The Gaming Board for Great Britain said.

“This is a result of pressure from the gambling promoters from America who are falling over themselves to try and get places in Britain, and who are going to make a fast buck out of this," the doctor said.

The government's key argument in support of the Bill is that “Great Britain has one of the lowest rates of problem gambling in the developed world” (around 0.8%).