Problem Gambling

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 2:03 pm on 25 April 2018.

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Photo of Mick Antoniw Mick Antoniw Labour 2:03, 25 April 2018

Thank you for that answer. I wonder if you'd perhaps go a bit further. What we know, from the Gambling Commission, is that about 0.5 million pupils across England and Wales, between 11 and 15, are now gambling on a weekly basis. That would correlate to around 25,000 children in Wales between the ages of 11 and 15 gambling on a weekly basis, a number of those now being problem gamblers. In the light of the chief medical officer's report, I wonder if you will be meeting with the chief medical officer to actually develop, as part of the overall public health strategy, a strategy dealing with what is a growing gambling problem for the future amongst our children, who are working and living in an environment where, through things like sport, gambling is almost being normalised in our society and presents us, I think, with real challenges for the future.