Is Gambling OK?

Literally nothing in the world more boring than those financial “education” pieces that point out that if you don’t buy a coffee every morning for ten years you’ll be able to buy a yacht. Or something.

I find this kind of puritanical, patronising advice to be tedious in the extreme. Life can be hard enough, we all have to have our little pleasures.

But when we think about the quickest ways we can blow ourselves up financially, gambling is right up there.

As a nation, we like a flutter. The UK gambling industry makes more than £15bn a year at the moment and according to research from the Gambling Commission, almost half of the population report gambling within the past four weeks.

Betting is a decent earner for the Revenue too, with HMRC taking in £3.6bn a year from the gambling industry.

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But there is of course, a fairly substantial societal cost. Problem gambling is linked to depression, anxiety, substance misuse and increased risk of suicide - referrals to the NHS for problem gambling have doubled in recent years. Public Health England estimate a £1.27 billion annual cost to society - healthcare and criminal justice costs, as well as lost productivity.

In many ways gambling addiction is the most insidious of the vices.

It is impossible to live your life without coming across gambling adverts and our phones offer a constant means of betting on almost anything if we want to. In this way gambling addiction can live in the shadows, hidden in isolation.

One of the (many) things I find distasteful about modern football, is how the game has been hijacked as a host to gambling marketing. Every ground in the country, every game on TV, encouraging you to have a bet.

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Do I occasionally gamble on the football? Yes, I do. I also play the lottery and have a, frankly quite strange, interest in those Omaze house raffles that they always advertise on daytime TV.

But I’ve, fortunately, never really been bitten by the gambling bug. Sure, it is nice when a bet comes off but I have never felt much excitement about the whole thing. I also sort of think, if I need to bet on a thing to enjoy it - then maybe I don’t actually enjoy that thing at all?

Is gambling a decent means of making money? Categorically not. In the same way that it is impossible for a retail investor to have an informational edge on a company’s stock - a punter long of five pints at the racetrack cannot possibly handicap a horse’s chance of winning a race better than a bookmaker.

If you accept this, understand that gambling is overwhelmingly likely to result in losing money and still want to do it as a form of entertainment - sure, have at it.

I really don’t see it as my job to tell people what to spend their money on. As long as you keep it affordable and in moderation - then I don’t see much of an issue.

But gambling is a kind of financial bungee jumping - an asymmetric risk. Maybe a bit of a kick in the short term, but very little chance of making money consistently and potentially catastrophic downside if you do it often enough. Lives and families are turned upside down by gambling - take care out there.

The National Gambling Helpline offer free, confidential support 24/7 on 0808 8020 133.