All that is not proven safe must be banned

Last week, the House of Lords Liaison Committee called for a “comprehensive ban” on gambling advertising, reversing its previous that there wasn't enough evidence to justify it. The U-turn is a good example of how stupid "public health" concepts like the Total Consumption Model and the precautionary principle infect policy-making.

They conclude:

 

Establishing a definitive causal link between gambling advertising and gambling harms is subject to major and intrinsic methodological challenges.

The Government’s focus on the lack of such a causal link, despite clear explanations of the methodological difficulties by academic experts, represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of social science research and the ways in which it can usefully contribute to policy development. Continued reliance on this argument is contrary to the principles of evidence-based policy making and sets a largely unattainable standard of proof that has been used to justify unwillingness to take decisive action.

We note that the Government’s expectation of a clear, proven causal link is also atypical of the standard of proof required in other areas of public health policy to which social science research has made valuable contributions.

There is no clear evidence to suggest that gambling advertising is safe and does not contribute to gambling harms. The current permissive framework is therefore inconsistent with a public health approach.

 

This is the precautionary principle on steroids. It may be the “public health approach” these days, but it is certainly not an evidence-based approach. The committee takes it as read that gambling advertising increases gambling participation and that if more people gamble, there will be more problem gamblers. Neither of these assertions has been borne out by the facts in the UK in the last twenty years, but the committee believes them to be true because that is what the small band of anti-gambling lobbyists and activist-academics who were invited to give evidence told them.

 

Read more at The Critic. 

 

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