Increase in Crypto Trading Addiction Highlighted by UK’s Public Health Chief

Amanda Pritchard, the head of the NHS, has urged for measures to address the growing issue of crypto trading addiction among young people, as reported by specialist clinics.

Amanda Pritchard, the Chief Executive of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, has called on British legislators to take steps to curb the rising addiction to crypto trading among the youth.

Speaking at the ConfedExpo of NHS managers in Manchester on June 12, Pritchard highlighted that the NHS had launched its fifteenth specialized gambling addiction clinic earlier this year to address “a significant and growing social issue.”

“As a society, we need to ask ourselves if it is acceptable to keep dealing with the aftermath while the tactics used to keep people hooked become increasingly sophisticated,” she stated.

“Younger individuals now have more opportunities to become addicted to gambling, including through unregulated cryptocurrency markets, as I learned from staff at the national problem gambling clinic earlier this year,” she added.
The Times reported Pritchard later remarked, “This addictive behavior involves people investing their money into assets with no stable value, leaving the NHS to manage the consequences. This escalating problem could place additional strain on the health service.”

She emphasized to the conference attendees that there is a need to consider “how we want the NHS to allocate its limited resources.”

“Should we address problems at their source, or accept that the NHS will become an expensive safety net?” she queried.

In June last year, King Charles enacted laws to regulate cryptocurrencies under the same framework as other financial services.

In July 2023, the U.K. Treasury dismissed a proposal from lawmakers to regulate crypto retail trading similarly to gambling, preferring instead to regulate it as a financial service.

Economic Secretary Bim Afolami announced in April that new laws are forthcoming, which will include “operating an exchange, custody of customer assets, and other activities within the regulatory perimeter for the first time.”

Many crypto users are often attracted to high-risk tokens in hopes of substantial returns. Memecoins have gained popularity again despite many being marketed as having no intrinsic value.

Decentralized crypto exchanges allow users to place highly leveraged bets on token price movements, often resulting in millions in liquidations when bets fail. Additionally, the online, decentralized, and continuous nature of the crypto space has led to an increase in crypto gambling platforms.

One such platform, Polymarket, has seen its value locked reach nearly $29 million, according to DefiLlama. It offers bets on various events, including sports and election outcomes, as well as niche bets, such as whether Elon Musk will ban Apple devices at his companies.

On June 11, Australia prohibited the use of crypto and credit cards for online gambling platforms, aligning the rules with those for offline gambling platforms.