Amanda Pritchard, the Chief Executive of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom, is urging British lawmakers to take action to prevent young people from becoming addicted to cryptocurrency trading.
Speaking at the ConfedExpo of NHS managers in Manchester on June 12, Pritchard highlighted the growing social need for addiction clinics, including the fifteenth specialist gambling addiction clinic opened by the NHS earlier this year.
She raised concerns about the increasing sophistication of methods used to keep people hooked on addictive habits, such as investing in cryptocurrencies with no fixed value. Pritchard emphasized that this growing problem could lead to a further strain on the health service.
During her speech, Pritchard questioned what the NHS should prioritize with its limited resources – addressing problems at the source or acting as an expensive safety net.
Last year, the UK government passed laws to regulate cryptocurrencies under the same rules as other financial services. The Treasury rejected a proposal to regulate crypto retail trading as gambling, opting instead to regulate it as a financial service.
Economic Secretary Bim Afolami announced that more regulations are on the way, bringing activities like operating an exchange and taking custody of customer assets under the regulator’s oversight for the first time.
The rise in gambling and investing in high-risk tokens, including memecoins that market themselves as having no backing value, has attracted many crypto users. Decentralized crypto exchanges offer users the opportunity to place highly leveraged bets on token prices, leading to millions in liquidations when bets go wrong.
One platform, Polymarket, has seen an increase in value locked, offering bets on various events, sports outcomes, and even niche bets like whether Elon Musk will ban Apple devices at his companies.
On June 11, Australia implemented a ban on the use of crypto and credit cards for online gambling platforms, aligning the rules with offline gambling platforms.
As the trend of cryptocurrency trading addiction rises, it is essential to be aware of the signs and seek appropriate treatment when needed.