Professor Jim Orford made an appearance on the BBC1 Panorama programme shown on the evening of Monday 5th November. Like last month's Channel 4 Dispatches programme, this was devoted to gambling and again focused on the problems associated with the high stake fixed odds betting machines now to be found in high street betting shops. The problems include personal problems of addiction but also increased rates of crime and disorder in betting shops. The programme drew on the results of the 2010 British Gambling Prevalence Survey for which Jim was an academic advisor, as well a secondary analysis of the survey data, carried out by Jim, which suggests that about a quarter of all profits made from these machines may be coming from the pockets of people who have gambling problems. Jim's work was also prominently cited in an article in the Daily Telegraph that morning.
View the Panorama programme on BBC iPlayer