Hundreds of teenagers are falling into debt as they become addicted to gambling.

Addiction to fruit machines, make it easy for youngsters to play with just 10p for a potential pay out of £5.

Ministers are concerned that the new Gambling Act will pave the way for children to become lured into a world of debt, drugs, gambling and crime.

The UK is the only country in the Western World that permits children to gamble. Although the Government admit that they are concerned about young people gambling, they still make it legal for them to use slot machines. This is the first rung on the ladder to higher debt, drugs and poor performance at school.

Prof Griffiths (Europe’s sole professor of gambling) states that gambling is an activity for adults which should have no place in the lives of minors. He claims that one in 25 crimes committed by juveniles is related to slot machine addiction. When an individual runs out of money, he is likely to run into debt through borrowing from friends or resorting to criminal activity. Academic research shows that on a 10p stake, players will spend at least £3 every ten minutes which is equivalent to about £30 per hour.

Prof Griffiths worries that juveniles who gamble are likely to carry this problem into adult life.

Though the gambling act will not stop children from using fruit machines, arcade games or penny fall machines, it will remove over 6000 fruit machines from taxi offices and chip shops where children are likely to discover them. It will also reduce the attraction of the prizes and increase the stakes in a bid to stop debt creeping into the lives of children before they are even introduced to the word bankruptcy.