A crackdown on betting giants is to be diluted by ministers – to the fury of anti-gambling campaigners.
Plans to be published next month had been expected to introduce a ‘polluter pays’ levy on gambling firms to fund research into addiction.
They were also expected to propose a ban on the names of gambling sponsors appearing on the front of Premier League football shirts.
But officials at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) are said to have retreated from both proposals following opposition from the industry. The Daily Mail has long campaigned for action to curb the scourge of gambling addiction which ruins lives and costs the economy millions of pounds.