A public health consultant in Hertfordshire has said "we've got a storm coming" over children's gaming, "which very much resembles gambling".

It comes as a report revealed over 4,700 people in Hertfordshire are experiencing gambling harm "where it causes disruption or harm to them, their family or life".

In addition, over 35,000 people aged 16 or over in the county are classified as at-risk gamblers, suggesting they are at risk of negative consequences of gambling, while a further 66,000 locals are at risk of being affected by other people's gambling.

The shock figures were revealed in Hertfordshire's first Gambling Related Harms Strategy, which was discussed by Herts County Council's Public Health and Community Safety Committee on Thursday, September 19.

Using the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), which rates impact from low (1 to 2) to severe gambling (8 to 9), two boroughs in Hertfordshire were found to have worse statistics than the national average. Broxbourne was revealed to have 4% of people with a gambling problem above PGSI 8, costing an estimated £2.1million, while Dacorum had 3.3% with a cost of £3.6million. The national average is 2.9%.

Cllr Reena Ranger asked if children were at risk of gambling. She said: "We grow up with gameshows on TV, it's a bit of a gamble… if we look at the way lotteries are advertised, the local ones don't seem to be pernicious and dangerous, they're all very happy people who win.

"If you look at children's apps, there will be children under the age of 18 who may not walk into a gambling shop, but is that behavioural instinct to purchase something and get a reward, is it sort of gambling? Are we looking at the way we educate children in schools, to say, 'This is not walking into a betting shop but it is potentially gambling, and this is something you may want to be aware of?'"

Public health consultant Louise Savory said: "I think you hit the nail on the head actually, I think we've got a storm coming. The evidence out there is that the children and young people who are gaming, it already very much resembles gambling. They're getting rewarded with these loot boxes, and they can pay the game and they might get a different skin for their idol on the screen.

"I think absolutely, gambling does resemble gaming and we are going to see that storm with our children and young people."

Ms Savory's report into Hertfordshire's new gambling related harms strategy revealed: "Estimates found that approximately 2,194 young people aged 11-16 years old in Hertfordshire were at-risk gamblers and an additional 823 young people from this age group were problem gamblers.

"In 2022, the Hertfordshire Public Health Young People Health & Wellbeing Survey , which gathered 11,160 responses from those between found that 3.9% of young people said that gambling was a worry and this was higher in males (4.4%), those with other sex (10.5%) and transgender children and young people (16.0%) compared to females (1.9%).

"Gambling is one of the biggest markets in the UK with a profit of £15.1 billion in 2022. The harms associated with problem gambling are wide-ranging. These include not only harms to the individual gambler but their children, their families, and their communities. The total financial costs are approximated at £1.05 to £1.77 billion in 2023 nationally,

"Gambling harms include the following main types:

• Financial harms: debt, bankruptcy, homelessness and child poverty

• Relationships: loss of trust, loneliness, separation, abuse

• Mental and physical health: depression, sleep problems

• Employment and education: unemployment, poor education

• Criminal activity: theft from family members and others

Priorities in the plan include influencing licencing and regulatory environment, working to improve age verification systems, increasing awareness of gambling problems for the public and professionals, protecting vulnerable groups from gamling harms and effective treatment and support.

Costs for the strategy have been assigned at £10,000; with £6,000 being used towards strategy development and £4,000 for gambling harms campaigns and training.

The panel opted to write to the secretary of state expressing its concerns about gambling and asking for policy guidance from the Government.

Chairman of the committee, Cllr Morris Bright said: "It's a bigger issue than we can deal with on our own and we have to accept that. I do think it's worth writing just to find out where policy is with this."