Watson, who is also the shadow secretary of state for culture, media and sport, was speaking at the Labour party conference in Brighton yesterday.

He said: ‘An early priority for our DCMS team in government will be to finally confront problem gambling.

The damage to the families of gambling addicts can be terrible. Yet some gambling firms, driven by greed, are deliberately targeting our poorest communities.

It’s outrageous that an industry with a £13bn revenue contributes less than £10m to treatment.’

Watson said that, together with Jonathan Ashworth, shadow health secretary, he was launching ‘a thorough review of gambling addiction in this country and current provision for treatment on the NHS’.

‘Our review will look at how best to fund NHS treatment and help free problem gamblers from the destructive cycle of addiction. My message to gambling firms today is clear: stop targeting vulnerable people. Start acting properly. And meet your obligation to help those whose lives have been blighted by addiction,’ Watson said.

Currently, gambling companies make voluntary contributions to the charity GambleAware to help pay for education, research, and treating gambling addiction.

The Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) said backed an ‘evidence-based approach to helping problem gambling in the UK and would support Mr Watson's idea of a review, if it facilitated this.’

An ABB spokesman said: ‘We also would not oppose an appropriate, compulsory levy on the gambling industry to fund problem gambling treatment, as we have long argued that the gambling industry needs to work together to reduce the number of problem gamblers and address the fact that most problem gamblers move between different forms of gambling.’

Watson did not provide any details of the size or scope of the levy, but he did indicate that a future Labour government would also ban football clubs from signing shirt sponsorship deals with betting companies.