Record numbers of gambling addicts were hospitalised in the NHS last year, figures reveal, amid calls for the £2 cap on stakes on fixed-odds betting terminals to be brought forward.

Data released for the first time reveals more than 100 people were admitted because their “pathological” gambling addiction was so severe they needed hospital treatment.

It represents a rise of 50 per cent in just a year, and is a dramatic increase from the handful treated in 2000 when the World Health Organisation (WHO) first recognised gambling disorder as a medical condition.

Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones, of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and founder of the NHS’s only problem gambling clinic, said it showed the “prevalence” of gambling disorder linked to severe mental ill health was rising within society.

“Ensuring there’s enough mental health provision to deal with those with a serious addiction is vital, if we’re to treat people before they reach crisis. It is also vital we prevent people succumbing to a gambling addiction in the first place,” she said.

“The data shows gambling disorder occurs in conjunction with severe and enduring mental illness such as severe depression, anxiety or psychosis.”