I got into trouble a few years ago when Fixed Odds Betting Terminals wangled their way into UK bookies’ shops. I called them “the crack cocaine of British gambling”, and those involved in supplying that sector did not thank me for it. Trouble is, I believed it then, and I believe it now.
I completely fail to see how the ‘authorities’ – viz. everyone from the government, through the DCMS, the Gambling Commission and downwards through the commercial sector – don’t see it too. Perhaps it is more a case of won’t see it. After all, the bookies are part of the Sport of Kings and therefore wield immense influence in the corridors of power.
Now, Malcolm Moss, chairman of the National Casino Industry Forum is expressing concerns that perhaps it is time to review stakes and prizes in casinos. Mr. Moss cites the liberal attitudes towards B3 machines and the 20 per cent expansion of those machines in bingo clubs and adult gaming centres (AGCs). He rightly points out that casinos are way overdue for a review. Now I always thought that casino slots were fairly liberal in terms of stakes and prizes, but it appears that what really needs reviewing is the number of slots permitted in a British casino – currently 20.
Question 1: Why is the number of slots permitted in a British casino limited at all? A casino isn’t going to put in 100 slots if the income won’t justify it, so why not let commercial expediency and demand dictate things and let the number of slots find their own level? This works quite happily everywhere else.
Question 2: Is the proliferation of B3s the REAL problem here? The ADCs and bingo clubs needed B3s to stay in business. They have no hope of existing when a player can walk into a bookies’ and gamble his life away on FOBTs. In the same way the AWP is dying in pubs, because players can go into a bookies’ (or an AGC) and play for much higher potential prizes.
The real problem is the proliferation of FOBTs. They should never have been allowed into the country in the first place without some kind of very real restrictions on what they can do. As a result everything else is playing catch-up. Rest my case.
