Ladbrokes Coral has responded to speculation that the UK Secretary of State favours a £2 FOBT stake as the outcome of the triennial review consultation.
Chief executive Jim Mullen said: "The triennial review has been running for over 15 months and throughout that time there has been constant rumour and speculation about potential outcomes, of which this is yet more. It should be noted that the current call for evidence is yet to conclude and industry responses have not yet been submitted to government.
"We are very clear that stake cuts will fail to adequately address any issue of problem gambling. The industry has also always made it clear that a cut to stakes will have serious consequences - resulting in shop closures which will ultimately affect jobs, tax revenue and the funding of racing.
“There is also no evidence that machine customers will switch their spend to sports betting such as horse racing and our experience is that they won't. Any policy made on this assumption would result in a significant reduction in the level of funding for horse racing.
"We will continue to make the case for a sensible, measured, evidence-led and proportionate response to the public concern regarding these issues and this will be the basis of the evidence submitted as part of the ongoing review."
