Paddy Power has broken ranks with other bookmakers on fixed-odds betting terminals, the controversial betting machines sited in betting shops which may be the subject of severe reductions in the upcoming government review of stakes and prizes in the UK.
There is the possibility of the reduction from a £100 stake to as little as £2 to bring FOBTs into parity with AWPs in pubs.
Now Paddy Power has, according to the Stop The FOBTs campaign, stated that it would welcome a reduction. Its CEO Breon Corcoran is reported to have admitted that his company is "almost ambivalent" about a stakes reduction.
The news comes in a report in the The Times newspaper. Corcoran says that Paddy Power’s business in FOBTs has become "so toxic" in the media that only a drastic change in stakes can help.
Corcoran suggests a reduction to £10 but that his company would not even oppose the speculated £2. He said that well-run operations would be able to take such a reduction without shedding staff and closing betting shops, as the CEO of rival bookie Ladbrokes Coral had suggested.
