The Campaign for Fairer Gambling believes the UK government has missed its biggest opportunity to date to make a real impact on tackling fixed odds betting terminals.
FOBTs are the high-speed, high-stake gaming machines in bookmakers throughout Britain. The Campaign says that “despite mounting evidence of problem gambling and the negative socio and economic impact associated with FOBTs, the government has this week stopped short of implementing a stake reduction on the addictive roulette machines, which allow gamblers to gamble £100 every 20 seconds. It will now wait until October to announce any further developments.”
The measures, announced yesterday in a government release, include a change of planning powers for local authorities to control the number of betting shops opening in their area, as well as plans to attempt to improve player protection on FOBTs, which include staff interaction if £50 or more is staked on one play of the machines.
