Liverpool City Council has become the first local authority in the UK to vote to ban fixed odds betting terminals in licensed betting offices.
At a meeting on Thursday, councillors voted in favour of urging the government to introduce legislation to outlaw FOBTs in betting shops or to give local authorities the powers to limit the spread of new LBOs and to reduce the maximum stakes and speed of play on such machines.
Across Liverpool’s five parliamentary constituencies, there are presently 153 betting shops with 559 FOBTs.
Councillor Nick Small, who tabled the motion, claimed “self-regulation” was not working and that the council needed “new powers to stop the FOBTs.”
The move has been welcomed by Derek Webb, founder of the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, who said that LBOs are “no longer about traditional race and sports betting.”
“They are now driven by high speed, high stake, addictive gaming machines that should have no place on the high street,” he said.
Last month’s Triennial Review announcement, which did not include any changes to stakes and prizes for these machines, further fuelled the debate over FOBTs.
In response to the review, the Association of British Bookmakers conceded that although it believes “there is no empirical evidence that gaming machines cause problem gambling,” the betting industry nonetheless “recognises that further research is needed.”
