Ed Miliband, the leader of Britain’s Labor Party, has vowed to halt the proliferation of electronic table games in the country’s betting shops
If the Labor Party wins power in the next general election Miliband said he will change planning and licensing laws to give local councils more control over the number of betting shops in their areas. Councils also will be able to eliminate or reduce the number of fixed-odds betting terminals, as the controversial devices are known, in each shop. Also, bookies would have to introduce longer time breaks between plays and install pop-up warnings on the machines to remind gamblers of their spending.
“Councils will be able to declare ‘fixed-odds betting free zones,’” Miliband said. “If communities don’t want them they don’t have to have them.”
The opposition leader said he was not anti-gambling, but “What you don’t want,” he said, “is for betting shops to turn from places where people have a flutter to places where people are gambling away money in addictive ways that damage them and their families.”
Since the country’s gambling laws were relaxed by the previous Labor government in 2005 the number of FOBTs has soared nationwide to 33,000, and they’re now the largest source of betting shop revenues, generating more than £1.5 billion a year.
Miliband said his party has “learned from the experience” and recognizes the need for change.
