Push to reduce FOBT stakes
A triennial review of gaming machine stakes and prizes in the UK could have an enduring impact on the country’s horseracing industry. The release of a report by the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will be followed by a 12-week review period.
Among the issues are the effects on racing of any problem-gaming regulations that affect gaming terminals. During a debate in parliament on November 7, Labour MP Conor McGinn told UK Sports Minister Tracey Crouch that racing “relies heavily on the levy from bookmakers and on advertising, sponsorship and media rights.” He sought assurance from Crouch that she will “work with the industry—with horse-racing—to ensure that, while protecting those who are vulnerable to gambling addiction, which we all want to do, we protect jobs, investment and economic benefits the come from horseracing and the country’s racecourses.”
Conservative MP Laurence Robertson, who with McGinn chairs an all-party group on the racing and bloodstock industries, said, “I stress the importance to horseracing of the support of bookmakers. That’s not unique to the United Kingdom; it’s the same across the world.”
Crouch said there is “no intention to damage the horse racing industry,” which she called “incredibly important,” according to a report in SBC News. She said that any checks applied to fixed-odds betting terminals “may well encourage bookmakers and others to focus more on horseracing.”
Conservative MP Peter Bone said he’s worried that any measure to drive punters out of high street betting shops could “make the situation worse” by relocating them from “a controlled environment and towards online gambling.”
Crouch said online gambling has “a better opportunity to protect players, because sites have all the details of players’ practices. Obviously, as part of the consultation, we are going to look at how we can protect online gamblers, but we definitely have more opportunity to do that than we do to protect somebody going in and out of different bookmakers.”
Long the subject of debate among policymakers, FOBTs have been called “the crack cocaine of betting” for their supposed addictive qualities.
Earlier this year Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner said FOBTs “wreck lives.”
“I’ve heard from families that have been wrecked by these machines with wages spent in a matter of minutes and no money left to cover basic bills, rents or mortgages,” Zeichner said.
Currently there are 34,000 FOBTs in the UK, generating profits of £1.4 billion ($1.842 billion) per year, according to the Guardian newspaper. Last month, MPs debated proposed reforms that include reducing the maximum stakes on FOBTs from £100 to £2.
“I have been campaigning against fixed-odds betting terminals for many years now, and everyone who has been involved in this campaign is well aware that the gambling lobby is a very powerful and well-resourced organization with friends in parliament who are keen to protect their interests and profits,” said Labour MP David Lammy. “The damage caused by these machines has been tolerated for far too long, aided and abetted by this lobbying.”
