A report published by the UK’s Responsible Gambling Trust on betting shop e-tables has raised the ire of critics of the games, which blame them for a proliferation of betting shops in cities and towns nationwide.
The industry-funded trust says the research was undertaken to build a knowledge base to help mitigate problem gambling behavior, but opponents are alleging a whitewash, saying the report defends the bookmaking industry and ignores complex issues related to the controversial machines, which mostly offer roulette and have grown into a sort of mini-casino industry that now generates the majority of British bookmakers’ revenues.
Conducted independently by experts in gambling behavior and social research, the report will be passed on to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the UK Gambling Commission to inform policy decisions regarding the fixed-odds betting terminals, as the machines are known.
“This program represents the first collaborative endeavor between multiple-industry operators and independent researchers. It is of outstanding significance,” said Professor Alex Blaszczynski, who chaired an independent panel that evaluated the research.
“Our understanding of these machines and the way people use them is now greatly enhanced,” said RGT Chief Executive Marc Etches. “We hope that everyone will consider carefully how the findings of this groundbreaking research can be used to help all gamblers to make better informed decisions and, in particular, to protect those that are vulnerable to gambling-related harm.”
Critics, however, have taken aim at a key finding of the report that reducing bet sizes has no impact on the risks associated with problem gambling.
“It is clear that this report only has the interests of the industry at its heart,” said Robin Wales, mayor of Newham Council in London.
Newham is leading a group of 93 local councils in England that have petitioned the government to cut the maximum stakes on the FOBTs from £100 to £2.
“This report serves only to block any move that would hit the bookies where it hurts, on their bottom line,” Wales said. “It does little to help problem gamblers, the communities they belong to or the nation’s high streets.
He added, “The RGT’s own research acknowledges that high stakes impairs the decision-making of players. So there is no denying that reducing the maximum stake would have a substantial impact on problem gambling, support our communities and would give our high streets a fighting chance of surviving the blight of betting shops caused by these FOBTs.”
Wales said his council’s previous battles with the betting shops had been “thwarted by the lack of tough regulations and the toothless court system” and so the councils have turned to presenting their demands under the Sustainable Communities Act, which allows them to put forward solutions to perceived local problems. The councils include 31 from the London area and others from as far as Swansea, Birmingham and Manchester.
In April, the government announced it didn’t intend to force bookies to reduce the maximum FOBT wager, opting instead for a “sensible and balanced approach” in which gamblers wishing to wager more than £50 per spin would be required to either use a pre-funded account or physically place bets directly with a shop staffer. The proposals will be formally presented to Parliament this month.
The Liberal Democrats, however, have broken with their governing Conservative Party coalition partners by expressing support for the reduction in FOBT stakes.
In September, the industry made a bid to pacify critics by promising to remove FOBT advertisements from betting shop windows.
Bookmakers are already bracing for a March 1, 2015, hike in the Machine Games Duty from 20 to 25 percent and also face a 15 percent point of consumption tax on their online revenues. The latter tax went into effect December 1.
