Charity backs bid to curb use of betting machines
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THE director of an Inverness charity who previously branded casino-style betting machines “as addictive as heroin” has welcomed a report calling for major curbs to be placed on them.
The Inverness Courier reported last month how betting pressure group the Campaign for Fairer Gambling claimed that £75.8 million had been gambled in fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) at 17 premises across the Highlands last year.
As a result, they said, punters ended up a collective £2.6 million out of pocket.
Now an all-party parliamentary group looking into the machines and their social impact has proposed severe restrictions on the amount that can be gambled away in them, as well as extra powers to be granted to prevent the “clustering” of betting shops.
This is after claims that some bookmakers are getting round rules about how many terminals can be based in a single shop by setting up separate branches very close together.
The parliamentary group’s chairwoman, Carolyn Harris, said: “In this interim report we note that, from the evidence presented to us, the government now has a clear case for significantly reducing the £100 stake that can be wagered on a Fixed Odds Betting Terminal.
“The groups sees a strong case for the stake being set at £2.”
She added: “The government has a duty to protect the most vulnerable in our society and to act in the public interest.
“We therefore strongly urge them to properly regulate FOBTs and to do so with immediate effect.”
Richard Burkitt, director of the Merkinch-based addictions charity For the Right Reasons, backed the report, having previously described FOBTs as being “as addictive as heroin.”
“In Grant Street we have two betting shops owned by the one company within yards of each other,” he said.
“We opposed that and were originally backed by the council before the company then went to appeal and got their way.
“In the time since they opened have people been turned in to gambling addicts? The answer is yes. Have people lost huge amounts of money? Yes.
“I’ve had people in here in tears because they have lost all their money on these machines and it’s beyond time that something was done about them.”
Adrian Parkinson of the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, himself a former bookie, also welcomed the report.
“We have had over a decade of these addictive machines proliferating on high streets with betting shops clustering in the most deprived, high unemployment areas,” he said.
“If a cross party group of MPs says it is time to cut the stakes, then the government has to listen.”
Trade body the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) had previously welcomed a UK-wide review “as long as it doesn’t penalise the many people who gamble responsibly.”
The all-party group will feed into this review, but last week was branded “a kangaroo court” by the ABB.
“It is a small group of anti-bookmaking MPs, funded by casinos and arcades that will benefit from undermining bookmakers,” said a spokesman.
“When a properly balanced and independent Select Committee of MPs investigated FOBTs (in 2012) they came out strongly in favour of them.
“As opposed to that Select Committee report, this is a biased and highly misleading piece of work, with no material evidence to support their claims.”
A spokeswoman for Addictions Counselling Inverness, which offers free one-to-one counselling for adults experiencing a range of addiction issues, previously said the number of clients they were dealing with for gambling was on the rise.
She explained that it was difficult to say whether the rise was a result of a bigger problem or just more awareness of the help available,
However, she added: “Gambling has a profound effect not only on the individual concerned but on their families, friends and associates.
“The impact on financial security, employment and relationships can be far-reaching and extremely damaging.”
