EARLIER this year, a report by the Campaign for Fairer Gambling spelt out the huge financial cost of fixed-odds betting terminals to Scotland’s gamblers. It estimated punters had lost £170m on the country’s 4000 casino-style machines in the last year, betting up to £100 every 20 seconds on roulette, poker and blackjack games.
The true cost of these machines – dubbed the crack cocaine of gambling - is much, much higher, of course, both personally and for the wider community, since they are often most used and abused by problem gamblers and people in poor communities who can ill-afford to lose. News, therefore, that the UK Government plans to cut the maximum stake from £100 to between £50 and £2 should be welcomed.
Since gambling laws were liberalised by Tony Blair’s administration in 2007, it is estimated the sums bookmakers win from customers has risen by some 65 per cent, and anti-gambling campaigners have long accused betting firms of deliberately placing the machines in poor communities. They have already expressed bitter disappointment that there remains definite plan to cut the maximum stake to £2.
Announcing the results of the consultation, Tory culture minister Tracey Crouch talked of striking a balance between growth and protecting the vulnerable from harm. Not surprisingly the bookmaking industry, which makes huge profits from the machines, is vociferously lobbying the Government not to cut the maximum stake to £2. It makes the point that the majority of its customers gamble responsibly, that 12,000 high-street jobs could be at risk from the closure of shops, and the Treasury’s coffers would be hit by £1bn.
The fact that the proposals announced yesterday do not specify how far the maximum stake will be cut suggests the Government believes industry profits should be the priority. If this was not the case, it would have acted more decisively.
Even if the claims made by bookmakers are true, it’s clear the monetary losses inflicted on gamblers by the machines is not the full story. The misery of problem gambling takes in unemployment, family breakdown, depression, ill health, even suicide, and all of these cost wider society, as well as victims and their families, dear.
These wider costs must also be taken into consideration by ministers, especially when the fixed-odds betting sector is growing exponentially. As Labour deputy leader Tom Watson highlighted, yesterday’s fudge was a deeply disappointing response from Government to a pernicious and growing problem, a missed opportunity to genuinely make a difference.
We would therefore join the growing chorus of campaigners that includes politicians, churches and community leaders in urging the Government put people and communities first by announcing an immediate cut to £2. The house, after all, will still win with a lower maximum stake.
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