‘HARD CORE’
Betting machines blasted as city gambling losses revealed
GAMBLERS in Glasgow suffered massive losses at fixed odds betting terminals in bookmakers shops last year.
Political Correspondent GLASGOW suffers the second highest losses gambled on controversial betting machines, according to new research.
Gamblers in the city have lost almost £35m on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals in bookmakers shops in the last year.
The cash lost in the city is the second highest in the UK after London.
The research by Bacta, the amusement and arcade gaming industry association shows that in each betting shop in the city £156,000 is lost by people playing the machines.
Only London where half a billion pounds was lost on machines had a higher total.
Losses in Glasgow were more than £3m higher than Birmingham, £10m higher than in Liverpool and double that of Leeds and Manchester.
Edinburgh and North and South Lanarkshire also make the top 10 l ocal authority areas with the highest losses.
Calls have been made to curb the amount of cash that can be staked on the machines which have been labelled the “crack cocaine of gambling” due to their alleged addictiveness.
Some people have lost hundreds of pounds at a time on the machines which allow for up to £100 to be staked at a time.
Bacta said research from the Gambling Commission showed that there were 230,000 sessions in the last year which resulted in losses of more than £1,000 on betting shop FOBTs in the UK.
John White, chief executive officer of Bacta, said: “Fixed-odds betting terminals are a hardcore form of gambling, entirely unsuitable for everyday high-street venues. With stake limits at £100, fifty times that of any other widely available gaming machine, they allow consumers and at-risk gamblers to rack up huge losses.”
He said as the Gambling Commission’s figures show, the vast majority of everyday punters who are making major losses are doing so at these addictive betting shop machines at higher stakes.
Mr White added: “They endanger consumers, foster a culture of violence and aggression, and undermine the whole amusement industry’s work to create a socially responsible environment for gaming that puts player protection first.
“We urge DCMS to do the right and necessary thing and order a substantial re- duction in FOBT stakes.”
A spokesman for the Association of British Bookmakers said: “BACTA has a commercial interest in undermining betting shops. It is high time they got their own house in order and mirrored the measures we have in place in betting shops to promote responsible gambling, particularly as the number of people gaming on slot machines in amusement arcades, pubs and casinos has more than doubled in just three years, whereas playing on machines in bookmakers has remained relatively stable.”