You are gambling with people’s lives
MP’s fury as Chancellor puts off crucial cut to FOBT stakes
The cynical Tory delay to a crackdown on fixed odds betting terminals will cost more than £27million of misery, an MP has claimed.
Chancellor Philip Hammond delayed cutting the maximum stake on the highly addictive machines to £ 2 until next October.
By then, the machines will have bagged him £ 400million in taxes – after he handed England’s high-earners a bonus in his Budget.
Glasgow North East Labour MP Paul Sweeney said: “A delay until October 2019 from the proposed implementation in April next year just means more misery.
“Glasgow is the hardest hit city in Britain, losing more money to these machines than any other council area in the country, according to industry research.
“It is estimated that t he a nnua l social cost to the city is £27million a year.” The delay to a cut that should have been implemented in April prompted Minister for Sport and Civil Society Tracey Crouch to resign in protest. Furious Crouch said two people will take their own lives every day due to gambling problems. In her resignation letter, she said: “From the time of the announcement to reduce stakes and its implementation, over £1.6billion will be lost on these machines.”
The Sunday Mai l has campaigned t irelessly against FOBTs which allow punters to lose up to £300 a minute on digital casino games like roulette.
It is estimated gamblers in Scotland have lost more than £1billion in less than a decade.
There are believed to be almost 4000 terminals in Scotland’s bookies and the biggest loss – £236million – was for gamblers in Glasgow.
Sweeney added: “FOBTs are highly addictive machines which can do huge harm very quickly – they’re not the traditional fruit machine-style puggy sitting in the pub corner.
“They have been rightly dubbed the crack cocaine of gambling.
“There have been many cases of people rapid ly descending into dest itution and committing suicide as a result of their addiction.
“The To r y Government must immediately reverse this decision which risks doing huge social harm to Glasgow and the whole country.”
FOBTs generate £1.8billion for the betting industry, according to the Gambling Commission, and taxes of £ 400million a year.
Betting f irms have been accused by campaigners and politicians of clustering FOBTs on high streets of deprived areas.
Ronnie Cowan MP, vicecha i r of the a l l - p a r t y parliamentary group on FOBTs, said: “The reported decision by the Tory Government to needlessly postpone the implementation of a £2 maximum stake is utterly shameful.
“There are ver y serious concerns over the harm that FOBTs can have on people, and kicking the issue into the long grass sends all the wrong signals. “It is now 700 days since the UK Government first began consulting on the issue of FOBTs and over £3.5 billion has been lost, often by some of the most vulnerable people in our society.”