SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL Fury at online slots where you can lose £5, 000 in a minute
CALLS are growing to tackle online gambling games where players can lose almost £5,000 a minute with stakes from as little as 20p up to £200.
And some of the fruit machine-style interfaces look like they have been designed for kids. One, called Spin Doctor on the Betfred website, features a brightly coloured crocodile in a swamp.
Players can spin the reels every few seconds. When the Sunday People tried the game, we lost £5 in two minutes, betting 20p a time. Had we staked the maximum £200 per spin the losses would have been £5,000. Experts claim the betting industry made £2.2billion last year from slot games. The Government cut the maximum bet on fixed-odds terminals in bookies shops from £100 to £2 two years ago – but the rules do not apply online.
Charles Ritchie, from Gambling with Lives, the charity set up by families bereaved by suicides over betting, said: “It is ridiculous these types of game, which look as if they are designed for children, should have anything other than a pocket money-sized maximum stake.
“The cartoon exterior hides another highly addictive game which can cause gambling disorders. People with gambling disorder are 15 times more likely to take their life than the general population.
“This is one of hundreds, if not thousands, of spin games.
There is no minimum spin speed for them, so in theory you can play every two and a half seconds. We
are pressing for a review of the Gambling Act, we need to get the same rules that apply to bookies to apply online.”
Clean Up Gambling’s Matt Zarb-cousin added: “Some of these games have unlimited stakes online, so you can bet £1,000 if you want.
“With a game like this Spin Doctor you can stake 100 times more on the online game than you can in a high street betting shop. For some people they are hugely addictive.
“Last year these slot games generated more money for the bookmakers than any other
product, £2.2billion. The products with the highest stakes should be in the least accessible places, but these most harmful products are in the most accessible place because everyone has a mobile phone.
“There needs to be restrictions on the stakes like we have with the machines.”
Betfred said: “Player protection is at the heart of our business, and we have a number of safeguards in place, approved by the Gambling Commission.
“We anticipate online stakes will form part of a review into the Gambling Act, and intend to fully co-operate with the Government during that review”.