Gambling explosion has destroyed lives

THIS week the Living Room Cardiff held its annual Beat the Odds conference, where national and international experts came together to fight the scourge of gambling addiction.

The explosion of gambling in Britain during the past decade, facilitated by Labour and Conservative Governments, has inflicted immense suffering on those least able to endure it.

In 2014 the Responsible Gaming Trust concluded that the 9,000 betting shops in the UK had a clientele that was overwhelmingly poor and unemployed, with 37% of Fixed Odds Betting Terminal (FOBT) users showing signs of addiction, whereas gambling addiction affects 0.4% of adults across the population as a whole.

These statistics help to show why the FOBT is the holy grail of the gambling industry that devours lives in order to provide handsome returns.

It was these profits that saw a letter during the recent General Election from Greg Knight, the managing director of Jennings Racing, go out to his staff, warning them against voting for the Labour Party.

Mr Knight said Labour threatened to reduce the maximum stake on a FOBT from £100 to £2 and this would destroy the business. A maximum stake of £100 can cost a gambler thousands of pounds in an hour.

The revelation by Mr Knight that a £2 maximum stake would destroy the business suggests most of its profits are based on exploitation via the FOBTs, and if the industry was restricted to other less lucrative types of gambling it would crumble.

Wynford Ellis Owen, chief executive Living Room Cardiff and lead on the Beat the Odds initiative for Excessive Gamblers and their Families