75% of voters want to curb £100-a-spin slot machines
HIGH street gaming machines that allow punters to stake £100 a spin should be banned, three in four voters believe. Most want an immediate limit on how much can be gambled on roulette-style Fixed odds Betting Terminals (FOBTS) in bookies’ shops, a poll shows.
Nearly half are demanding a total ban on the machines, which have been dubbed the ‘crack cocaine of gambling’ because addicts can lose hundreds of pounds in minutes.
In a YouGov poll, 48 per cent said FOBTS should not be permitted in betting shops.
Nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) said the £100 maximum stake that can bet on each spin should be restricted – with 60 per cent of those polled saying it should be slashed to
‘PM has a clear choice’
only £2. In what campaigners say is a sign of growing public concern about the misery FoBTs cause, only 6 per cent said the current level at which customers can bet was ‘about right’.
The machines, of which there are 33,000 in betting shops across the country, have been blamed for a rise in problem gambling and have also been linked to money laundering.
They account for around half of bookmakers’ profits but betting shop managers have anonymously told the Mail of the toll they take on customers and staff.
Regular players are ‘like zombies’, the managers said, giving examples of how customers could attack staff and vandalise shops when they lose large amounts of money.
The poll, commissioned by the Campaign f or Fairer Gambling, comes with David Cameron set to announce new restrictions on betting giants which may include stricter gambling l i mits and powers for councils to oppose the opening of betting shops.
Betting giants wanted to wait until a report at the end of this year, by the industry-funded Responsible Gambling Trust, into the risks posed by gaming machines.
But the poll shows six in ten voters want ministers to act now. only 18 per cent said they believed the Government should wait until the evidence has been assessed.
Just 13 per cent felt tighter selfregulation by bookmakers – who have pledged to i mplement a voluntary code – would be the best way to tackle gambling addiction linked to the machines.
The Association of British Bookmakers denies the machines are highly addictive and says the industry is taking measures to counter problem gambling.
The Campaign for Fairer Gambling said: ‘We have known for some time that FoBTs are a concern for the electorate, but this polling has converted our knowledge into cold hard facts.
‘That 70 per cent want to see these addictive machines curbed is something the Government should not ignore. Support for a £2 cap is also overwhelming.
‘For too long the Government’s excuse has been that there is not enough evidence to enforce restrictions on FoBTs, but this polling has revealed that the public would much rather err on the side of caution.
‘We’re calling on David Cameron to reduce the maximum bet per spin on these machines to £2, removing games like roulette and bringing them into line with all other gambling machines available on the high street – a move we now know the public backs. The Prime Minister has a clear choice: listen to voters or cave in to the bookmakers’.