Tony O’Reilly’s habit led him to steal from his employer after racking up huge losses – but his bookmakers ought to shoulder some of the blame
It was difficult to sympathise with bookmakers as they wailed over last month’s announcement that the maximum stake per spin on fixed-odds betting terminals will be cut from £100 to £2. “Won’t somebody think of the betting shop staff?” they pleaded rather disingenuously, considering a Campaign for Fairer Gambling study conducted three years ago which claimed that for every 5,000 jobs that might be created by their FOBTs, a further 25,000 are lost elsewhere.
It seemed more reasonable to conclude that what was actually upsetting the bookies was the realisation that their days of gouging the vulnerable for the equivalent of more than £5m a day, every day of the year, on these risk-free (for the bookies), highly addictive casino-style gaming machines might soon come to an end.
Related: UK gamblers lose record £13.8bn as industry braces for FOBT crackdown
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