The sport has been part of the problem for years, doing its best to keep out of the fixed-odds betting terminals debate while pocketing millions in media rights paymentsFinally, the deed is done. It is too late to mend or renew the countless lives that have been blighted by high-stakes gaming on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs), or to reclaim any of the total of about £25bn that has been sucked from the poorest communities in the country over the last 13 years. But the long-awaited – and long-overdue – decision to limit FOBT stakes to £2 does at least signal a start to the process of recovering from one of the most catastrophic blunders ever committed in the name of...
A £2 limit on all FOBT games is coming, it is just a matter of when, despite Monday’s Gambling Commission reportThe Gambling Commission finally released its long-awaited review of “gaming machines and social responsibility measures” on Monday morning, and already it is being reported as confirmation that the maximum stake on fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) in bookmakers will be cut to £30, rather than the £2 that had been widely floated in recent weeks. “Relief for bookmakers as ministers set to reject drastic FOBT reform” was the headline on an online report in the Racing Post, which is very much signed up to the bookmakers’ argument that a £2 minimum would lead to widespread betting shop closures and a...
DCMS suggestion to cut the stake limits on fixed-odds betting terminals may see some of the more urban bookies close, but the firms will still prosper without their easy moneyWhen the department for digital, culture, media and sport finally announced a range of options for the new maximum stake in fixed odds betting terminals on Tuesday, the most interesting alternative was arguably the one that wasn’t there.The stake limit could be halved to £50, cut to £30 or £20, or even right down to the £2 maximum that was in the last Labour manifesto, but there is no mention of the £10 limit which no less a figure than Breon Corcoran, the departing chief executive of Paddy Power Betfair, suggested...