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‘As the government prepares to make a decision on reducing the maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs), we urge it to do the right thing and set the figure at £2.
There are more than 33,000 FOBTs in betting shops across Britain providing high-stakes gambling. The current maximum stake of £100 is 50 times higher than that on other widely available gaming machines. In 2015-16, there were more than 230,000 individual sessions in which a user lost more than £1,000. This money is often lost by those at the lower end of the income scale and it is morally questionable that the government derives significant gaming duty revenue from those who can least afford it.
Problem gambling affects 430,000 people in Britain. As well as this being a tragedy for gamblers themselves and their families, a recent report by the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) think tank showed that problem gambling also carries a huge economic and social cost: £1.5 billion a year when its impact on areas such as employment, mental health and financial stability is taken into account. Beyond this, FOBTs are affecting society more widely, driving violent crime and money laundering.
Parts of the gambling industry speak of the potential loss to the economy if these machines are restricted to a maximum £2 stake. They say such a move would cost £400 million a year in lost tax revenues but the CEBR says that industry losses from a £2 stake could be up to 47 per cent lower than suggested by the government’s initial impact assessment.
The call for stake reduction is coming from local government organisations and 93 local authorities, esteemed academics, community groups, the Royal Society for Public Health, and from business and faith leaders.’