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£2 limit.
Can a £2 limit on fixed odds betting machines really make a difference to people, when you are able to walk up to the counter and bet, say 10k on a horse, or dog, real or virtual. You could connect to an online casino, or place a large bet, via your phone.
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So, do I think a much lower limit on fixed odds betting terminals will make a difference? Probably, but only a small one. Many problem gamblers are at the lower end of the economic spectrum. This is either as a consequence of their gambling or by virtue of finding they have fewer realistic opportunities to escape their current economic predicament. For these people, even a limit of £2 per bet can quickly have a significant impact on their immediate situation.
Am I in favour of these restrictions? No. I'm a huge believer in both freedom of choice and personal responsibility. Whilst I have much sympathy for people like my brother-in-law, I really don't like seeing the issues of the few dictate the opportunities available to the many. I believe it would have been far more satisfactory to see increased tax levies on these machines with those revenues being specifically targeted towards social deprivation and support for problem gamblers.
I had some issues with gambling when I was younger, and know that a limit on stakes just on one aspect of gambling wouldn't have helped me at all. It would have just taken longer for me to lose all my money.
If I had won some money on the afternoon racing, I would have a few pints, and return for the night racing. A win on the night racing, might have involved a trip to the casino.
The amount of gambling that is available today is incredible. The bookmakers cover horse racing from all over the world, available at all hours of the day and night, virtual horse racing, virtual dog racing, proper dog racing, football, fixed odds betting machines, you can even make up your own silly bets.
When I first started betting in betting shops they had no tv coverage, they just had a commentary service. If you went to a really small village shop they didn't even have a commentary, you just placed your bet today, and collect any winnings tomorrow. The big shops employed a man to chalk the changing odds on a board.
Most of the serious gamblers I know are prepared to gamble on pretty much anything, and this limit wont help. Yet the bookmakers are claiming that it will lead to shop closures and many lost jobs.
I recognise that a lot of people will see it is going against freedom of choice but the evidence must have been huge for them to make this brave step.
I,ve had my own addiction issues in the past and now work with a lot of people in addiction - and its surprised me how gambling has affected and ruined so many families.
I,ve seen grown men in tears in the bookies pleading with staff to give them their money back as they,ve just blown their months wages and can,t pay the mortgage.
These machines should never have been allowed anyway
They exploited a loophole in the law to get them in the 1st place and that's why so many bookies have been springing up all over the place over the last few years and yeah its a shame now for the people who will lose their jobs as the bookies have come to rely on these machines for the majority of their income.
You can,t play these stakes in pubs or arcades so why should bookies be different.
I,ve seen so many ppl affected by gambling addiction and so many of them are down to these specific machines that I have to agree with the governments decision. Of course it won,t stop everyone but it will help to a degree and one thing I,m 100% sure off is that this decision will save lives.
Can,t believe I,m praising the Tory government
P
Most of the serious gamblers I know are prepared to gamble on pretty much anything, and this limit wont help.
Yes there are numerous other things to gamble on but unlike FOBT,s they normally take a few minutes.
So say someone is betting on virtual horse racing or a dog race and they lose their money - they have at least a minute or 2 before the next one. This gives them more time to think about what they are doing.
With FOBT,s it takes abut 15 seconds to win/lose then within a fraction of a second and 1 press off a button - its off again.
With problem gamblers and "at-risk" gamblers this doesn,t give the brain time to process whats actually happening and how much they are losing so they get in this zone and can only really comprehend what's just happened when they,ve no more money to put in.
P
Still wp though given Tories would have probs been the party most likely to stick to the status quo and keep raking in the £££.
The hundreds of extra shops only came about because of the not very well thought out 4 FOBTs per shop limit which just led to tons of shops opening up all over the place. I know Swindon town centre has 3 x Ladbrokes within about a tenth of a square mile, plus a Coral (same owners as Ladbrokes), Betfred, 2 William Hills and a Paddypower shop. It's logical that some of those extra shops that opened to facilitate the FOBT punters would now close down again with the restrictions on what bought them into existence to begin with.
I'm not sure how much difference the limit will actually make tbh. The vast majority of FOBT users are going to be staking maybe 20p-£1/spin but when a spin takes 5 seconds and you can just put the machine on autoplay 100 spins, you can lose £100 pretty quick still. Nonetheless, it's a start, and at least there's the hope that someone might 'only' lose £200 instead of £1200.
I hope it'll kill Roulette on those machines. Tilted me so hard seeing people putting their 20p a chip patterns on Roulette and covering like 34 numbers and losing chunks to the house edge. Then they'd inevitably tilt at losing because obvs you're going to lose when you're basically giving the house a chip a spin just for the privilege of covering nearly the entire table.
I don't think it'll be as bad for jobs as the bookies are making out, that's obvs just a tactic to try and get the Government to reconsider on the basis that it might make their unemployment numbers look worse. Unless the shop doesn't make much money or has a regular high stakes FOBT degen, then I can't see it causing anywhere near the magnitude of closures that bookies are talking about.
^ That's the 3 Ladbrokes in Swindon town centre fwiw. How **** silly is that?
The Government must be wrong interfering with individual preferences.
Perhaps the Government should also limit gambling on the Stock Market to £2. Potentially there is more to loose in a single day here than all of the machines in bookmaker in the UK in a year.