Fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) have been dubbed the crack cocaine of betting, having destroyed thousands of lives over the past few years and become the topic of heated public debate. On Thursday, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport finally ruled that the stakes on the highly addictive machines should be cut from a staggering £100 every 20 seconds to £2. The B2 machines exist in betting shops around the country and are a staple product for the industry; a large proportion of its profits depend on the income from these machines.
The ruling has been reached following bitter divides within government, and it is still weak in some key areas. For years, myself and others have campaigned for gambling reforms in this country. My father, David, 61, had a gambling habit, which he concealed from his family, that eventually landed him in prison. He stole £53,000 from his employers after making his way through a succession of payday loans, bank loans, credit cards and borrowing. He even remortgaged the family home in secret to keep his addiction from us. I do not blame the industry for his behaviour, but know that the addictive nature of its products lured him in, and he unfortunately became hooked.
Even while he was behind bars, his inbox was flooded with thousands of emails from firms enticing him to bet; some even sent premium-rate text messages to him in a bid to bring him back to gamble with them. This harassment of gamblers through non-stop advertising on TV, radio and online is insidious and needs to stop.
What are FOBTs?
Fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) are machines, found largely in bookmakers and betting shops, that allow customers to stake up to £100 every 20 seconds on digital versions of games such as roulette.
How many are there?
The UK has 33,611 FOBTs, each of which take more than £53,000 from gamblers per year.
Why are they considered a problem?
Critics of FOBTs say they are particularly addictive, allow gamblers to rack up huge losses within a few hours, and are concentrated in deprived areas. They have also been linked to money laundering.
We are taking gambling addiction off the high streets and sending it online. The government has missed a trick in its regulation reforms. The Gambling Commission last year reported that online gambling was a growing area and that 18- to 24-year-olds would suffer the most. Reports showed us how advertising techniques used by the industry could entice youngsters into betting from a young age, further acclimatising them to their products, ready to make them long-term customers.
According to the charity GambleAware, 50% of all gambling is now conducted online. Its report from summer last year also showed that unemployed young men were most at risk of developing a gambling problem through the internet. I have had countless social media adverts targeted at me because I’ve been talking about gambling. I have seen how the industry uses these ads to entice young people who are not of gambling age into games with fascinating cartoons. The government should put its foot down and have these enticements stopped.
There was a 600% rise in gambling adverts between 2007 and 2012, according to research by Ofcom. I have no doubt that their pervasiveness, links to football games and heavy sponsorship of sports matches will encourage a new generation of gamblers, once FOBTs are no longer the gambling machines of choice. With this decision the government has assessed actual harm rather than potential for harm, and has taken a long time to come up with its toothless recommendation that the industry should run its own responsible gambling campaign.
Successive governments have failed gambling addicts – it is after all the Labour administration who deregulated this industry in the first place. A leisure industry such as gambling should not be able to take wreck family life. It should not be able to dominate the high streets or the internet. The industry is under scrutiny now and this regulation is only the start of what I hope will be a raft of strict measures to ensure gambling no longer causes misery in this country.
• Adam Bradford is a social entrepreneur and campaigner for social and humanitarian issues
