An estimated £103 million is wagered on betting shop gambling machines across Caerphilly County Borough, a campaign group has said.
The Campaign for Fairer Gambling has compiled statistics on the use of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) found in bookmakers.
Between October 2013 and September 2014, it claims that £19.2m was pumped into the machines across the county borough. Including ‘winnings’, the total wagered was £103m. A total of £3.6m was lost to the bookmakers’ machines in the period.
The Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) has disputed the figures.
Adrian Parkinson is a former betting industry insider and is now with the Campaign for Fairer Gambling.
He said: “FOBTs have been described as the crack cocaine of gambling. What I witnessed in my experience was responsible gamblers being turned into pathological gamblers.”
Mr Parkinson, who helped introduce FOBTs to the UK around 15 years ago, added the £103m wagered showed users were deeply engaged with the machines when they played them.
The Campaign for Fairer Gambling is calling for a “responsible” limit on the amount punters can stake. At the moment it is £100 a spin, but the group wants to see a limit of £2 introduced – the same that can be found on machines in bingo halls and pubs.
Mr Parkinson, who turned betting industry whistleblower for BBC’s Panorama programme, said the machines had changed the nature of gambling as entertainment.
He said: “Fifty pounds in your pocket would give you an afternoon’s entertainment in a bookmakers. In the machine, that £50 is gone in minutes.”
Mr Parkinson said the frustrations felt by gamblers at losing such large amounts were often taken out on betting shop workers.
The ABB, which represents bookmakers, said their own figures showed that £14.2m was inserted into the machines and that £2.6m was lost.
Peter Craske, a spokesman for the ABB, said: “Betting shops want all our customers to bet safely and responsibly. This includes now giving players the ability to set limits on the amount of time they play for and amount they spend. Staff encourage people to do this, as well as making sure people know to bet only what they can afford.
“All machines now display responsible gambling messages. We no longer promote gaming machines in shop windows and in January we ran Gamble Aware Week, which focused on setting limits and only gambling what someone can afford.
“While it is possible to bet £100 at a time, the fact is hardly anyone does – only 3% of bets placed are ever at the £100 level – and in Caerphilly, the average stake is only £11.12 compared to £14.08 nationally.”
Chris Evans, MP for Islwyn, has campaigned for the safety of betting shop workers against abuse and also used to work in a bookmakers.
Responding to the figures, he said there needed to be a wider debate on the betting industry to include internet gambling and the availability of scratch cards.
Fuelled by an ever increase in planning approvals by Caerphilly County Borough Council resulting in an ever increasing proponerance of shopping centre located Betting Shops and amusment arcades, refuse planning consent, result, no Betting shop! “simples”.
I am a very occassional gambler and just canot see the attraction of these machines which simply pay out a percentage of the stake which is determined by the machine owner. For instance £10,000 paid into these machines will return £7,000 if set at 70%, there is no way to ‘beat the booky’ as can be done with other forms of gambling.
In 2012 the Bookies thought that it was unlikely that Wales would beat France, let alone win a Grand Slam, and offered high odds against. I bet on both and won handsomely, pitting my knowledge of the relative strengths of the teams against the bookies assessment.
I can see the reason for betting on sport for this reason but a machine that simply takes your money and in all cicumstances returns only a fraction of it just reminds me of EU membership. In other words not a good bet!
In 2007 Caerphilly had 34 bookies. In 2014 there were 23. Now some might want to pretend this a terrible increase in gambling but it just ain’t so.
That’s a big fall in bookies (and jobs) but still we get the FOBT bad mantra using dubious figures relating to turnover not spend.