Dr E Moran’s letter to The Guardian newspaper in yesterday’s issue (8/09) in relation to increased Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) revenues for bookmaking firms William Hill and Ladbroke is a serious question on the government’s unwillingness to address the issue of these slot machines, currently available in bookmakers, beyond their perceived deal with the betting shop companies to legislate in their favour on this very troubling issue.

It is worth quoting an excerpt of Dr Moran’s letter to understand his indignation over the government’s policy on FOBTs:
“This is an addictive form of gaming, which should be confined to casinos. The availability of FOBTs in betting shops illustrates the insidious manner in which the government has succumbed to gambling promoter pressure. When they first appeared in betting shops, the original intention on the part of the authorities was to prosecute. However, eventually it was decided not to pursue this. A code of conduct with the industry, supposedly to protect punters, was agreed instead.”

Dr Moran, who is a consulting psychiatrist and an expert on pathological gambling, is scathing of the government cop out on the FOBTs issue, as problem gambling goes on the increase through the proliferation of these slot machines, and is a serious concern of GamCare’s increased treatment of gamblers addicted to the machines.

Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, who leads the deregulation on the British gaming laws, must take note of the experts’ concern in relation to the addictive level of FOBTs and other such gambling machines that should be reserved to the controlled gambling environments of casino operations. Right now, the Secretary is relying too much on the abilities and future brief of the Gambling Commission, which one presumes will be manned by good intentioned professionals who, however well prepared and educated in the gaming business, will not have the physical scope to oversee FOBTs gambling in thousands of bookies throughout the land.

Therein lies the rub over the increase in problem gambling as reported by GamCare and other professionals like Dr Moran. At present, gambling in FOBTs is totally unsupervised, as bookies not only have no idea on player tracking to supervise over-exposure to slot machines gambling, but are usually over stretched on personnel, who treat the machines as just an addendum to the bookies’ real jobs of taking bets over the counter.

As Secretary Jowell claims she is not going to take a gamble on the matter of betting exchanges, she should not do so with FOBTs. The government cannot afford to take such a gamble. Would it not be an absolute disgrace if once again the government cops out in a tussle with the bookmakers?

Like most professionals, we are in agreement over the urgent need for deregulation of The Gaming Act 1968. There is not much to be said for betting exchanges other than their appearance has upset the monopoly of the bookmakers on book betting, and the fact that the betting public have been given a real education on the ins and outs of odds laying.

It is not surprising that the bookmaking companies oppose the betting exchanges, as they are a new field of business in direct competition for the same clientele, but this opposition goes further and, through their corporate muscle, they seek to influence the government to exclude them from the new legislation, thereby banning them from operating in this country.

This is the same King Canute attitude that is seeing America enter a losing war against the online gambling sector. There is no room for ostrich syndrome business positions in a global free market economy, and the bookmakers’ blinkered interests will see them lose out if they persist. Unless they the take up the challenge and modernize, 21st century business will pass them by.

The government on the other hand cannot gamble with the new gambling laws, and must put everyone very firmly in their place with bookmakers running books or casinos if they wish, betting exchanges enabling the betting public to take on the bookies, casinos accepting that minimum guaranteed payback on slot machines is the ‘fairest of them all’. They must give full support to responsible gaming with responsible laws, and the government must work for Joe Public free from ‘arrangements’ with any of the industry lobbies.

British gaming has led the world for a long time by being ‘whiter than white’. The government should step out of smoked filled operators’ dens where the only colour in evidence is smoky grey.



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