Fixed-Odds Maximum Bet 'could Drop To £2'

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41814465

This seems to me be an eminently sensible suggestion, and yet I have just heard a representative from the gambling industry telling John Humphrys that it won't help the issue of problem gambling at all !

At the moment, you can bet £100 ever 20 seconds !

[ummmm]

It's a start. It might help some giving them time to think how often they are putting money in the machines.

They could also start betting on something else instead.

Many gamblers are chasing losses.

[Cloverjo]

There will still be problem gamblers, but at least their losses will be restricted.

I work in an amusement arcade and we see people with problems. Thankfully, they can't lose ridiculous amounts of money in a very short time. These FOBT machines are horrible.

[Cloverjo]

Just to clarify, we don't have FOBT machines in our arcade.

[-Talbot-]

You can go online and lose £100 in less than a second.

[ToraToraTora]

it's a step in the right direction but the problem is the underlying mental state of the people that use these. "Easy money" is anything but.

[mikey4444]

The reason that the gambling industry is against this move is so obvious, that it hardly needs pointing out, but look at the profits that is made on these dangerous machines.

Personally, I would like to see them outlawed with immediate effect, but the gambling lobby is far too powerful to allow that to happen easily.

Although that was said about the industry that made immense profits from killing off its customers with cigarettes, and look at that industry now.

[Ken4155]

Betting shops are more like arcades nowadays. I haven't been in one for quite some time because of these infernal machines and the desperados they attract. If it wasn't the incessant 'bleeping' of the machines putting you off studying the days horse-racing form, it was the louts using them, cursing and banging the sides, calling them fixed even as they fed another tenner into them. Many of those coming in the bookies wouldn't know one end of an horse from another. I do all my gambling on line, staying well clear of the 'casino' section.

[mikey4444]

Listen to the interview with Humphrys this morning, beginning at 2:41:51....the Humph can hardly have been more incredulous if he had tried !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09bxk60

[naomi24]

If people want to gamble they'll gamble. Remove one method, they'll find another.

[Old_Geezer]

That's true. But not a reason to tactitly approve by allowing it to go on unchecked, though. One should try to protect vulnerable/addicted folk from themselves even if they can work around the protections if determined.

[jourdain2]

Seems a sensible move to me. The craving is satisfied with much less damage.

[DTCwordfan]

The art of compromise is required, my guess is that it will be 30......otherwise the betting industry (and jobs and landlords etc) will be hit....and the punters will find other means to drop loads of dosh. There's plenty of action needed as to online gambling as well.....

[AidanTheKnight]

Personally I think it's a good move to limit the max stake on fixed odds machines in betting shops. I can only see that this will help prevent problem gamblers and by limiting the stake, actually give players more control on what they are doing.