The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has published a briefing on its website, sharing the view of its analysts who called the UK media focus on the expenditures on gambling machines in the country’s bookmakers “greatly exaggerated.”
The fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) are machines that provide customers with the chance to play virtual casino games in licensed betting offices by placing relatively small stakes in the range from £1 to £100. Maximum payouts are also not that big and usually amount to £500. Recently, these machines have become the major focus of fierce debates and disliking brought by the Campaign for Fairer Gambling.
In order for players to get realistic idea of risks and rewards, fixed-odds betting terminals are considered bound to higher stake limits. This is why anti-gambling activists have insisted on imposing a betting limit of £2, which is considered possible to minimise the machines’ appeal to customers.
The Institute of Economic Affairs, however, claimed that in fact the problem is not as great as the authorities are trying to make it look like. According to the data quoted by IEA analysts in the briefing, fixed-odds betting terminals’ spending accounts for 13.6% of the total gambling expenditure of the country. The percentage is considerably lower than the spending on online gambling and lotteries, which according to them had made the issues related to fixed-odds betting terminals “greatly exaggerated” by the local media.
In addition, the IEA commented that the number of betting shops available on the territory of the UK has not increased over the last few years. Currently, there are much fewer betting shops in the country in comparison to their number thirteen years ago, and less than half of the shops which existed about fifty years ago, despite the population has significantly increased.
The Institute of Economic Affairs also protested against the claims in the local media that there was an increase in the number of gambling addicts in the UK over the past ten years. According to them, there was no data that implies any increase in the problem gambling rates since the fixed-odds betting terminals became more attractive to customers about 15 years ago. Moreover, overall rates of problem gaming on the territory of UK are considered low by international standards.
- Author
Daniel Williams
