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Hurrah! Someone finally grew a spine and faced up to commerce in the name of social order!! £2 it is!
Best news for ages. The reaction from bookmakers in terms of projected job losses and shop closures shows just how effectively they've been leeching money off some of the more vulnerable people in our society.
Now the government needs to find a way to regulate online gambling properly.
Does seem good, that's what governments should do.
regulate online gambling properly
Yes indeed, I (ahem) bet this is a far bigger issue than the fixed odds terminals, wonder why it's not been sorted first really.
Not sure anyone can regulate anything online.
Does seem good, that’s what governments should do.
Absolutely, Bliar and his cohorts have created a monster with their effective deregulation of this industry, it's disgusting.
Bloody hell!
A “social concerned” government!! Never thought I’d see that with this current crop of political infighting halfwits.
Thankfull that I’m not a target market for any betting whatsoever, and only really get annoyed about the sheer number of TV adverts proclaiming outlandish returns and the glamour of all things about loosing your money and the social outfall from debt.
So this gets a massive Yay!! from me and the best part of the new regulations???
this:
TV adverts for gambling will have to show responsible gambling messages for their entire duration, while there will also be a dedicated TV ad campaign targeting addiction.
And I was astonished to read that bookmakers earn half thier income from these Betting Terminals 😤
If the betting shops close will there be enough barbers and coffee emporiums to fill the void? There's hardly anything else left on our high street
Not sure anyone can regulate anything online.
It's harder, but a ban on gambling advertising would be a start.
If the betting shops close will there be enough barbers and coffee emporiums to fill the void? There’s hardly anything else left on our high street
Vaping shops.
If the betting shops close will there be enough barbers and coffee emporiums to fill the void? There’s hardly anything else left on our high street.
Even an empty shop is better than having yet another Betfair. Some towns had three or four sprinkled along the high street just to get around the maximum FOBT numbers per premises rule.
Let's hope a few of the hundreds/thousands of quid getting poured into the terminals might somehow get spent on proper high street retail. Or on the rent/mortgage.
Aah, but Vapers are starting to explode, I read it in the Metro this morning. The shop spaces will be filled by shoe shops. Douglas Adams explained the Shoe Shop Event Horizon scenario years ago. It terrified me because I don't like flying.
Absolutely, Bliar and his cohorts have created a monster with their effective deregulation of this industry, it’s disgusting.
Indeed, let us not forget who started this social fiasco..
Loan companies next would be good thing.
Legal loan sharks 😠... Should be kicked into touch, true perveyors of misery.
And Ambulance chasing law firms.
If the betting shops close will there be enough barbers and coffee emporiums to fill the void? There’s hardly anything else left on our high street
Vaping shops.
Until they discover the long term damage of vaping and start to regulate that a bit more.
Completely gobsmacked they had the guts to do it!
Aah, but Vapers are starting to explode, I read it in the Metro this morning.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-44149281
Not sure anyone can regulate anything online
Get rid of the TV ads (PLEASE!) would do [i]something[/i]. People would at least have to go looking for it... And watching sport on telly would be far less irritating. Ray Winstone you tosser.
Not sure anyone can regulate anything online
They are getting better at geoblocking, VPN will get you there but it's another step and a process, limits on UK card companies would be another option. As most of the big gambling lot operate as companies you can get hold of then they have UK operations to look at. Things can be done about it, advertising would be a huge step though
Bloody brilliant news, they're a plague, end of, online gambling next please!
Considering the boss of Bet365 paid herself 215 Million last year I think they can afford to have their wings clipped, think much much misery, poverty and ruined lives went into that 215 million, vile woman.
The arguments by the bookmakers about job losses etc were pathetic, it's not like they had any compunction about laying people off when they first introduced the automated terminals. The money they're sucking out of communities won't disappear, it'll go elsewhere, and whilst I'm sure it won't all be spent on fair trade kitten orphanages it's hard to think of a less productive way it could be spent that flippin' gambling.
I also believe that the utterly unsustainable system of business rates and high street rates that's crushing independent retail is being at least partially propped up by the mega profits of betting shops, if they start to disappear someone may actually have to think about reforming it, the Lib Dems in Coalition were trying but the 2015 election killed that.
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Completely gobsmacked they had the guts to do it!
Don't think the Maybot really wanted to, but was faced with a Parliamentary defeat of whatever watered-down sop to the industry she produced, so caved.
Clearly the betting firms didn't spend enough of their ill-gotten lobbying enough MPs.
Considering the boss of Bet365 paid herself 215 Million last year
It's been a good week for that family - her dad is Chairman of Stoke City. 🙂
I suppose the 200 million she 'earned' off the back of a lot of misery will be some consolation.
boss of Bet365 paid herself 215 Million last year I think they can afford to have their wings clipped, think much much misery, poverty and ruined lives went into that 215 million, vile woman.
I don't know who she is, but I can't agree with that. It's completely legal and "Fun" for millions who don't get themselves into financial trouble over it. I would never gamble, but wish I'd thought of a way to make money out of those who do! (But yes, unfortunately I actually am a vile man)
yeah Maybot didnt want to but it looked like enough Tories would rebel that she had no choice
NuLabour created a monster with this one, these regulations shouldve been put in place years ago
agreed that online gambling should be next
Yup, purely political move but the Tories.
They only want to give just enough to stay in power
NuLabour created a monster with this one
Didn't hear much about this during the Tessa Jowell hagiography this week. It's her principal political legacy.
It’s completely legal and “Fun” for millions who don’t get themselves into financial trouble over it.
True, some gamble responsibly but the massive profits that lead to the obscene paychecks for people like Denise Coates and her ilk are overwhelming generated not by sensible people like I'm sure you are Dez just 'having a flutter' but by problem gamblers whose addiction they foster and whose lives they destroy along with their family's.
To quote Dr Carolyn Downs, a lecturer at Lancaster university and gambling industry expert: "Problem gamblers provide most of the profit for the gambling industry and that's really quite well known." full article HERE
Bliar and his cohorts
Excellent. Straight to the nub of the problem. One man and his cohorts. Blair also started problem drinking* with the liberalisation of opening hours. And he invaded Iraq. Lucky he didn't call a referendum on our membership of the EU.
* I mean other people doing it, not him. Or his cohorts.
True, some gamble responsibly but the massive profits that lead to the obscene paychecks for people like Denise Coates and her ilk are overwhelming generated not by sensible people like I’m sure you are Dez just ‘having a flutter’ but by problem gamblers whose addiction they foster and whose lives they destroy along with their family’s.
I don't think that is true. The massive profits are generated by the vast bulk of gamblers who don't fall into the problem category. The problem gamblers are collateral damage, but the industry doesn't want to limit the bets because that would also impinge on the average gambler who is losing money but not enough to obviously wreck his/her life. The occasional gambler 'having a flutter' isn't going to be affected by only being able to bet £2 every twenty seconds on a fixed odds machine, rather than £100.
Excellent. Straight to the nub of the problem
Pretty much. The recent rise in problem gambling can be directly attributed to this liberalisation of government gambling policy, which was coincidentally a very nice earner for the Exchequer. They didn't invent the problem, but they significantly contributed to it.
Even they concede this, it's not a particularly controversial statement.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/aug/05/labour-mistake-gambling-law-harman
I
long over due, could do with curtailing tv gambling advertising and late night tv casinos
If we banned slavery today, you'd hear the same arguments about job losses and hard working whip operators, and about how some slaves are really happy and have responsible owners. "It'll cost jobs" isn't a good argument, it's not an argument at all.
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long over due, could do with curtailing tv gambling advertising and late night tv casinos
When Brown knocked back plans for super casinos to be built in the UK it was seen as taking a principled stand against the gambling industry. I wonder if it wouldn't be better to have something like that, though - from a drag it out into the sunlight perspective. Physically going to a casino to gamble has to be better than sitting at home in your underpants, hammered, betting on ridiculously exploitative tv / internet games.
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I always found it incredible that you were able to bet 100 at a time on a slot machine. They are so addictive it’s scary!
when I was about 16 I couldn’t walk past a fruit machine without playing it, now wouldn’t go near one!
If we banned slavery today,
Didn't Labour sort than one out already?
The massive profits are generated by the vast bulk of gamblers who don’t fall into the problem category. The problem gamblers are collateral damage,
Multiple academics and independent studies suggest otherwise and show that problem gambling is a key part of the industry's current levels of profitability.
They'd still be profitable without it, but things like massive 9-figure pay cheques for the people in charge are the result of deliberately attracting and catering to problem gamblers.
More info Here and Here When even the US media are picking up on the UK betting industry's excesses you know you have an issue.
They're also used to launder cash, you can wash £200 at a time...
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/08/gambling-machines-drug-money-laundering-bookies
Sorry for the facebook link
mate did some great graphics when this was part of the recent tassie election, the monopoly gaming machine owner pumped millions into fighting it.
A lot of studies on job losses miss what putting that cash back in people hands does for the local economy, if your not throwing £100 in a machine what would you spend it on?
And Ambulance chasing law firms.
Mixed views on that as many people that should be able to claim won't have the expertise or money to mount a claim - the real problem is the doctors they employ to fabricate medical issues - I used one and had a real problem getting them not to claim for whiplash, which I didn't have. If the lawyers help them mount fair claims then that is OK.
nobody has mentioned Iain Duncan Smith ...
If the betting shops close will there be enough barbers and coffee emporiums to fill the void? There’s hardly anything else left on our high street
There was a good discussion on R4 the other day about this, the idea of a high street being purely for "retail therapy" is a relatively new phenomenon, the transition between towns being a place where people lived and worked and therefore had everything you needed (coffee shops, barbers, groceries). To a place where people only worked and lived in the suburbs, but still went into town for shopping almost out of habit, but therefore only needed shops selling fast fashion and the like. Now that trend has matured and those shops are leaving the high street as people no longer go into town at all.
What's interesting as a result (also partially of relaxing planning laws about residential developments) is that young people particularly are now moving back into cities because the high streets do offer a social space with coffee shops, cafes, cinemas etc whereas the model for the last 30-40 years has only really encouraged you into town if you(r other half, this is the STW demographic after all) wanted to buy yet another top from topshop.
There was a good discussion on R4 the other day about this
Got a link?
Bloody hell - just read about these machines (had previously assumed they were just fruit machines). 100 quid every 20 seconds!
The gambling industry has always felt like the most overtly parasitic - agree that regulation of online gambling should be next. Bloody scratchcards too.
This has somewhat offset the rage I felt last night watching Jeremy bloody Hunt inexplicably dodging Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall's incredibly softball questions on childhood obesity.
I suppose even a busted clock is right twice a day..... but a result is a result
So when is this cap going to be imposed? The sooner the better, obviously, but I've not heard any target dates for it yet.
It's all very well the government saying they're going to do it but it'll make absolutely no difference until they actually do.
Not that I don't trust them or anything.....
And I was astonished to read that bookmakers earn half their income from these Betting Terminals
I'm surprised it's that low - that much include their online operations.
The gambling industry has been going wild for a decade or more now, it was only the huge piles of cash that they poured into HMRC (and no doubt campaign funds) that let them get away for it for so long.
I think it's worth baring in mind how much of a traditional bookmakers shop income comes from machines - the old school £2 flutter on an each-way Horse Race doesn't seem to feature any more.
Put it this way, when they changed the rules a few years ago to limit the amount of these machines they could have per shop, the bookies immediately opened more shops - they're THAT profitable.
Yes, no doubt, unless they can find another loop-hole they will close the shops as quickly as they opened them. They won't even wait until the lease is up, without the machines generating thousands a day it's not worth staffing them. People will lose jobs and that sucks, but the problem with gabling is that there's not tangible product - no secondary industry, if 'punters' spend their money elsewhere, on something real, then more jobs will be created.
Jesus, even I didn't think it was this much of a gap
Used to work for Ladbrokes when they launched those machines.
I was doing catering in a greyhound track, one of the Ladbrokes director said that if allowed they would shut the track and fill it with those machines. They were making millions.
You didn't actually trust the Tories did you?
I used to make software for gambling companies, and no-one in the industry that I ever worked with was under any illusion that FOBTs are anything other than a way to milk addicts of all their cash.
As P-Jay said alot of bookies only exist because of the FOBTs, so getting rid of them just means that the industry will return to where it probably should be anyway (Pretty much dead on the high street as the internet killed it years ago).