Totally Gaming – David Cameron, the UK Prime Minister, is preparing a crackdown on FOBT machines in betting shops this week, alongside fresh penalties for companies if they fail to enforce new limits on playing times and betting losses, according to the Guardian newspaper. The paper reported that in correspondence between Downing Street and the gambling industry in March, David Cameron said the bookmakers’ new code, introduced in February by the Association of British Bookmakers, needed to be “strengthened to minimise harm”.
The Tory leader is due to announce a clampdown on the terminals, with a range of regulatory and planning powers to curb the clustering of shops. These moves come a month after the chancellor’s surprise 5 percent tax increase on the betting machines in the budget. He is also proposing to make the strengthened measures part of the operating licence – essentially making the new code mandatory rather than voluntary, as the industry had wanted.
It would mean that if the regulator found bookmakers’ staff failing to intervene when punters lost too much money or not questioning why machines were played without a break, the shop could be closed down. According to reports, Cameron is also poised to tackle the issue of the concentration of bookmakers in the poorest areas of the country when he makes his announcement this week.
