In doing so the government has made a huge mistake to continue down the path of taxing human misery.
These machines have been described by leading gambling addiction expert Professor Mark Griffiths as the 'crack cocaine of gambling' and continue to create/encourage gambling addicts to lose huge sums of money.
In fact the industry makes £3.3 million a day or £1.2 Billion a year in profits. This is money taken out of the local economy and transferred to a few companies backed by wealthy individuals residing in offshore tax havens.
The Government has its sums all wrong on the net gains of gambling to the treasury and the economy. Yes short term the gambling industry creates a few low paid minimum wage jobs and pays tax to the government coffers; but at what cost to the future of our high streets, and the economy and society in general.
We are already seeing huge changes to our high streets with the proliferation of betting shops, pawnbrokers, and money lenders changing the balance to the point where ordinary people no longer want to frequent them.
With the decline in foot fall many small businesses are going under, and in their place we get more betting shops/mini casinos, pawnbrokers, and money lenders thus leading to further rapid decline in the diversity of the high street.
A recent Local Government Survey shows the strength of feeling against more gambling in our high streets and concerns that it is damaging our local economy. It is time to get really angry and demand our government listen to the people on this issue.
If the £1.2 billion a year wasted in FOBTs alone was instead spent in local shops and businesses this would have a very dramatic and positive impact on our high streets, the local economy and recovery. Taxes would still be paid and because more of the money would be spent locally, it would be respent locally thereby contributing far more than gambling revenues.
ITS TIME FOR OUR GOVERNMENT TO REBUILD OUR ECONOMY ON SUSTAINABLE FOUNDATIONS AND NOT ILL THOUGHT OUT SHORT TERM STRATEGIES THAT RISK FUTURE GENERATIONS TO A LIFETIME OF GAMBLING ADDICTION AND MISERY.
Local Government Association survey – Betting Shops/Mini Casinos are hitting economic growth
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