Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) are high speed, high stake gambling machines that offer roulette and other casino games on the UK high streets. They came to prominence in 2002 when the casino game roulette was first introduced. At that time the FOBTs were not regulated or categorised by Government and the bookmakers placed them into betting shops without any clear operating parameters agreed with regulatory bodies.
Subsequently the bookmakers convinced the Gaming Board of Great Britain and Government that they could be trusted to self-regulate and the machines were categorised in the Gambling Act 2005. In contravention of the spirit of the law per The Gaming Machines Supply and Regulation 2007 the industry have adapted the FOBTs to take debit card deposits when made over the counter.
Public concerns over harm being caused by the FOBTs have been steadily growing, with an ever increasing number of people losing everything on the machines with consequences on families, employers, and local communities.
At the same time there has been a convergence of other concerns surrounding the FOBTs namely. the proliferation and clustering of betting shops and other exploitative businesses such as Pay Day loan shops in the high streets, and the public have also become tired of non-stop gambling advertising in the media, particularly on TV and across Social Media platforms.
Perhaps most worryingly for the gambling industry though is the alienation of clients of their previous core business, Over the Counter (OTC) bets on horses, dogs, football etc. The bookmaker industry has reinvented traditional betting into a sophisticated trading platform based on a financial algorithm that reduces the position or closes down accounts from anybody adapt at beating the bookmaker.
Whilst bookmakers have always closed down loss making accounts, it is the growth of the FOBT industry to be their core business that has allowed them to decline or restrict bets on such a frequency that even their core customers have been alienated by their business model.
With the success of the Campaign For Fairer Gambling and the sun setting on the exploitative nature of the FOBT business the bookmaker industry may come to regret its strategy of the last 15 years.
I for one hope so. Anthony Franklin.
