FOBT crime 'bunkum' and the Ladbrokes CEO
Campaign for Fairer Gambling
The Campaign for Fairer Gambling calls on the Government to resolve the 'FOBT problem' and 'stop dithering and stalling' on gambling policy.
“Betting shops have now become the target of choice for both organised armed gangs and localised anti-social behaviour” wrote a former Labour Cabinet Minister in 2008. That was in a report the Campaign for Fairer Gambling (CFG) brought into the public domain in 2013 just after a Ladbrokes manager had been bludgeoned to death by a FOBT player whilst lone staffing. The report also concluded “the introduction of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals has seen a rise in problem gambling which manifests itself in physical attacks on betting shop staff'”.
Last week a man was convicted of viciously raping a young female cashier in another Ladbrokes shop. Again he had been playing a FOBT shortly before the assault and again the cashier had been left on her own – in a newly opened shop where no risk assessment had been carried out. Yet Ladbrokes CEO, Jim Mullen, says it is “bunkum” to suggest profits have been put before lives, conveniently overlooking the £200 million his company has shaved off staff costs.
In the rape trial, Ladbrokes were accused of prioritizing “profit over the health and safety of its employees.” That accusation did not come from CFG, nor the press, nor any politician – it came from Ladbrokes own Head of Health and Safety – a man with 27 years’ service and whom Mr Mullen now says is to be sacked for “poor performance”. Like Paul Pearce, the former Ladbrokes security manager who blew the whistle on internal cover-ups to hide the scale of under-age gambling and violence in Ladbrokes shops; the Campaign for Fairer Gambling believes that the Ladbrokes CEO is trying to trash his former employee’s reputation, in order to keep a lid on the escalating level of violence being experienced in his shops and the reasons for it.
Malcolm George, (CEO of the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB)) would be well advised to set a direct line up to the Ladbrokes CEO to keep up with the ongoing revelations seeping out, before he goes on TV again claiming betting shops are the safest place to gamble. Mr George is learning that no matter what he says, his members’ actions contradict every one of his bold statements. Like the ABB legal threat to journalists warning - “any suggestion that our client is encouraging problem gambling or not taking all the necessary steps to protect gamblers against falling into gambling addiction would be wholly untrue and highly defamatory” which was followed a few days later by Paddy Power being reprimanded for “encouraging a gambler until he lost his home, job and family”.
FOBTs have transformed betting shops from ambient, soft gambling environments into hard core, high stake, mini casinos most prevalent in the poorest communities. Is it a coincidence that there has been an escalation in Police call outs to betting shops (despite what the Campaign believes to be bookmaker attempts to dumb the figures down), a record number of FOBTs being smashed up, increasing reports of incidents of anti-social behaviour in the news and more people coming forward to blow the whistle on the attempts to cover it up?
The latest revelations from Ladbrokes should cause concern to every person who values a land based betting sector, because the very foundations that have kept betting shops an integral part of our communities since the 1960’s are being eroded by the toxicity of FOBTs and the failure of bookmaking executives to face up to the problem.
In December last year, 22 MPs wrote to the ABB calling for an end to lone-staffing. Like the warnings from a Cabinet Minister in 2008, the ABB rebutted the call. When individual MPs have spoken up in the past about their concerns for staff safety, it isn’t long before the ABB recruitment campaign swings into action, silencing MPs like Chris Evans.
This article is published on the 25th May 2016 as a reminder to the bookmakers and politicians – particularly those in the pocket of the ABB – that on this day three years ago Andrew Lacovou was murdered whilst lone staffing a Ladbrokes shop in Morden by a FOBT user. The shocking revelations now coming out of Ladbrokes show that nothing has changed.
CEOs like Mr Mullen are here today gone tomorrow with a hefty salary and bonuses along the way – which the Campaign believes are largely derived from FOBTs. For most bookmaker CEOs the last few years have been spent protecting the FOBT cash cow at all costs and Mr Mullen is desperately trying to do just that, prior to a proposed merger with Coral.
Resolution of the FOBT problem will not come from misleading responsible gambling marketing campaigns. The bookmakers are ignoring that FOBTs are now not just linked to problem gambling, but murder, rape and suicides. How many more violent incidents and deaths are we going see before the Government stops dithering and stalling on FOBTs?
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