Tomorrow, a committee of MPs are considering the Government’s decision on stakes and prizes for gaming machines.
For the UK’s 8,700 high street betting shops, the Government is leaving the stakes and prizes as they are. That recognises the views of the eight million people who enjoy spending their leisure time in a betting shop, and it is based on the fact that no evidence has been produced to prove any gaming machines cause problem gambling.
Following its review of the evidence, the Government confirmed that,
“While it is clear that reducing stakes on B2 machines by varying degrees would have an adverse economic impact on the betting industry, it is currently not clear how great an impact a reduction would have on gambling related harm.”
It follows the Government’s public consultation which received 9,500 responses, of which just 34 people supported calls for a reduction in the stakes and prizes in betting shops.
Entirely as expected, having convincingly lost the argument, anti-betting campaigners have reacted with more absurd claims. For example, a national newspaper recently claimed that betting shop machines take £8.5 billion per year. The calculations are wrong and therefore the conclusion is false. The sector works on the basis of a high volume, low margin business model. There is high turnover including recycling of winnings by customers on the machines. The facts are that approximately £46 billion is staked on terminals including £2 slot machine games (accounting for the majority of plays and around 20% of turnover) and the industry makes around £1.5 billion in profits (including 30% on slots) per year nationally. The terminals have a return to player rate between 92% (slots) and 97% (casino games).
Anti-betting shop campaigners also recently claimed that £607million is spent in just 153 shops in Liverpool. That is a sum of money larger than the entire City Council’s budget, and if true, would mean each shop was making over three million pounds a year just from 4 gaming machines. As one shop staff member in Liverpool put it:
“If that were the case, we’d all be driving round Cheshire in Ferraris.”
Given an average shop makes £73k a year and a third of shops makes less than £18k, the £607m has no basis in fact.
Another claim is that betting shops “target the poor and unemployed”. Aside from the fact that running a business on the basis of targeting people with no money is not much of a business plan, industry data –which is in the public domain – shows that four out of five gaming machine players are in work, and an average player earning between £20-40,000.
With 84% of all betting shops located in commercial centres, like many retailers, and bookmakers accounting for fewer than 4% of UK retail outlets, you may as well say newsagents or chemists are targeting the poor as betting shops. In a major city like Liverpool of course there are more betting shops than in Southport, just as there are more restaurants or convenience stores. Furthermore the amount of money spent in less affluent areas is just one fifth of that spent in the most affluent areas.
It has also been claimed by anti-betting campaigners that 20 second speed cycle on gaming machines is too quick. In fact, it takes customers on average 35-40 seconds to place their stake and the mandatory limit, which was self-imposed by the industry in 2003, is the slowest in the world, with thousands of gaming machines across Europe having a speed cycle of just 2-3 seconds with no limit on stakes or prizes.
It is certainly true that you can bet £100 in one go if you wish, and some customers like to but all the industry data shows an average customer plays for about 15-20 minutes and spends £7.55 per session – similar to the price of an adult cinema ticket.
The ABB’s new
Code for Responsible Gambling, supported by 95% of betting operators, sets out measures to help customers and is the first time anywhere in the world a gaming machine all players will receive mandatory alerts after 30 minutes or having spent £250. Customers will also be able to set their own limits on the amount they spend or time they play for. Developed in partnership with problem gambling experts and academics it has been called as “world-leading.”
In the end, the public has made its views clear –
99.5%of all responses to the recent consultation supported no changes at all, and our eight million customers shouldn’t have their leisure time dictated to by a handful of an