This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Nine out of 10 pubs in England are routinely allowing children to play age-restricted fruit machines, the gambling industry regulator has said.

The Gambling Commission has written to several pub trade associations demanding that they clean up their act after an undercover operation revealed that most were making no effort to prevent children from using the machines.

The commission’s enforcement chief said the preliminary findings of the operation were “sufficiently concerning that we consider it to be in the public interest to release them immediately”.

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Carolyn Harris, the Labour MP who led the successful campaign to slash stakes on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs), said: “Children growing up thinking feeding coins into a high-stakes machine is acceptable can progress to problems in adulthood. We legislate to stop underage drinking but ignore underage gambling.”

In 61 tests carried out by staff from local licensing authorities, trading standards and volunteer police officers, pubs’ failure rate to enforce age restrictions on fruit machines was 89%. The rate did not vary significantly between regions, nor between large pub companies and smaller ones.

That compares to an average pass rate of between 70% and 85% on other age-restricted products such as alcohol and tobacco.

“The results were uniformly poor,” the commission said, adding that any pubs allowing children to gamble were breaking the law. Richard Watson, the regulator’s enforcement chief, said: “We urgently call on the industry and their trade associations to take the results as a serious indication of the need to improve matters.”

The investigation examined the use of category C machines, colloquially known as fruit machines, which have a maximum stake of £1 and a top jackpot of £100.

A spokesperson for the Local Government Association said the report’s findings indicated that pubs were putting children at risk of developing a gambling problem.

“Pub managers must be as vigilant about underage gambling as they are about underage drinking,” said Simon Blackburn, the chair of the LGA’s safer and stronger communities board.

“It is completely unacceptable to turn a blind eye to children playing gaming machines that are restricted to over-18s, which risks young people becoming addicted to gambling.”

He added that it was unfair to blame pub staff for failing to prevent children from gambling, calling on the industry to work together to address the problem.

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Brigid Simmonds, chief executive of the British Beer and Pubs Association, said: “We are committed to keeping the pub a safe and friendly environment for families, so we take these interim findings very seriously.”

She said the BBPA had alerted its members to the report and was drawing up a social gambling charter, adding that it would also seek meetings with the commission and local authorities “to ensure appropriate action is taken”.

Concern about children’s exposure to gambling has mounted in recent years. Last year, a Guardian investigation found that Facebook was allowing children to play gambling-style games – developed by betting companies – without asking for age verification.

MPs and campaigners have also voiced fears about a rise in TV advertising for betting and casino companies, and sponsorship of football clubs. Labour has called for a ban on gambling ads during sport and said it would stop betting companies from paying to display their logo on football teams’ shirts.