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Cash-guzzling casino games in Britain’s betting shops are to be scrapped under plans to cap bets at £2.

Ministers plan to reduce the maximum stake on 35,000 fixed odds betting terminals to the lowest level possible – in a major victory for the Sunday People.

We launched a campaign after punters lost a fortune on FOBTs, dubbed the crack cocaine of gambling.

Current stakes allow customers to bet up to £100 every 20 seconds.

But bringing that amount right down would effectively defeat the object of roulettte-style games.

The machines could then be stripped of the casino games – but would still offer less addictive slot machine-style bets.

(Image: Steve Bainbridge)

A top Whitehall source said: “That’s the point of a £2 stake. But it’s not the message we want to put out publicly.”

Sports Minister Tracey Crouch has already announced £100 stakes are to be outlawed. But she wanted to give bookies time to make representations before taking a final decision on a reduced stake.

Last week the Gambling Commission gave bookies a boost by recommending bets of up to £30 a spin.

Chief executive Neil McArthur said: “Our advice is based on reducing the risk of gambling-related harm.”

Shares in Ladbrokes Coral closed 2.8 per cent up after the announcement and William Hill shares rose four per cent.

(Image: Duncan Soar)

Shadow Culture Secretary Tom Watson said: “This is deeply disappointing. The Commission appear to have caved in to industry pressure.”

But the Sunday People understands ministers will reject Commission advice and go for a £2 maximum.

The only obstacle to that has been Chancellor Philip Hammond’s fear it would dent his £500million-a-year tax take in 25 per cent machine gaming duty.

But when asked by the Sunday People if Mr Hammond was still opposing a £2 stake, a source close to the Chancellor replied: “Nope.”

And in a House of Lords debate on Friday, Government spokeswoman Baroness Chisholm said: “FOBT stakes will be cut.

“I’m not aware the Chancellor has suggested we cannot make cuts to FOBTs because of revenue.”

The Lord Bishop of St Albans, the Rt Rev Alan Smith said: “These machines are a modern-day scourge which create misery and deepen poverty. A £2 stake is the only answer.”

That clears the way for the final nail in the FOBT coffin with an announcement expected from the Department of Culture in weeks.

Matt Zarb-Cousin, of the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, said: “The Chancellor needn’t worry. He’ll get his tax cash one way or another.

“Money will still be spent in betting shops, but on less harmful forms of gambling. Or it will go back into the local economy.”

The Sunday People campaign has been backed by the likes of John Myers, whose 27-year-old son Ryan committed suicide after losing thousands on FOBTs.

John, 57, of Huyton, Merseyside, slammed the machines for creating a “terrible addiction” and added: “The only real way forward is to get rid of them completely. I know this will not happen, so if they have to stay the limit needs to be set at £2.

“These machines attract people because of the speed that you can win (or lose) money. They give an instant buzz – much like the buzz a drug addict gets.

(Image: Michael Clement 2013)

“There always seem to be more of these in poorer areas – a seemingly quick and simple way to entice people out of their near poverty-stricken existence. This, for me, is a form of grooming by the gambling companies.”

Bookies won’t take the machines out of shops – but will remove high stakes games which swallow £1.8billion a year and provide 56 per cent of profits.

That will mean so-called B2 FOBT terminals will become £2 slot machines. Bookies have claimed it will cost the Treasury £250million a year in lost tax and risk 20,000 jobs.

They say even a £30 maximum would cost 10,000 jobs.

The Association of British Bookmakers said: “We fully understand public concern and there will be a stake cut to reduce the levels of losses.”

An online map shows punters in Hounslow High Street, West London – where there are 44 FOBTs in 11 bookies – blew the most in 2016, losing a whopping £2.8million.

Central London’s Tottenham Court Road was next on £2.5million, ahead of two more London spots – the East End’s Commercial Road, where £2.3million was lost, and Lea Bridge, Leyton, at £2million.

Scotland’s big loser, on £2million, was Dumbarton Road, Glasgow, said the Fairer Gambling Campaign.

A map of the heaviest losses per local authority is available here .

Inventor has cashed in

By Alan Selby

Former bookie Steve Frater invented fixed odds betting terminals and used the proceeds to build up a £3.8million property empire.

He came up with the first FOBTs in 1998 with his Austrian business partner Walter Grubmuller – and built the first terminal in a kitchen.

Less than a decade later they sold their firm to US giant Scientific Games for more than £100million.

Frater, now 65, continued to pocket a fortune as chairman of Global Draw Limited, a subsidiary of Scientific Games.

He netted more than £18million as chairman until he retired in March 2016. Frater now runs his investment portfolio from his £3million home in Essex.

In 2013 he told how he and Grubmuller knew they were pushing gambling boundaries “to the limit” with the controversial FOBT.

He said arcade, casino and bingo groups claimed the system was illegal. But after he and Grubmuller signed a deal with Coral “everyone wanted them”, he added.

Londoner Frater worked for William Hill before he and his business pal set up as independent bookies in the mid 1990s.

They worked out of Grubmuller’s home, using his kitchen as an office, the dining room as a lab and his garage as the warehouse.

Within weeks their machines, also known as B2s, were appearing in betting shops around Britain.

(Image: Steve Bainbridge)

FOBT is like being on drugs

By Matt Zarb-Cousins, Campaign for Fairer Gambling

It's no wonder they call FOBTs “the crack cocaine of gambling”.

If we had a drugs-style gambling product classification, then the stake, speed and game content of FOBTs would certainly be Class A.

More than 230,000 FOBT sessions in one year delivered losses of more than £1,000.

Landman Economics found that only by reducing the maximum stake to £2 will the Government eliminate large-scale losses of over £100 a session.

It also found the average FOBT user loses £192 a month, compared to £22 on machines capped at £2 a spin.

Preventing gambling harm requires public health measures similar to plain packaging for tobacco and minimum pricing for alcohol.

We must eliminate the addictive content.

(Image: Felix Clay /eyevine)

FOBT machines wreck lives

By Tony Franklin, former addict

Over two decades I blew £1million on these machines and lost my family and my home.

Much of the £5million a day profit from FOBTs is extracted from people with addiction and those with the least

disposable income.

The FOBTs are literally destroying people – those who are struggling on low wages, those who lose their wages week in, week out, and go home to families with no money from which to pay the rent, bills or even to buy food. Children go hungry and live in poverty.

The Gambling Commission has recommended a stake reduction to £30 or less. That is nowhere near low enough as people will continue to lose their salaries in less than an hour on payday.

Too much is at stake. This is a once in decade review for FOBTs and the Government must act now to stop the harm caused by High Street gambling.

And that means reducing stakes to a maximum £2.

(Image: South Wales Evening Post)

These machines are a danger to society

By MP Carolyn Harris

With nearly 35,000 FOBTs in betting shops up and down the country, allowing gamblers to part with up to £100 every 20 seconds, the potential danger for individuals and wider communities is acute.

There is a strong case for the stake being set at £2. This call is supported by many members of Parliament and by a significant majority of the public.

The Government had been reluctant to look at the stake but finally issued a call for evidence and consultation in October 2017.

For society, for the individual and for our High Streets too, it is absolutely essential that the social consequences of FOBTs are limited by reducing the stake to £2.

Voice of The Sunday People: Axing them is best bet

The Sunday People has been campaigning against FOBTs for years now.

And at every step of the way we have heard the devastating toll they take.

They cost people their families, their homes, and – in some heartbreaking cases – their lives.

Carolyn Harris MP has led the fight against them.

She makes it clear that she is not anti-gambling, or anti-bookmakers. But these machines are not there for an idle flutter or for the once-a-year gambler. They have changed the nature of betting shops.

They are not there for fun, or to pass an afternoon.

They exist only to strip people of their money as quickly, efficiently, and brutally as possible. During our campaign we have heard from their victims and their families.

We have heard from MP and we have heard from independent experts.

And the verdict is unanimous. The stake should be £2.

The Government’s decision could come as early as next week and it is a simple one.

Protect the victims and the wider public by reducing the stake.

Or let the bookies – and the Treasury – keep lining their pockets on the back of these evil machines.