UK Fixed Odds Betting Terminals

[SummerRain]

Better-shops machines sucking cash out of communities... this is what predatory capitalism looks like.

This is what predatory capitalism looks like: betting shops with machines designed to suck cash out of communities, run by FTSE firms employing staff on miserly wages, while doing their best to avoid paying tax. Sick of seeing their high streets destroyed, anxious about the spikes in theft and violence, local councils, such as Liverpool and Brighton and Newham in east London, try their best to resist the spread of FOBTs – but are too weak and poor to take on the gambling companies.

This Wednesday, Ed Miliband will call a debate aimed at giving councils greater powers to block new gambling shops. Not a bad start, but it will do nothing about the ones that are already there. Better would be simply to cut the maximum stake on FOBTs from £100 to the norm for gaming machines, which is £2.

Has anybody ever used a FOBT? Are they common in the USA? Should their use be restricted? Is the industry predatory? Or should adults be adult enough to resist such lures as gambling, regardless of its form?

This is the first time I'd heard about these... but I've never even been in a betting shop, and never as an adult placed a bet. Not only because it's a waste of money, but I just don't really see what there is to enjoy.

 

[yakherder]

I had never heard of them referred to as fixed odds betting machines, but it sounds like pretty much any slot or poker machine in any casino built since computers were invented, at least in the U.S. as far as I know. It's been a long time since anything with a microchip in it was truly random. The only part that's random is that different machines in the same casino might be programmed with different odds. In Las Vegas it's even common to see advertisements along the lines of "Our slots are programmed to give back 99.7%!" Personally I can't see how a -0.3% average loss attracts anyone, but I've never been into gambling in the first place. Taking calculated risks, sure, but not gambling. I lived in Vegas and worked for Mandalay bay for a couple years, during which time I didn't give them back a single nickel of my paycheck via gambling. I figure if someone wants to throw away their money it's easier and faster to just toss it in the garbage.

 

[Second Summer]

People must be allowed to be morons - how else will they learn? But they must also be protected from their own stupidity to some extent. If gambling ruins their and their families' lives, then I would say that lesson was too expensive. So there ought to be some kind of upper limit. Personally, I would prefer if that limit was quite low.

And yes, councils should obviously have the power to prevent such abominations from being established within their jurisdictions. And to evict ones already established thanks to Thatcherites such Tony Blair.

 

[ledboots]

In the US there are certain places you can gamble, and they are strict (or pseudo strict) about it because of organized crime`s ties to it in the past. But there are now many more casinos than in the past because Native America tribes are allowed to own them.

 

[FortyTwo]

Here's something worse.

Did you know these things are rigged? And every single shitty toy inside only costs fractions of a cent to produce?

 

[ledboots]

Here's something worse.

Did you know these things are rigged? And every single shitty toy inside only costs fractions of a cent to produce?

And that is creepy looking, too. Once when my kids were little, a machine was letting the kids pick up anything, and word quickly spread amongst the kids. My son got a stuffed penguin.

 

[kazyeeqen]

Here's something worse.

Did you know these things are rigged? And every single shitty toy inside only costs fractions of a cent to produce?

The fact that they are so cheap to produce also makes me very uncomfortable. Every one of those items is a cheap, horrible marvel of ingenuity. The raw materials and machinery and processes used to produce each of those awful pieces of **** is mind-boggling, not even getting into the human labor of them. It's a crazy world we live in.

 

[Pirate]

You're better off buying the toy off eBay by the time you win on a grabber!

Anyway I've never been in a betting shop/slot machine shop. However, I do not believe that anyone who is NOT addicted to gambling (or very drunk) would place a £100 bet on a machine - or anything come to that. All having that option there will do is propel the addiction.

 

[Blobbenstein]

I read the other day that fixed betting machines are used to launder money. Put the dirty money in get clean money out, only lose a fraction....not quite sure how that works.....the article I read said something about a receipt, that could be shown to any police finding your money. Do they give receipts?

 

[Moll Flanders]

Ladbrokes made £1BILLION in month from 'crack cocaine' machines | Mail Online

Wow, Ladbrokes made £1 billion in one month from these machines, I read my local council wants to crack down on the number of betting shops in my area.

 

[beancounter]

It's a racket that makes states a lot of money. In NH (and probably other states), they now have $25 scratch tickets. The higher price implies bigger prizes and better odds, but the odds and prizes are no different than a $1 ticket. It's a shame, but these tactics prey on the poorest, least educated, and desperate.

What's worse, is that the state actively advertises the lottery. It's not just a sign you see at the local 7-11 anymore. They now have 30 second TV commercials, that clearly appeal to the lowest common denominator. (e.g. a man getting slapped in the face with a fish)

 

[Blobbenstein]

they used to have TV commercials in the UK, for the Lottery. They had a big hand flying around and then it would point at someone and say 'IT's YOU', or something like that......I think they were trying to say it was God's hand....

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