The maximum stake on ‘crack cocaine’ gambling machines should be slashed from £100 to £2, an aide to Philip Hammond has said.
In a damning report published today, Tory MP Chris Philp backs a crackdown on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals.
The study, by the Respublica think tank, reveals Britain is the only country in the developed world which allows gamblers to stake £100 every 20 seconds on casino-style games on the high street.
A damning report has suggested a crackdown on fixed odds betting terminals, saying they do ‘disproportionate harm’ to poor areas
It warns 1.5million people in Britain – or one in 40 of the population – now use the machines and that they cause ‘disprorportionate harm’ to poorer areas.
The report’s co-author, Phillip Blond, a leading conservative thinker, says Theresa May should prioritise controlling the machines which he described as ‘like a sink hole on the high street’.
He condemns the changes to gambling law made under Labour which led to the proliferation of fixed odds terminals on the high street and says that controlling them is a ‘truly Conservative cause’.
‘Conservatives should not support a piece of New Labour legislation that has wrought destruction throughout some of our most disadvantaged communities’, he said.
The report – and Mr Philp’s comments – will be seen as a further sign ministers are poised to act against high stakes machines. A review into the machines was due to be published later this week but is now not expected until after the Budget.
It is expected to set out a range of different options for reducing the maximum stake, including to £2, but also higher levels. Ministers are yet to settle on a final decision about what level the stake should be set at.
The Mail has long campaigned against the machines, which offer casino-style games including roulette and poker in betting shops.
Philip Blond called fixed odds betting terminals a ‘sink hole’ on high streets and called on the prime minister to take action
Mr Blond, the think tank’s director, warned the machines are destroying the high street.
‘Streets that once flourished as centres of growth and community are now dominated by these shops,’ he said.
‘In some communities, the situation has got out of hand. The sheer number of these shops acts as a kind of sink hole on their high street, sucking in the vitality of everything else around them.
He argues that regulation of the betting machines is a ‘truly Conservative cause’.
‘If you care about thriving high streets, economic prosperity, or the social fabric of families and local communities, then it is clear that the spread of gambling machines in understaffed shops in some of our most deprived neighbourhoods has had a harmful effect on our country.’
‘This should be at the top of the to-do list for a Prime Minister has placed social reform at the heart of her agenda, pledged to help people “just about managing”, and who has spoken eloquently about the importance of mental health.’
Mr Blond said that cutting stakes should be top of prime minister Theresa May’s priorities
In his foreword to the report, Mr Philp, the MP for Croydon South, blamed the machines for damaging people’s lives, economic prosperity and ‘the fabric of our communities’.
He says cutting the stake would ‘help provide a gambling climate in which prosperity can return to the lives of people and their communities.’
The report finds one in three problem gamblers earn £10,400 a year or less. Under the current rules, they could stake their entire month’s income in three minutes.
It points to links between problem gambling and worklessness, households in debt and family breakdown.
One high street in the London Borough of Newham has a fixed odds machine every 120 metres.
According to one study, the numbers of problem gamblers have increased by 50 per cent in recent years to more than 430,000.
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