“Crack cocaine” gambling machines cause misery in Wales

Fixed Odds Betting Terminals.

Fixed odds betting terminals are leaving people in serious debt, say gambling addiction workers in Wales.

Fixed-odds betting terminals allow punters to spend up to £300 a minutes, according to the Welsh Centre for Action and Dependency.

The machines have been dubbed the “crack cocaine” of gambling because of their highly addictive nature.

Lead intervention worker Salimah Musabbir-Turner said that betters often referred to the service reporting that their habit spiralled out of control after a winning streak on one the machines.

“Unfortunately the winning streak doesn’t last,” she said.

“As one client stated, ‘I feel physically sick when I think about what I have lost on them’.”

Miss Musabbir-Turner said that her service, Lead Intervention, had treated more than 25 people for addiction to the machine in the last two years.

She said: “Clients are generally reluctant to give specifics about debt but one of my clients lost around £25,000 in two years on Fixed odds betting terminals, and another person lost around £6,000 in two days.”

Bookmakers in Wales are limited to a maximum of four Fixed odds betting terminals.

This week, Two Little Fleas reported that, such machines may start appearing in motorway services and amusement arcades, after BACTA – which is the trade body that represents parts of the gambling industry – wrote letters to MPs demanding that its members should have the freedom to install and operate the fixed odds terminal betting machines. This would mean the machine could start appearing in amusement arcades and bingo halls. According to estimates, this would result in an extra 6,300 of the machines in this country. And, Gambling campaigners are now warning that pubs will soon be calling for the right to have the touch screen roulette terminals.

Miss Musabbir-Turner said that revenue in the UK for fixed odds betting terminals is approximately £1.43 billion in 2011/12.

“Talk to a FoBT gambler and he will more than likely tell you a story of misery and ruin,” she said.

One bookmaker, Mike Simons has called on the government to act on the controversial Fixed Odds Betting Terminals, after one of his clients killed themselves.

“They can kill. They’re as bad as the worst kind of drug,” he said.

“That’s why they’re called the crack ­cocaine of gambling. People who use them just can’t stop.