Good news. It’s being reduced to £2
Never my thing and seems mixed views on here on the effectiveness but anything raises the issue of gambling is good.
Lots of coverage on bbc and going to be a debate on the Victoria Derbyshire show this morning. Just hear a quote on bbc this morning. "230,000 times last year someone walked into a bookies and lost over £1000".
Be interesting to see what the response from general non-gambling public is - will they be shocked and support more controls (perhaps on the online stuff?) Or will they see people like me as idiots who should just have more self control?
Muststop123
Listen and watched a couple of the discussions so far and the pro-gambling lobby aren't looking too happy today which has to be positive thing.
Just watched one and the guy sulkily said "oh well, this will just send all the problem gamblers online where they can stake higher amounts anyway". So the interviewer says "Well what are you going to do to do to stop that?". Guy just starts stuttering and says he had not come on to discuss controlling online gambling. He was very quiet for the rest of the discussion and looked very uncomfortable.
I know this is just a small battle and the gambling industry is hugely powerful but so sweet to see them so upset if only for a day.
Very happy at this excellent news. I feel I have just been given a Get Out Of Jail Free card.
The only problem I have had is roulette so this could well be my ticket out of here.
My cunning strategy has always been to increase the stakes when I was losing. I won't be able to do that any more.
as others have mentioned above this isnt going to make a great deal of difference to the slot players i suspect many are already playing 2 pound stakes
they will simply create a roulette type slot game allowing £2 a spin where the feature game will be you spinning the roulette wheel
also i feel all this is too little too late these machines have been going for well over 10 years now and the damage for a lot of people has already been done for myself the crux of my addiction started on these machines and i did a lot of damage to my self between the ages of 19 & 21
it will take well over a year for this too come into effect and the bookies will stall for as long as they possibly can
The gambling industry will be fine i have no fear.
Their shareholders will still get hefty bonuses from the different ways they still get addicts and gamblers in
Yes it will help some, but they will innovate. Gambling has existed since time began, dont see it ending anytime soon.
Pleased to hear the news. But like someone said you can still lose hefty loses on the slot games. Luckily for me my problem was never that and my issues was with the roulette spinning up to £50 a time losing hundreds in sessions and then thousands which led me to be here. Strongly I have curbed my addiction and not placed a single bet on anything since Dec 2018. But that is the thing even if it’s only £2 a time on roulette that can soon tot up to for the average person and that over a few nights adds up to a lot of money, then whilst your chasing you bet on whatever you can to win that back or least that’s what I was like. £2 or £100 maximum stake there is only one way the whole of gambling industry is helping me and that is staying well clear of any of it especially those devil machines which effect so many people.
I'm pleased with the news and I hope it really does lead to a reduction in the number of high street betting shops.
People really are dumb. The bookies are getting exactly what they want. It has been the plan all along. Drive all the addicts on-line, out of sight. Shops are expensive to run & there is only a finite amount of money they can earn from them. Its brilliant really. They have all the addicts squealing victory when in reality this spells huge problems for our future society. The fobts & bookies had had their day & the gambling industry knew this.
I agree that the bookies will be absolutely fine; online gambling uptake is going through the roof. And even at £2 a stake, faster spins etc. will ensure they still get their income, albeit at a slightly slower pace. But they'll get it.
It makes no difference to problem gamblers (like me, like you). We still have to stop. £2 leads to another £2 leads to another £2 and ... we're bust again.
Its fantastic news, 14 years and £200k down abit late for me, FOBT roulette is pure evil, i've done everything to quit them but `you ALWAYS go back to what you know`. cant put £100 on footy bet, or play fruit machine slots but can put £10 in roulette and can't walk away its all or nothing, you keep going to lose it all or walk out with winnings, can't walk out a few quid down ie £20 in, lose and walk, nope carry on, till the lot is lost.
If the bookies want problem gamblers to move online and they really wanted this to push us online so we can do our dough from the comfort of our on sofa then very clever indeed.
It won’t make me go online though as I’ve signed up to GamStop.
At the end of the day I’m gamble free for nearly 5 months now and at any time I could have gone in the bookies and done my nuts but I have stayed out and this is because I wanted to. This is the key people £2 £100 it doesn’t matter in the big picture but I say it’s good news because it will make some people not bother putting that 1st bet on and we all know the 1st bet is the killer one. It will stop some people gambling and this has to be a good thing.
Very surprising news.
This is great news, even if I wasn’t excluded from going in the shops, no way could I even bothered betting £2 on a machine that wouldn’t even pay out at best of times.. percentages on win/lose are now gonna change on a massive scale in bookies favour.. that has had a massive psychological effect on me to stay well away... I wish this had been done earlier!!
From my Diary
As expected, there is lots of discussion regarding the proposed £2 maximum stake on FOTB.
I personally view this as a very good thing.
I do not think it is intended to deal with the issues underlying addiction. I think it is more of an attempt at damage limitation.
My problem gambling started off with sport. I used to laugh at the FOBT zombies until I got bitten and turned into one myself.
Here's the thing. I could go into shop armed with a £10 note and spend a quarter of an hour on 20p spins. Sometimes I would win and sometimes I would walk out having lost my £10. I had some entertainment and was slightly niggled at losing £10 but no real damage done.
Unfortunately for me, I just love those awful Fortune Spins. Countless times I have walked into a shop with literally hunderds of pounds of notes thinking just one or two Fortune Spins, only to lose and then chase until I had lost it all.
As far as FOBTs go, only those wretched Fortune Spins have done any damage to me and I will sleep better at night for the implementation of the £2 maximum stake.
The £2 maximum stake plus the innovation of GAMSTOP will pretty much remove all of the dangerous forms of gambling for me personally. I personally could not have wished for better blocks.
Markman
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