theres been a lot of talk in the media about legal highs,deaths have been linked to them,so everyone screams ban them,make them illegal,just wondering about these fobt,and what happens,bookies opening up everywhere to fit as many in as possible,these machines don't belong on the high street,wonder why there's not been more talk about them,could it be the Hugh profits these bookmakers make.rant over,made me feel better
FOBT's are a disgrace in my opinion and the main reason i got into so much financial difficulty. However I had an issue with gambling before that just not losing the amount of money.
However they arei here to stay so the most important thing for me is to use control measures and look out for myself by not playing these. I can't gamble on anything as evidentually i go back to these horror machines to get the quick fix.
Fair point. The approach to drugs is an excellent example of how corrupt and undemocratic our government is.
I think most politicians know that the drugs policy isn't working. But they also know that issue of drugs offers a diversion, a scape goat, from the real problem of social inequality and poverty (see also 'asylum seekers' and 'benefits cheats'). New Labour set up an independent body to look at drug misue, run by scientists, the idea that the science would lead the debate rather than daily mail hysteria. Unfortunately for them the lead scientist came out and said that the likes of cannabis and ecstacy were massively less harmful than either smoking or drinking. So the government sacked the scientists and went back to all drugs are evil (apart from the legal ones). Cameron's confirmed he's taking the same line.
Everyone knows that gambling is a black hole on society. The problem is that the gambling industry has huge lobbying 'special interests' groups which throw money around, sometimes at the politicians directly, and sucessfully set the agenda. This holds greater sway, more so than the hundreds of thousands of individuals whose lives are personally harmed through gambling (directly or family).
From a recovering gambler's point of view, we simply cannot look to the government for any kind of social guidance on many issues, and definitely not for gambling. I don't like to focus my ire on the gambling industry because a) gambling is a symptom of some unhappiness within us (although it then becomes a cause, a cycle effect). If we focus on the gambling industry we divert from the problem, and b) I see it as a failure of the government to bring in proper laws, obviously the gambling industry is going to maximise profit - this is a capitalist society we live in after all (in the same way I don't really blame the bankers for what they did).
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