£60m spent on gambling machines in Scunthorpe area betting shops
MORE than £60 million was spent on gambling machines in Scunthorpe-area betting shops in the last financial year, new figures show.
A report by the Campaign For Fairer Gambling shows £60,676,373 was spent at 58 fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs), across 16 shops in the Scunthorpe Parliamentary constituency.
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A new report shows £60,676,373 was spent at 58 fixed odds betting terminals, across 16 shops in the Scunthorpe area
The machines allow gamblers to stake large sums of money on casino games such as roulette and blackjack, as well as simulated horse racing and bingo.
A further £22,753,640 was gambled across 22 FOBTs in six betting shops in the Brigg and Goole constituency.
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And £56,884,100 was gambled across 55 FOBTs located across 15 betting shops in the Cleethorpes constituency, which includes Barton.
Adrian Parkinson, who worked for Tote, a British bookmaker formed by the UK government, but sold to Betfred in 2011, was involved with launching fixed-odds betting terminals and authored the study.
He said: "Everybody in the industry has seen a problem.
"Addiction is not just of substance.
"I was one of the people that put FOBTs on the high street.
"I saw the problems that had been caused by the gaming machines."
Nic Dakin, MP for Scunthorpe, said: "Sixty million pounds is a huge amount of money to be raised from people betting on those machines in Scunthorpe.
"It is crucially important that betting shops are alert to anyone getting addicted to this or any other form of gambling and take action to protect them from that addiction."
Andrew Percy, MP for Brigg said: "There is not enough education about the potential addictiveness that gambling provides."
Figures from the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) show 70 per cent of customers play the fixed odds machines once a month or less.
A spokesman for the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB), said: "The truth is there is no empirical evidence of a casual link between electronic gaming machines and problem gambling in our shops."
Culture Minister Hugh Robertson has rejected the idea of creating new laws to restrict FOBTs or the betting shops where they are located.
The minister said he would only change the law if new evidence came to light.
As well as FOBTs in betting shops, there are also 177 gaming machines licensed by North Lincolnshire Council across the region.
Comments
by KirstyandPhil
Sunday, January 20 2013, 12:19PM
“An absolutely staggering headline and revelation. And there's me thinking Scunthorpe was a failed town and long been on its knees!?”
by englander61
Thursday, January 17 2013, 10:13AM
“Gambling is advertised on TV ,promoted like smoking was years ago , glamorized we are told in the adverts it is trendy the thing to do . Addictive i have known people put wages into machine , It is crucially important that betting shops are alert to anyone getting addicted to this or any other form of gambling and take action to protect them from that addiction." Its about making money do they really care , Any how they can always go to one of the pay day loan company's advertised on TV .What no job then get a loan on your car as seen on TV quick pay outs . Or go to one of the cash for goods shops or sell gold , We are in a recession desperate people thinking they can raise cash by gambling ,”