Gambling machine stakes to be cut to £2

[WJ99mobile]

Gambling machines stake cut to £2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44148285

Watch half the high street bookies disappear

[Penarth Blues]

Good

[The Bloop]

Ironic that betting companies are predicting many job losses, but they never mentioned the lives ruined by gambling addictions.

[Whisperer]

Good news for everyone....Gordon Brown and Labour should hang their heads in shame for letting betting legislation slip a few years back.

[David Vincent]

Good news for everyone....Gordon Brown and Labour should hang their heads in shame for letting betting legislation slip a few years back.

St Tessa will be spinning in her grave and the poor dear has only been in there a few days.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...sa-Jowell.html

She said "Gambling per se is not compulsive." I suppose you wouldn't expect a bird-brained gangster's moll to have heard of a Skinner machine.

[MacAdder]

Not before time either and how did it ever get to this state?

I remember £4 jackpot limit in pubs and £100 in clubs as everyone knew the damage these machines could do.

Now to stop Sky Bet, Paddy Power, Bet365 etc... advertising on Sky

[ken smith]

Won't the people who play or are addicted just go and play in Casinos instead?

[Peajay]

Not before time either and how did it ever get to this state?

I remember £4 jackpot limit in pubs and £100 in clubs as everyone knew the damage these machines could do.

Now to stop Sky Bet, Paddy Power, Bet365 etc... advertising on Sky

I was thinking that too. But that will never happen there is so much sponsorship with clubs and advertising revenue, and feel the government will just address the 'low hanging fruit'

[Badly Ironed Shirt]

Not before time either and how did it ever get to this state?

I remember £4 jackpot limit in pubs and £100 in clubs as everyone knew the damage these machines could do.

Now to stop Sky Bet, Paddy Power, Bet365 etc... advertising on Sky

I was in a bookies a few years back, putting money on a horse for the grand national. This Chinese lady jumps the queue and is trying to get served. The girl at the counter asked her to join the queue, but she was having none of it. The manager came out, took her slip of paper and gave her about £600. I left about 5 minutes later, and the lady was back at the machine.

Gambling ads are wrong, the latest Sky bet one with Jeff Stelling is really poor - given a false impression of compassion. I haven't seen Sky Sports News for years, but remember transfer gossip being accompanied by odds of that gossip coming true.

[sneggyblubird]

Good news for everyone....Gordon Brown and Labour should hang their heads in shame for letting betting legislation slip a few years back.

I'd like to see a government of any persuasion grow some bollocks and tackle the food industry in the same way as they seem hell bent on making diabetics of us all.

[light up the darkness]

Good news for everyone....Gordon Brown and Labour should hang their heads in shame for letting betting legislation slip a few years back.

Add this one to his long list of other major fk ups

[adamm92]

I work for a bookies
Expect the shops to start closing within 2 years

Never liked the machines, hated them in fact but still feel for my colleagues
But at the same time I tell them to get out whilst they can, weird half and half emotions for me

[ian gibson]

My local bookies has a sign in the window saying 'Open Sunday 11 to 4'. Now I know for a fact that he opens every Sunday so I thought 11/4 is a good price, I'll have £50 on that, but the bastard wouldn't take my bet.

[Organ Morgan.]

This is just more nanny knows best stuff, the state protecting people from themselves and restricting them from making their own conscious choices.

[David Vincent]

This is just more nanny knows best stuff, the state protecting people from themselves and restricting them from making their own conscious choices.

Some people really do need protecting from themselves. Skinner who I mentioned above (I meant Skinner Box not Skinner Machine) made a good case for believing we don't make conscious choices - we are all controlled by reward systems. Skinner thinks the mug putting coins into one of those machines is no freer than a rat in a Skinner box. He needs help.

[Organ Morgan.]

We all have character flaws. You, for example, enjoy few things more than pouring cheap and nasty Lidl's Nicaraguan brown ale down your neck from breakfast time onwards. Just because you and a tiny percentage of other alkies take it to excess shouldn't impinge on others' who moderate their intake.

[Croesy Blue]

What they should really be focus on is bookies who are also run by news outlets.

The sun and sky have their own betting sites but push news about new managers etc and use that to get people to bet on things they know they’ll lose.

[J R Hartley]

About £30k and 10 years too late for me but hey-ho.

Ive come out the other side but this is welcome news for those still addicted.

[MacAdder]

What they should really be focus on is bookies who are also run by news outlets.

The sun and sky have their own betting sites but push news about new managers etc and use that to get people to bet on things they know they’ll lose.

^^^spot on!

[splott parker]

It is like anything, some people will do it to excess. Some people spend thousands a year on clothes they never wear, some people drink themselves into oblivion.

One really interesting angle to this that I saw earlier was that these terminals are being used to launder dirty cash. Will make me think twice when I see the 'regular' feeding money into the machine at the local bookie and wondering how he has the cash to stand there all day!

Laundering dirty cash is a good call, don’t use bookies myself but I have a few mates who are punters, horses & football, they’ve said about these people pumping cash into these gaming machines, people with no visible form of income. If they win big do they get a legitimate receipt therefore cleaning the money?

[ken smith]

Laundering dirty cash is a good call, don’t use bookies myself but I have a few mates who are punters, horses & football, they’ve said about these people pumping cash into these gaming machines, people with no visible form of income. If they win big do they get a legitimate receipt therefore cleaning the money?

Bookies are supposed to report and log any big bets over a certain amount, whether they do or not is another matter mind.

[SuisseBluebird]

I work for a bookies
Expect the shops to start closing within 2 years

Never liked the machines, hated them in fact but still feel for my colleagues
But at the same time I tell them to get out whilst they can, weird half and half emotions for me

I used to work for William Hill all over Cardiff, Penarth and Barry during my student years. Hated the terminals, they supplemented my pay, William Hill didn't shy away from admitting 50% of operating profit at the time came from those machines.

They played on addiction, monthly free tournaments to promote a new game that's just a new skin on top of another. Encourage people to play, hand out flyers. I never engaged, I obliged if someone asked but never went out of my way to promote the machines.

Those machines were the main source for punters who eventually decided to bar themselves for a year from the premises. Which for me proved to be impossible to remain compliant with as I bounced around 20 or so different shops.

For me this great news. Limits potential losses and could help tackle the gambling issues people contend with. I know the worry is that this will lead to shop closures and loss of jobs. But when the amount of bookmakers in Cardiff City centre began to outnumber the amount of digits on my hands and feet, its a problem. They're not there for the 330 at Chepstow but for the 100 on red.

[WJ99mobile]

I used to work for William Hill all over Cardiff, Penarth and Barry during my student years. Hated the terminals, they supplemented my pay, William Hill didn't shy away from admitting 50% of operating profit at the time came from those machines.

They played on addiction, monthly free tournaments to promote a new game that's just a new skin on top of another. Encourage people to play, hand out flyers. I never engaged, I obliged if someone asked but never went out of my way to promote the machines.

Those machines were the main source for punters who eventually decided to bar themselves for a year from the premises. Which for me proved to be impossible to remain compliant with as I bounced around 20 or so different shops.

For me this great news. Limits potential losses and could help tackle the gambling issues people contend with. I know the worry is that this will lead to shop closures and loss of jobs. But when the amount of bookmakers in Cardiff City centre began to outnumber the amount of digits on my hands and feet, its a problem. They're not there for the 330 at Chepstow but for the 100 on red.

Used to do the same, worked at hills for about 2 years 4-5 years ago

[Feedback]

pools betting is where it's at

[BlueArmy 86]

I've had some good nights off a tenner i had on black 17

Seriously though, they're bad news. Never had a huge problem but wasted plenty of money on roulette. Still struggle to walk past a bookies without having a spin if I'm pissed though.