Do you gamble on the pokies?

Tweet

The British government are set to reduce the maximum limit you can gamble on the FOBT slot machines in the bookmakers here, the demonic ‘Fixed Odds Betting Machines’. They are real goldmines for high street bookmakers and just one machine, on average, can make $40,000 a year profit in city centers. They arrived in the United Kingdom around 2001 and have sprung up all over the place like spring daffodils ever since. Bookmakers are making billions from these fruit machines terminals but creating problem gamblers galore, hence the action being taken. At the moment you can bet between £1 and £500 per spin. Yes £500 pound a spin! Low intelligence is linked to problem gambling and some of the working class are throwing their wages in these things, yet another tax on the poor and stupid. The regulators report suggests making the maxim bet you can make per spin around £30-£50. This would not help problem gamblers but would stop the collapse of the high street bookmakers chains, who opened hundreds of new stores just to have the machines in them, a maximum of four machines per shop allowed by law. The people who use them are mostly poor and stupid people, and very popular with immigrants. Eastern Europeans love them; especially the olive skinned ones from the Balkans. It is claimed FOBTs are used for money laundering by paying cash into the terminal, making low-risk bets which involve a small relative loss, and withdrawing most of the proceeds as a voucher which is exchanged for cash at the shop counter. I like a small bet on sports events where it involves some sort of skill but I dont do chance betting, especially on a machine. If it has a computer chip in it then it’s obviously smarter than me and I can’t win. But the mugs who play these machines just want the buzz from having a big win and nothing else matters. They don’t actually bet £500 a spin but if they do run up big winnings then that’s when they increase the stakes with that win pool. I have seen people win a grand from a ten pound stake and then spin it all away in ten minutes. These machines need to be banned.