Labour pushes for Wales to have power over FOBTS

UK government has proposed a bill which will devolve its control over fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) with maximum stakes over £10. Labour will make a final push to give the welsh government more power to ban fixed-odds betting terminals with maximum stakes of £2 or more when the “Wales Bill” returns to the Commons.

Jo Stevens, Shadow Welsh Secretary, says that the extension of this power is necessary for the welsh government to "end the harm" FOBTs were doing to areas of low employment.

The Labour party claims that there were more than 1,500 FOBTs in Wales with more than £1.6bn staked annually. It also point out that FOBTs allow players to stake up to £100 every 20 seconds, and could be considered to a highly addictive form of gaming.

The party highlighted research which showed that there were four times as many betting shops in areas of high unemployment as in areas of low unemployment.

The Campaign for Fairer Gambling also estimates that between September 2014-15 customers in Wales lost over £50m on FOBTs.

However, the Association of British Bookmakers labelled betting shops in Wales as the "safest place" to gamble, arguing that they were the most highly regulated gambling retailer on the high street.

Ms Stevens comments: "Problem gambling can ruin lives and destroy low-income communities. So it's essential the Welsh Assembly gets the powers it needs to stop the lasting damage being caused by fixed odds machines.

"We've already forced the government to back down once and devolve this power, so we're using the final stage of this Bill to try and persuade them to go further and ensure Welsh ministers can take action and end the harm being done by fixed odds terminals to people and families across Wales."

A UK government spokesman spoke on the subject of devolving FOTB regulation: "giving Wales the same powers as Scotland has to address the local social problems that these machines can sometimes create".

"The UK Government listened to the arguments made during the Wales Bill's passage through Parliament and where there is a case to devolve new powers with a clear purpose we have been prepared to do that," he said.

Despite opposition from Plaid Cymru, the Welsh Assembly voted to approve the bill earlier in January.

In October the UK government also called for evidence relating to their triennial review of maximum stakes and prizes of gaming machines across all premises licensed under the Gambling Act 2005. This was due to an influx of concern about their attraction to vulnerable consumers and the subsequent impact on local communities.

The government sought opinions on a number of topics, including: Maximum stakes and prizes for all categories of gaming machines permitted under the Gambling Act 2005; Allocations of gaming machines permitted in all licensed premises under the Gambling Act 2005; And social responsibility measures to minimise the risk of gambling related harm, particularly in gambling advertising.

This call for evidence closed on 4 December 2016 and the government are now considering proposals.