I am pleased that this Bill has come to the House; I, too, sat through many Welsh Affairs Committee sittings. I support new clause 2 because, if agreed, it would allow the Welsh Assembly to take action on fixed odds betting terminals. I want to place on the record my membership of the newly established all-party parliamentary group
on FOBTs, and my support for the comments of its chair, my hon. Friend the Member for Swansea East (Carolyn Harris).
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FOBTs let people play a variety of games, such as roulette, and they have long been a cause of concern because of the potential for users to lose large sums of money on them. The machines take bets of up to £100, with a maximum delay of 20 seconds between bets, meaning that users can make heavy losses in very short periods of time. There is a widespread view that the maximum stake of £100 is far too high. No other country in the developed world has £100-stake machines, other than in highly supervised casino environments.
Right hon. and hon. Members will have heard these machines described as the “crack cocaine of gambling” by those who work with addicts. The number of machines has grown steadily. Last year, there were some 1,500 of them in Wales. Each betting shop can have up to four of them, and according to Living Room—a Cardiff charity that helps gambling addicts—an estimated £1.6 billion was staked on FOBTs in Wales last year.
Of course, many millions of people partake in gambling, whether by buying a lottery ticket or by betting on the grand national, but for many people gambling can become a very serious addiction, which can threaten a person’s relationship, their livelihood and, in some cases, their life. According to the charity GamCare, the number of people receiving treatment for gambling addictions has risen by 39%, and the number of people who have problems as a result of playing on FOBTs represents 26% of those people who are in contact with the charity. The number of calls from people addicted to FOBTs has gone up by 50% over the past five years.
There is mounting evidence that it is those people who use FOBTs who are most at risk of problem gambling. The Gambling Commission has concluded that
“while gaming machines appear to appeal to many gamblers, they seem to be particularly attractive to those at risk of problem gambling and to those with a gambling problem. Compared to non-problem gamblers, problem gamblers tend to play on gaming machines more frequently and spend more time and money on them.”
It causes me huge concern when I read reports that the number of betting shops with FOBTs is twice as high in the poorest areas of the UK—socially deprived communities—and that a disproportionate amount of the money gambled in them comes from people on low incomes. The Campaign for Fairer Gambling has found that FOBTs have
“the highest ratio of use by the lowest income…gamblers”
and
“the second highest ratio of use by unemployed gamblers”.
One gambler, who was left with debts of £17,000 as a result of using these machines, has described them as
“by far the most addictive form of gambling that’s easily accessible to anyone. I could lose £80 in one night on fruit machines, but with a FOBT you can lose that in literally seconds.”
He added that
“people don’t understand how addictive these things are, they are worse than cocaine and alcohol. You get lost in your own little world and have tunnel vision, nothing matters only that next spin whatever the consequences.”
Regrettably, despite the evidence of the real harm that these machines pose, and of the need for tougher regulation and support for users, the UK Government have not shown leadership and have so far refused to act against them. The only real regulation is that the machines are limited to four per betting shop.
We would take a step forward this evening if we supported the new clause and devolved power to the Welsh Assembly, to enable it to tackle the issue. The Assembly could decide to follow the advice of the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, which has recommended reducing the number of machines per shop from four to one, as well as reducing the maximum stake that a user can place.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Swansea East said, the Assembly has already called for powers: last March, it passed a motion calling on the UK and Welsh Governments to work together to devolve more powers over the licensing of gaming machines. It is right that decisions on how to tackle FOBTs are taken in Wales, as is the case in Scotland, and the new clause and associated amendments will allow the Assembly to take a lead in addressing the challenge of problem gambling, which is so associated with those machines. I therefore ask Members to fully support new clause 2.