IT came in at number 74 among the heads of agreement arrived at by the Smith Commission.
At the time of its publication, it is fair to say, the single sentence did not receive much attention amid the arguments over powers for Holyrood. Still, the brief statement was both significant and important: "The Scottish Parliament will have the power to prevent the proliferation of Fixed-Odds Betting Terminals."
With justice, these devices have been denounced as "the crack cocaine of gambling". Few who work with problem gamblers doubt they are addictive. Few who have seen them in operation would deny they are ruinously expensive for players who can afford the losses least. As to proliferation, the industry can issue all the pious calls for "responsible gambling" it wishes. Fixed-Odds machines have become a depressingly common feature in our poorest areas.
As we report today, there is now common ground between the Scottish National Party and Labour over "the power to prevent" these virtual versions of roulette, bingo and the like from becoming endemic. Their human cost vastly outweighs the profits they represent. Where there is, as the jargon goes, "overprovision" a Scottish Government should be ready and - more to the point - able to act. In some places there are already more Fixed-Odds shops than ordinary demand could ever justify.
We should remind ourselves, nevertheless, that the terminals represent both a cause and a symptom. They impoverish further those who are already poor, but the players are often desperate to begin with and only too ready to mistake the machines as a way out of poverty. The odds are stacked against them, but the spread of Fixed-Odds highlights a grim truth. As with payday lending, with powers also due to be devolved thanks to Smith, victims see no good alternative.
That fact alone makes the terminals hard to tolerate, far less to justify. Too little understood is the further fact that the terminals are allowed a stake and prize structure entirely different from conventional "slots". Defined as "B2 games" by the Gaming Commission in January of this year, they allow a maximum wager of £100. In other game categories, stakes range from 10p to £8. Given the lightning speed of play, the addicted punter can run through £100 in minutes.
Arguments over individual choice hold little water when technology designed simply to extract money from the naïve is at stake. The fact that the naïve are so often poor to begin with simply shows the actual purpose of the terminals. They are not installed to encourage "a flutter" or "a bit of fun". The entire business is rapacious, not to say unjust. What remains of an addict's free will?
More than 50 per cent of the average betting shop's profits now derive from Fixed-Odds machines. By one estimate, £200 million a year is being staked in Glasgow alone, with consequent losses of £31m by the punters. It is no exaggeration whatever to say that lives and families are being destroyed as a result. If the Scottish Government is given the power to take action, many might only ask why nothing was done sooner.
The common purpose shown by the parties involved in the Smith Commission over gambling is welcome indeed. And if they can work together on this, why not on other things?
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