The row over the ‘Vegas’-style slot machine toy on sale to children in Hamley’s is not the first time children’s toys have been the subject of controversy.
A Harry Potter Nimbus 2000 broomstick, marketed in 2003, for children to ride around caused alarm among parents who felt the fact that it vibrated was inappropriate.
Then there are safety concerns such as the fears over possible arsenic poisoning which led to an EU-wide warning over a children’s magnetic putty toy earlier this year.
Clothing lines can also be a problem. Two years ago The Gap faced a sexism row after it advertised children’s clothing with the line “the little scholar” beside a picture of a boy in an Albert Einstein T-shirt, next to a girl in a pink top labelled “the social butterfly”.
Some will feel a child’s fruit machine toy is not problematic. After all children play with toy guns but that doesn’t mean they go on to shoot people (at least not in the UK).
But it is easier to access gambling than guns in this country. While children should not be able to go to bookies and play on fixed odds betting terminals,these high-stakes, fast turnover machines, have caused massive concern.
The children’s slot machine - which accepts cash in UK, US and EU money - is advertised as offering Las Vegas style fun, “without the debt” and even as a way to encourage saving by acting as a money bank. But given current concerns over the proliferation of bookies on the High Street, and children’s exposure to gambling adverts on TV during sporting events, and especially in light of a recent Gambling Commission claim that 25,000 children in the UK are problem gamblers, this toy seems ill-timed at best, at worst highly irresponsible.
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