This paper assesses the claims made about gambling machines in British betting shops, in particular ‘fixed-odds betting terminals’ (FOBTs). These machines are routinely dubbed ‘the crack cocaine of gambling’ and it is said that players can lose £18,000 in an hour. They are blamed for a rise in problem gambling and it is alleged that Britons lose £42 billion on the machines every year. It is also claimed that betting shops have proliferated as bookmakers scramble to cash in on the popularity of the machines.
This report concludes that FOBTs are not especially addictive and should not be subject to further regulation, as there has not been dramatic increase in total number of betting shops since the introduction of FOBTs in Great Britain, and there has not been a clearly significant increase in problem gambling prevalence between the 2007 and 2010 British Gambling Prevalence Surveys.
