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Tobias Ellwood MP |
In a letter to his parliamentary colleagues, Tobias Ellwood, Conservative MP for Bournemouth East, has explained the effects that the recently introduced gambling act has had on the gaming machine industry.
He writes "The Conservative Party has called on the Government to review the stakes and prizes of adult gaming machines in order to ensure that the 2005 Gambling Act has not pushed punters towards harder forms of gambling. There have been clear signs that many family seaside arcades have suffered as people move out of these traditionally safer gaming venues.
In order to allow Adult Gaming Centres (AGCs) to remain competitive we are recommending two changes:
1. Increase of stakes for category B3 machines from £1 to £2.
2. Increase of category B3 machines from the current limit of four per establishment to a maximum of 20% of the total number of slot machines per establishment.
The 2005 Gambling Act reduced stakes from £2 to £1 and placed a limit on the number of B3 machines in any premises. However, the Government cannot produce any evidence as to why these changes were made. Family arcades are a vibrant part of many seaside towns and it is wrong that they have suffered from an unintended consequence of Government legislation.
Seaside arcades have suffered huge downturns in trade since the Gambling Act came into force. The British Amusement Catering Trade Association (BACTA) estimates that the sector has experienced a 21% reduction in revenues since 1 September 2007.
Fixed Odds Betting Terminals
We have expressed concerns about the growing popularity of FOBTs which are found in Bookies and can take a maximum stake of £100 every 20 seconds. We have called on the Gambling Commission to conduct a review of their use.
On 20th February Gambling Minister Gerry Sutcliffe finally conceded our point and asked for a review to take place."
The full text of the letter can be seen below.
