Government in favour of crack cocaine machines
Delays limits of £2 on addictive machines and helps feed greed
Last night in a TV political programme, a commentator made the case against the UK government’s excessive and basically unnecessary austerity economic measures applied for the past ten years in the country.
The analogy made was that a family that didn’t have enough to live on had to borrow money to survive, and if it did not, then the only outcome was the death of the children first as no money would be available for food. This is not very far from the truth, where there are close to 3 million children entering extreme poverty in the country, as a consequence of austerity policies caused by the banking crisis of 2008.
The Conservative government has for the past ten years carried out an almost vindictive economic austerity programme in the country against the dispossessed, where people are dying for lack of care and nourishment.
What then of a few cases of gambling addiction to fixed-odds betting machines (FOBTs) owned by fat cat betting companies?
Owing to much public and political pressure, the Tory government decided to limit gambling on the addictive machines down from the maximum FOBT stake of £100 to £2; but now, will measure not take effect until October 2019, and The Guardian newspaper reports that this means a £900m windfall for the bookmakers.
Matt Zarb-Cousin, a former gambling addict and spokesperson for campaign group Fairer Gambling, described any delay as inexcusable. “More people will get addicted and more lives will be destroyed because of any unnecessary delay.”
And so it goes on for this government that has steadily cut taxes for the richest in the land, including bankers of course, and created a new breed of destitute young and old, whose only fault is to be in the way of policies that engage in greed. To feed that, FOBT profits are but a drop in the ocean.
