The Spiel By Ricki Chavez-Munoz
According to the UK Gambling Act 2005, family entertainment centres (FEC) may offer an unlimited number of category C and D gaming machines in premises that are open to all ages but where “Category C machines must, however, be in a segregated part of the premises that is supervised to prevent children and young people accessing those machines.”
The above proviso from the UKGC on the invisible line dividing children from access to full blown gambling devices is as thin as the line between a child and the use of a parent’s credit card, which enables online gambling with devastating consequences.
Family gambling in the UK used to be a traditional once-a-year occasion in April on Grand National Day, and sometimes once again the following month on Derby Day. Tickets for each horse would be allocated in a sweepstake on a draw basis before each race, starting the chance or gambling experience. It would be an exciting entertainment opportunity for all the family where children had equal opportunity with the grown-ups.
Each year the horse racing gambling experience had its counterpart during the summer holidays when some families would venture to the arcade to gamble for pennies on electromechanical devices. Hence FEC were encased in law as described above. It falls to legal specialists to determine whether the provisions of the UK Gambling Act 2005 are enough to protect children from full-blown gambling.
Other ills of ex PM Tony Blair’s Gambling Act 2005 include the terrible licensing of gambling machines in the high street bookmakers, called Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs), de facto casino machines without regulatory supervision, and with £100 stakes, eventually reduced to a £2 maximum stake owing to public outcry.
News of Gambling Commission chief executive Neil McArthur’s proposed ‘consideration’ of public exposure to the growth of online gambling would in reality be closing the gate after the horse has bolted. Too little, too late.
Of course, politicians will get on their high horse to make a morality stand to protect children and the vulnerable in society against the ills of gambling, with online gambling and sports betting being the demon of the day. However, this will fail to address the real gambling problem that affects UK society: ignorance of what gambling constitutes.
It is no longer a family horse racing classic draw, where everyone has an equal chance of drawing the winning ticket for the eventual winner of the race. It is the simple arithmetical notion that betting involves the risk of losing, and that the betting option repeated without sense or responsibility has a very heavy price to pay.
Like any other industry, the UK regulated gambling industry will use its best tools to maximise bottom line, and any political or government directive against this will only ensure that other lines of marketing and selling will open to protect investments and jobs.
The report in The Guardian states that, “the government has said it will review the 2005 Gambling Act, introduced under Tony Blair’s Labour administration, amid growing concern about gambling addiction and transgressions by the industry. There has been greater focus on issues such as the effect on children and vulnerable people of the volume of gambling advertising, the industry’s ties with football and the use of controversial VIP schemes to offer perks to losing players.” This is the usual hot air from politicians.
Regulated gambling in the UK and other countries is responsible in its endeavours. Every industry uses incentives to sell, from loss leaders in the supermarket to fidelity points by banks, airlines, etc. The problem is not with “controversial VIP schemes” but with the simple fact that there is no education at school about the vagaries of risk taking; odds for and against; the facts about heads or tails; the house edge.
News of shares of gambling companies losing £500 million on the stock exchange after McArthur’s comments is nothing compared to news of falling tax revenues for the Exchequer when restrictions, prohibitions or more has the consequence of driving online gambling companies offshore or underground.
As I said in another article when politicians meddled far too much with improvised actions against the gambling industry, the days of obscurantism are of another time, when the Grand National and the Derby had little exposure on TV and mobiles were mere science fiction.
