A gambling charity has criticised the existence of online casino games with no maximum bets, saying that they offered a dangerous alternative to fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs).
Gambling with Lives, which is a charity set up by the families of gambling addicts who have taken their own lives, said that the UK Government should act to prevent betting operators from enticing betting addicts into using online casinos with no stake limits.
Last week the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport announced a U-turn on the decision made by the Treasury in October to delay the implementation of a stake limit reduction on FOBTs from £100 to £2. The reduction will now take place in April 2019, rather than October 2019, but campaigners also want the government to act against operators who provide online casino games such as roulette and blackjack, which can accept stakes as high as £10,000.
Josephine Holloway, whose son Daniel took his own life last October, said that the maximum stakes on these games were ridiculous and that the industry should take more responsibility:
“There are people who are addicted to fixed-odds betting terminals and the same games are available online. We need to protect them.”
Culture of gambling
These concerns were echoed by the Deputy Director of the Christian Institute, Simon Calvert, who said that the government should do more to reduce the social harm of gambling.
Calvert said that a culture of gambling was taking hold in the UK, which was exacerbated by mobile gambling and the prevalence of gambling advertisements during live and televised sports events, and he called on the government to take action, in particular to reduce the risk of young people becoming addicted to gambling.
Image sourced from Gambling with Lives.
