An MPs’ report calling for a crackdown on fixed-odds betting terminals, published in the midst of a government review into the controversial machines, has been found to breach parliamentary standards. A cross-party group of politicians, backed by casinos, amusement arcades and pubs, was deemed to have broken the rules four times in a report calling for the maximum stake on FOBTs to be reduced from £100 to £2.
Breaches cited by the parliamentary commissioner for standards include a lack of transparency about free advice the group received from a public affairs firm employed by gambling companies that do not offer FOBTs.
The verdict has been hailed as a victory by bookmakers, who derive more than half of their revenue from the machines and say cutting the maximum stake would cost jobs in the industry.
The report was published during a government review into gaming machines, which is due to conclude after the general election and is expected to recommend that the maximum stake be cut to between £10 and £20.
Malcolm George, the chief executive of the Association of British Bookmakers, welcomed the parliamentary watchdog’s decision to censure a group that has been among the loudest detractors of FOBTs.
“This group of MPs are now revealed as serial offenders for their misleading report about gaming machines in betting shops,” he said. “The MPs’ report has been exposed as a shambolic, shoddy and one-sided piece of work that has broken a long list of parliamentary rules.”
The standards commissioner, Kathryn Hudson, highlighted four breaches by the all-party parliamentary group on FOBTs, chaired by Labour’s Carolyn Harris and backed by direct rivals to bookmakers, including casinos and the amusement arcade trade body Bacta. The group failed to record attendance at its meetings or take proper minutes and also did not print a disclaimer making clear that its FOBT report was not an official House of Commons publication.
It was also deemed to have been insufficiently transparent over free help it received from the public affairs company Interel, which also works for rival sectors of the gambling industry. And the group did not disclose on the report’s front cover that Interel was a donor. Hudson said the breaches were “at the less serious end of the spectrum” and had been rectified by an apology from Harris and a promise to rectify the breaches.
The government’s review of gaming machines has fuelled a bitter war of words within the gambling industry. Casinos and amusement arcades have lined up on the side of campaigners who say the machines stoke problem gambling and allow excessively high stakes.
The ABB has said there is no evidence to suggest that FOBTs fuel problem gambling and argues that thousands of jobs would be lost, as well as millions of pounds due to the Treasury, if they are reined in.
The dispute has led to accusations from addiction campaigners that the two sides of the industry are waging a propaganda war that is sidelining the needs of problem gamblers.