The vulnerable need more protection

Last Thursday, the Department for Digital Culture, Media and Sport reduced the maximum stake on fix-odds betting terminals from £100 every 20 seconds to £2.
Roulette played on a fixed odds betting terminalRoulette played on a fixed odds betting terminal
Roulette played on a fixed odds betting terminal

This is a positive step which I have personally been campaigning for this last two years, but it still doesn’t address the issue of online betting.

For some, gambling addiction will move from the real world to the virtual world, online.

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Fixed-odds betting terminals and to a lesser extent The National Lottery and the like, are a tax on the poor.

It beggars belief that these machines, up until now have had so little regulation from Central Government, the same applies to the loan shark industry which is allowed to roam this country taking money with menace like a modern-day Dick Turpin.

It is no surprise that Ladbrokes Coral Group plc top the list of donors giving MPs gifts and hospitality.

The bookies appeared 15 times in the Register of Members’ interest over the last 18 months, more than any other donor.

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There is no situation so dire that a politician can’t make worse.

Regulations in this country can be quite severe when it comes to parking, fishing and dog ownership, to name a few.

But multinational companies and wealthy individuals can rob people with impunity, sometimes causing them to take their own lives, as they see it as the only way out of the nightmare they find themselves in.

The welfare of the people should be the supreme law.

The vulnerable in our society need more protection on these important matters.

Councillor John Booker

Ecclesfield West, deputy leader of UKIP, Sheffield