Just last month I wrote that Fixed Odds Betting Terminals were due to have their maximum stake cut from £100 every 20 seconds down to possibly £30. A seemingly successful campaign by bookmakers had, it appeared, thwarted their concerns that it could be cut to as low as just £2.
Now however it appear that the government did in fact take anti-gambling campaigners concerns very seriously, and these terminals are indeed set to to cut to £2. Known as the crack cocaine of gambling some will no doubt be cheering on this decision, but it does leave a lot of questions to be answered.
Half of the revenue of some bookmakers comes from these machines, and by extention of that, many thousands of betting shop jobs rely on them too. In addition bookmakers have stated that this serious impact to their bottomline could dramatically affect the amount of money they plough into horse racing and the like. With all of this in mind, it makes me wonder what will follow on from this shock decision. Stay tuned.