FOBT Dilemma Rumbles On With UKGC

It seems the United Kingdom Gambling Commission, (UKGC) are forever in the news lately over various concerns for the gambling industry in the UK.Three subjects up for scrutiny are the National Lottery, credit card betting and concerns over video gaming.

Concerns

The current age limit in the UK for playing the National Lottery currently stands at 16, critics have called for changes to be made and raise the age limit to 18, which would be in line with other gambling sectors in the UK.Credit card betting came under discussion, with a twelve week consultation starting mid-August 2019 to determine whether to ban gambling with credit cards. Again, this has come under fire, as players that come to no harm whilst using credit cards will suffer.Video game ‘loot Boxes’ have also come under fire with the current legislation putting constraints on the UKGC from making changes. A number of significant concerns were raised regarding the sale of in-game content for cash, currently the commission have no measures in place to oversee the sale of this type of game content.

Huge Losses

One of the biggest mistakes made this year in the UK has to be the reduction of the maximum stake on FOBT’s. In April this year the Government ruled the maximum stake on these terminals was to be reduced from £100 down to just £2.Gambling companies, including William Hill have seen huge revenue losses resulting in  700 of their high street betting shops to close with shop staff out of work.The priority for the UKGC at present is credit card betting, and preventing players from gambling huge amounts of borrowed money they cannot pay back. Looking at banning players who are spending too much money on gambling.This in turn could affect FOBT’s further, if a player uses these terminals often, it does not mean they are coming to any gambling harm.It’s was obvious to players and industry operators alike, reducing the maximum bet to such a low rate would have a huge impact on the gambling industry. Despite many voicing their concerns and urging the commission to reduce the maximum stake to a more realistic £30, the UKGC went ahead regardless, resulting in massive revenue losses and more.The UKGC have made a huge error in judgment over the FOBT debacle, we hope they will revise the original ruling and change the maximum amount to a more realistic sum. Making such drastic changes to ‘make a point’ has caused irreversible damage to the industry, we hope the UKGC don’t make further mistakes in the future.

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