Why the Government has delayed FOBTs crackdown

The UK government’s decision to delay plans to cut maximum stakes on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) was influenced by a secret “discredited” report commissioned by bookmakers, it has been reported.

Ministers say the crackdown on FOBTs is not coming into force until October 2019 in order to mitigate job losses caused by the changes and to allow the Treasury time to find ways to compensate for the expected lost revenue, The Guardian reports. The decision, announced in Chancellor Philip Hammond’s Budget last month, has sparked outrage among anti-gambling campaigners and led to the resignation of sports minister Tracey Crouch.

Hammond told the Treasury Select Committee last week that the gambling industry estimated that cutting the maximum stake from £100 to £2 would result in between 15,000 and 21,000 job losses.

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However, a document obtained by The Guardian suggests that those numbers come from a report that cautions against drawing wider conclusions about the effects of the cut on the gambling industry.

The report was written on behalf of the gambling industry by accountancy firm KPMG, which added a disclaimer warning that the figures were based on key assumptions set by the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB). KPMG noted that the report was “performed to meet specific terms of reference” agreed with the ABB, and that there were “particular features determined for the purposes of the engagement”.

“The report should not therefore be regarded as suitable to be used or relied on by any other person or for any other purpose,” the disclaimer continued.

PoliticsHome says that “rather than explain the best- or average-case scenario of a reduction to £2, the ABB only quotes the worst-case scenario”, and notes that KPMG “advised that conclusions should not be drawn for the sector as a whole”.

Betting giant Paddy Power has also advised the Government against using the figures from the ABB, calling them “unrealistic”.

The company cited its own calculations on the issue, which indicate that the loss in FOBT income would not force thousands of shops to close.

In the medium term, Paddy Powers does not expect “to see an increase in the number of shops that are loss-making compared to the current position, and therefore does not expect to close any shops because of changes to FOBT stake limits”, the firm concluded.