FOBT Fixes
As with much to do with British political life at the moment, Brexit has
sucked the very oxygen from everything else. This may well be why the
adoption of the Gaming Machine (Miscellaneous Amendments and
Revocation) Regulations 2018 on December 20, 2018 has passed so
many people by.
This is the secondary legislation that reduces the stake of fixed odds
betting terminals (FOBTs) from £100 to £2 and in one foul swoop criti-
cally injures the British retail betting market, puts thousands out of a job
and will see the closure of thousands of betting shops.
And no one, apart from the bookmakers, seems to care. This political
decision is symbolic to the argument that 2018 has been a turning point
in the politics of British gambling, and that the end of the FOBT storyT
he last few years have shown what can only be described as flaccid
growth for the U.K. gambling industry. According to the Gam-
bling Commission, total gross gambling yield was £14.4 billion
(US$18.1 billion) in 2017-18, up a meager 5.88 percent from 2015-16, when
the first statistics that include online appeared.
A key trend has been the shift in channel from land-based to online, with
online market share increasing to 37.3 percent from 33 percent. This is more
dramatically reflected by the 35.7 percent drop in U.K. gambling jobs from
167,839 to 107,940 over the same period.
Receipts from gambling taxes have increased by 7.3 percent over the same
three years to £2.86 billion (US$3.59 billion). What is significant is that given
the amount of public debate about the supposed growth of gambling over this
period, there has been little statistical evidence to back this up.
Looking forward, the deadline for leaving
the European Union (March 29) is hurtling to-
wards us like a runaway train. Any question
about the future of the U.K. must include an
understanding of its implications. While the
biggest constitutional change in postwar British
history—and in this view, the biggest act of na-
tional self-harm—will have relatively little direct
impact on the British gambling industry, as
practically no EU laws impact it, the forecast
economic turmoil that it will bring will indi-
rectly affect the industry as revenues will un-
doubtedly drop.
The question on every gambling CEO’s lips
will be, by how much and for how long? This
all depends on what kind of Brexit we will have,
and with less than three months to go at the
time of writing, no one, not even the Prime
Minister, knows the answer to that one. So,
hold on to your hats. This roller-coaster ride
will undoubtedly be messy, but unfortunately,
the long-term structural trends for the industry
are even worse.22 Global Gaming Business FEBRUARY 2019British Breakdown
Fixed odds betting terminals became a firestorm in the U.K. in 2018 when the government
lowered the betting limit from £100 to £2The future of
gambling in
the United
Kingdom
By Steve Donoughue
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