Fixed Odds Betting Terminals - The story continues

News reaches us of two interesting developments in relation to the area of FOBT's - these appear regularly in the press and are an area of some controversy.

It has been announced that the UK's major Bookmakers and machine suppliers will from the end of January add additional voluntary measures to "enhance player controls".

Customers of these Gaming machines will be compelled prior to play to choose to accept a limit. We understand this will be through a mandatory message on the machine requiring the player to make the choice or not, and if not then this message will be repeated after 30 minutes or following the loss of £250.

Secondly following a Parliamentary question relating to plans to introduce a limit of £50 on FOBT's the following response was received;

"Draft regulations have been drawn up and are being submitted to the European Commission for comment under the terms of the Technical Standards Directive. We intend for these to come into force on the April 2015 common commencement date."  (Answered on: 29 October 2014 by Helen Grant MP)

We will continue to  keep you updated on developments in this area.